Thoughts from the committee
Hotere is a documentary about one of New Zealand’s greatest artists directed by its greatest filmmaker.
Māori artists have created outstanding work within hostile cultural institutions since those institutions were transplanted to New Zealand (for a 2020s perspective, check out TOITŪ: Visual Sovereignty in July). Within that prestigious lineage, Ralph Hotere (Te Aupōuri) is a formidable figure. From his 1960s involvement in the modernist Māori art movement, through his famous ‘black paintings’ and increasingly political later work, his legacy can’t be overstated.
Director Merata Mita (Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāi Te Rangi) is therefore a natural fit for a documentary about Hotere. Her stature, influence and politics have left a similar mark on the cinema as his have on the gallery. Anyone who saw PATU! last year will be able to attest to her tremendous ability to make something ineffable feel palpable. There, it was a political moment, here it is a body of artwork.
Although Hotere participates in this documentary, Mita is not interested in anything as mundane as a series of interviews with him. Even if she was, the artist was not one to blow his own horn. Instead, she takes an impressionistic approach, moving between his contemporaries, his process and his work, all with an outstanding jazz score by Hirini Melbourne.
“Mita’s filmmaking clearly stands out from many other filmmakers of her era. She refused to centre her documentaries on individuals, preferring a collective approach… In Hotere, the artist himself is of less importance than his work and what other people say about him.” – Brannavan Gnanalingam, The Pantograph Punch