PATU!

Image: Courtesy of Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision and the Mita whānau.

1983, Merata Mita, NZ

The 6pm screening will be introduced by the editor of PATU!, Annie Collins. The film’s end time has been adjusted accordingly.

Originally conceived as a half-hour television documentary before it grew into a feature-length masterpiece, Merata Mita’s Patu! is a clear-eyed chronicle of a defining moment in Aotearoa’s social history. Following the protests around the 1981 Springbok tour, the film rapidly finds itself in the thick of the action, capturing clashes that feel like they could be straight out of Roger Donaldson’s Sleeping Dogs (Donaldson was one of many filmmakers who volunteered his services on Patu!).

The best documentaries, however, do more than just record events, and Mita’s film also excavates the racial tensions in New Zealand society. New Zealand’s general consensus on the tour solidified protest as part of our nation’s identity, and paved the way for decades of equally effective protest action, but even as the film was being made, it was assumed by naysayers that Mita’s Māori perspective would result in unacceptable bias.

Immediate and compelling, Patu! acts as a testament to our vitality and determination, not only in the protest movement at large, but as citizens and filmmakers.

“Patu! is a documentary from a different age: before the tools for filmmaking were widely democratised, before video footage of protests could be captured by just about anyone, back when film was difficult and required a bloody-minded commitment to complete. Against these constraints, and against the will of an aggressive government and widespread public opposition, Merata Mita and crew were able to create a vital and galvanising work of art that perfectly captures the spirit of its time and continues to resonate today.” – Dan Taipua, The Spinoff

PATU! (1983) Courtesy of the Mita whānau.

Note: We are unable to screen our originally scheduled film “How Far is Heaven?” for reasons outside our control. We apologise for any inconvenience.