Whetū Mārama – Bright Star

For Māori, the canoe underpins our culture. “ If it wasn’t for the waka we wouldn’t be here today and that’s the long and short of it” (Hek Busby) We once built waka/canoes from giant trees and sailed the...
New Zealand Production
Feature 2021 Documentary 94.00 minutes
Te20 Aurere20under20sail
For Māori, the canoe underpins our culture. We once built waka/canoes from giant trees and sailed the vast Pacific by the stars. These arts were lost to us for 600 years. Then the stars re-aligned and three men from far flung islands met by chance to revive our place as the greatest navigators on the planet, a Hawaiian, a Micronesian and Hek Busby, “The Chief” from Aotearoa/New Zealand.
International Ocean Film Festival
Winner 2022 Coastal and Island Culture Award
2023: Présence Autochtone International First Peoples’ Festival Montréal
Winner Les Films du 3 Mars Best Documentary Award
2021: Whānau Mārama New Zealand International Film Festival
2022: FIFO
Swedish International Film Festival
Blue Water Film Festival
Doc Edge Festival – Special Presentation
Māoriland Film Festival
Brisbane International Film Festival
Hawai’i International Film Festival
Amelia Island Film Festival
Rotorua Indigenous Film Festival
Nature Without Borders Film Festival
imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival
2023: Capricorn Film Festival
Available Light Film Festival
Smithsonian Mother Tongue Film Festival Washington DC
LA Asian Pacific Film Festival
Matariki Korikori Film Festival Cook Islands
Ethnografilm Paris
Birrarrangga Film Festival
2024: Wairoa Māori Film Festival – Movies at the Marae

Directors

Toby Mills
Aileen O'Sullivan

Producers

Aileen O'Sullivan
Toby Mills

Crew

Alun Bollinger | DOP
Ken Sparks | Editor

Production Company

Distributor

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