Carving Aotearoa - A Short Documentary

Carving Aotearoa - A Short Documentary

Project 2020-08-10 18:06:41 +1200

Update!!
With the current climate and Auckland being in Alert Level 3 and the rest of New Zealand being in Alert Level 2 due to Covid-19, there is some slight uncertainty with what the future holds as our government must decide how we move forward with the levels. 
We will are still aiming to film approximately next month if the alert levels allow. Your generous donations are still being accepted and will be used towards our production whenever this shall be filmed. Thank you so much to all of our generous donors thus far, we are nearly there now! Let's get that goal! 


Our documentary

This 6-8 minute documentary looks into the life of Auckland based sculptor and designer, Uenuku Hawira. Uenuku spends his days designing and producing traditional Maori designs through his different avenues of wood carvings and tattoos. We take a look into the significance of his artwork and its connection to Maori heritage. Uenuku shares with us the uniqueness of his art as we learn about its place in the world. From speaking to himself and his close connections, we look further into Uenuku’s upbringing, giving us a complete understanding of the roots of his work. His passionate persona drives his creativity and execution of his work. Uenuku shares with us the uniqueness of his art as we learn about its place in the world.

This mood board helps to show the type of style and vibe we are looking to create. 



Why we want to make this 

As filmmakers, we have the ability to document and share people's stories to a wide audience. We believe that this film will be a strong documentation of an inspiring New Zealand citizen that has the power to connect with all audiences. 

For us, this is a topic we both find extremely interesting. Since Maori culture and art as a whole has never been something we have both been directly involved with before, this has heightened our interest to learn more about it and share our findings with many others that may be in the same boat. Living in New Zealand, we believe it is important to have knowledge and understanding of our nation's heritage as the world continues to progress into different variations of modern life. This documentary is allowing us as filmmakers to delve into another culture and open our viewer's minds to the creative world of art. 

Whether you're familiar with Maori culture and art or not, this film will be able to resonate with everyone in one way or another. Whether it reflects your own culture, art interests or just pride of being Kiwi, this film can connect to us all. 

About us

Our small team consists of Frankie Myers (director) and David Parry (producer), and we are both currently in our third and final year at AUT studying a Bachelor of Communication Studies, majoring in Television and Screen Production. We have a strong passion for creating films and have in the past already created multiple short films, live studio television shows and have extensive experience in documentary making. Our strengths and greatest passion lies with creating documentaries, so this project is very exciting for the pair of us. We are looking forward to creating this short documentary as our greatest film to date with the help of you, our generous donors.

What the money will go towards

Our money raised will go towards the following items;

Food for our social actors and crew throughout production 
Compensation for social actors and our music composer (who are so kind as to be donating to us their time to help this all come together!)

Transporting ourselves and our equipment to our main location and around Auckland areas 

Posters and promotional content. To get our film in the public eye and gain the recognition it deserves, we need money to get our name out there! 

What we have 

Already we have a determined and passionate team raring to go. Our director and producer pair have recruited a small yet strong crew to help make our film come to life. Our main social actor and location are confirmed and we have all the right equipment available to us thanks to our university. Now, all we need is some financial support! 

Thank you so much for reading! We hope you are in a position to help us two uni students produce our dream! Whether it’s $1 or $50, anything is appreciated. If you aren't able to donate, we just hope you are as excited about our film as we are and look forward to the final outcome :) 

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