Hepi Mita
Directing
Biography
Hepi Mita (of the Māori Ngāti Pikiao and Ngāi Te Rangi) is from Aotearoa, New Zealand. Since 2011, Mita has worked as the Māori collections developer at Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision—New Zealand's archive of film, television, and sound. He has curated film-archive screenings both nationally and internationally. He is the son of award-winning filmmakers Geoff Murphy and Merata Mita. MERATA: How Mum Decolonised The Screen is Mita's first feature film.
Known For
This film is an intimate portrayal of pioneering filmmaker Merata Mita told through the eyes of her children. Using hours of archive footage, some never before seen, her youngest child and director Hepi Mita discovers the filmmaker he never knew and shares the mother he lost, with the world.
Merata: How Mum Decolonised the Screen
This footage of the 1984 hīkoi (march) to Waitangi was made by Merata Mita with the intention of producing a documentary about this historic occasion. It was begun during an incredibly busy time for Mita – who had achieved international attention for her groundbreaking documentary *Patu!* (1983) about the 1981 Springbok tour – and launched several other projects including her feature film *Mauri* (1988).
March
In pre-colonial Aotearoa a young Māori girl witnesses the best and worst of a rapidly changing world when she encounters a dying man and his horse.