RestInPeace : Merata Mita.

Im still in some shock, after hearing that Merata Mita died today. I met Merata at the Sundance film festival in 2004, when I was there with 'Water' & Taika was there with 'two cars, one night'. We had drinks & I expressed my respect to Merata, who is essentially the godmother of Documentaries of Aotearoa. She directed 'Patu' in 1981 & 'Bastion Point' as it happened in 1978. Her most recent work is a Documentary on the Nia Glassie case, which is although incomplete & roughcut, is going to air ahead of the Doco I am working on : 'the Sound of Hope' on June 27th. It was & will be an honour to follow her Doco with ours on that Sunday in a months time. Hard to believe this filmmaking legend has passed so suddenly, as I saw her this morena at Maori TV after having a meeting there. Yet somehow seems significant that her last moments were on the front steps of the Maori TV premises. May she rest in much peace. If you have not seen her work, do the right thing & go watch these historical windows into our complex turbulent history of Aotearoa.  Respect & thoughts to the Mita & Murphy whanau.

                                     http://www.nzonscreen.com/person/merata-mita/biography

                http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/film/3759412/Kiwi-filmmaker-Merata-Mita-dies

Video of the Month. Part2. Drop.

when Spike Jonze was forging his name deep in the 90's video scene, & shortly after he sabotaged people's attention, he Dropped this imaginative gem for The Pharcyde. He rewound this concept to continue the themes of their previous album, one of my desert island discs, to offer folk a Bizarre Ride to the Far Side of his mind, taking a cue from the reversed beat to one of the most well known backward videos of all time. [& respect to Blowing Dirt by Goodshirt, Joe Lonie's thoughtful reversed local video] Below, Drop is bizarre & quite simple in performance, since watching these Pharcyde MCs walk & talk in reverse is straight up hypnotic. 

Warren Maxwell. Chapter4 of our Doco. [Wairarapa]

The next stop for our Doco was flying into my hometown Welly & driving over those misty Rimataka's to the peaceful town of Featherston to talk with the one like Warren Maxwell.  He  spoke openly, generously & philosophically to us about our delicate Doco topic. Later he sang us a moving song in the local, rural Bushmen studio. Kia ora to Ange, Waz & their beaut kids for sharing their home, time & words with us. See youse again in the Rapa someday.

Hollie Smith. Chapter3 of our Doco. [GreyLynn]

a G paints 100 Dawgs

My dog Mr.G [Graham Hoete] in Tauranga made a mission to paint 100 dogs with aero.soul on canvas. So I contacted my dawg David Farrier to see if he wanted to do a story on G to get the word of the woof out there. The story aired for all dog lovers on Nightline last night & afters, G got over a hundy inquiries, but he is still choosing what to paint based on breed & character from photos, so if you want a portrait of your dawg, Holla at a G below at his details on the image. & watch the 'must be the dawg in me' story here : TV3 Story on Mr.G paints 100 Dogs with David Farrier

Stills [ungraded] of Kotuku Choir shoot. [theDoco Part2]

Kotuku Choir. Chapter2 of our Doco. [Wellywood]

Last weekend we filmed in one of my childhood suburbs in rainy Karori, Wellytown to meet a powerful & moving youth choir. Sharon Thorburn founded the Kotuku Choir, to give a diverse mix of teens somewhere to come to write, sing & express themselves in any way they chose to. The result is a multi cultural collective of remarkable & talented youths so blew us away as a crew. They sang like angels with big hearts in the rain. Kia Ora, Fa'a fe tai & thanks to them all for their open minds & open arms.

Still Samples [ungraded] of YoungSid & Sicc shoot. [the Doco Part1]

Young Sid & Mr.Sicc. Chapter1 of our Doco.

Yesterday we shot the 1st day of our Documentary. The working title is 'the Sound of Hope', until the channel sends out the press release, its still somewhat confidential due to its subject matter. Although we are shooting & interviewing a handful of talented muso's of Aotearoa, its not a doco about music, its about their perspective on a crucial unspoken topic, that is overdue for a spotlight. It will air towards the end of June, so closer to the time we can reveal more about it all. Yesterday was Day1 of many over the next few weeks, with a great minimal crew with the sharp eye of & talented cinematographer Andrew Stroud, [who shot the 'Brother' video for us & some of Sid's solo Vids]. The Diamond whanau opened their home & minds to us for the Doco, where we shot in Otara, SA. Thanks to Sid, Los, Vince & Fam. Respect.

Be a Man. Russell Peters last night rocked Aotea Centre.

Eye finally saw my personal favorite stand up last night. The almighty funny Canadian, Russell Peters at Aotea Square. He killed it, and also our stomach & jaw muscles while he was at it. My mate Phil Bell turned me onto him on DVD about 5 years ago, introducing my mrs & I to classics like 'Be a Man' & 'Somebody is gonna get hurt real bad'. Shanks for the great night Guyan & Mahesha. Anyway, suffice to say, last night was the perfect end to Mother's Day. Which is just how he started the show; asking how many mothers were in the house, so the Mum's cheered & then he said 'Happy Mother's Day' & paid respects, etc.. Then asked how many Fathers, and most of us responded in pride, & so he replied '...Oh Yeah? Happy Mother Fuc*ers Day!'

 

'David Farrier' in2views 'HomeBrew' after the after par tay.

Here's the follow up to the 'Nightline' story that 'David Farrier' did the morning after the after party of the FUNdraiser, that we held to raise funds to make a video for 'Under the Shade', after missing out on the classic high budge NZonAir funding. You may know the happy ending to this Underdog story already. We had much fun role reversing like backing the truck up on the party in retrospect.  'David' was a great sport to come through & 'act right' with a part 2 story to hear just how the night went down..                                       [& happy Cinco De Mayo by tha way.]

If you missed the Part 1 of 2 of the TV3 Nightline story, which still gets YoTube hits, here tis :                                                                

Sid's album launch Gig.

Here's some footage eye shot of the show last night. The band Halo was tight. Sid was Sicc. 
I love this joint, it's one of many that I shot him working on when in NYC in the Blog below yo.

I shot a bunch of clips, so if you wanna see more, go over to Kirk's House @ the MTC Fam Blog:

Mr.Diamond's album out finally & showcasing it tonight.

the talented Sidney Diamond drops his album today after years of work. When I say years, its been a while coming, as I remember shooting him in the studio with Emile in December 08', right after I shot the Savage video for 'Wild Out' on Malibu beach. In fact I landed in NYC to stay at Kirk's place on the day of my 37th birthday, as Sid was already there & so we hit some Manhattan clubs, where I have blurry memories to introducing Sid to his 1st night on my personal favourite, scotch, where we danced with some local ladies just at the time when the crowd was going nuts to 'Arab Money' by Busta. Heres some clips from our time there. Brings back good memories. Anyway, it seems like a short age ago, but today the album's out, in fact the same day as Mr.Wadams album, which recalls when Curtis & Kanye dropped the same day. Tonight the Young one plays his album showcase with a full band. I caught up with him on thursday & he is amped for the gig, to play with a band & the release after all this time. Congrats to the Bro & MTC & Kirk. I'll be up in there.