The 5th Te Hiku Film Festival

We have just completed our 5th Te Hiku Film Festival at the Te Ahu cinema on Wednesday 11 September. There were 14 movies from 8 of our 9 schools. Pukenui, our brand new school to the cluster came down and watched the movies and will enter some next year. The movies this year had some juniors shown at the cinema and what an outstanding hit they were. This year I was lucky enough to have Natalie Samson from REAP support me on the day and also be the judge. She comes with a very extensive background in movie making, TV producing and educating others in the movie and TV roles. To spice up the event this year I created a photo frame and got some prompts and had a photo booth which was very popular. We also had the red carpet which adds the effect of a special event.

The students were there with the usual buzz and excitement of seeing themselves on the big screen. This is what makes all the organisation and hard work worthwhile.

This year Dave Winters also visited and sat in one one of the sittings. It was nice to have him visit the Far North.

 

Te Hiku 4th Film Festival

Another very successful Te Hiku Film festival. On Wednesday 13 September we held our 4th Film Festival at the Te Ahu Cinema in Kaitaia. We had three sessions during the day for the schools to attend and a 5:30 pm session for the Whanau and prize giving. We had 14 3 minute movies from 8 of our 9 schools. This year we did not have a theme or topic we left in open with the idea that teachers would embed movie making into their teaching and learning throughout the year and choose one for the festival. This did not happen; they all waited until term 3 to start their films. Some schools did integrate it into their learning topic. I just love watching the reactions of the students on the red carpet even the cool kids transform into a star role as soon as they step on it. The cheering, laughing, clapping and yelling from the audience is also fantastic to hear. Watching the students look at themselves on the big screen through the gaps of their fingers over their faces, pointing and yelling each other's names as they appear. This is what makes all the hard work and time to organise it so worthwhile. We had a mixture of genres of movies from music videos, documentaries, humour and history. Our winning film this year was from Mangonui School which was a music video to go with the song they had written and composed. They had also used an AI app to get great effects. These were the winners at the prize giving. Best Film 2023 – Mangonui School-"Get Down With Us" Second best Film –(2nd equal) Kaingaroa School-The River & Ngataki School-Tumatahina Trophy for most creative school display-Ahipara School Best Script – Tumatahina Best Camerawork –Mangonui School - “Get Down With Us” Best lead Actor – Matteo Noema-Wakarua -who played Manu Ahipara School Best supporting Actor-Jimmy Heighway -Whaea Jasmine Best Ensemble Cast – Tumatahina This is the link to our Te Hiku Site where you access all the movies from. 

It was a very long day but so worth it when you watch the very creative movies and see those faces on and off the screen.