Wellywood Woman

WARU l to r Chelsea Winstanley , Katie Wolfe , Briar Grace-Smith , Paula W. Jones , Ainsley Gardiner , Renae Maihi , Casey Kaa , Awanui  Simich-Pene (not shown,  Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu ) If you're excited by Ava DuVernay's work, especially her Queen Sugar series, entirely directed by women, and by We Do It Together and its Together Now , seven short films in one (1), you'll want to know about WARU . Māori women excel in the literary world, as writers of fiction and poetry and as playwrights. They've also made many short films and docos and television programmes. But only two Māori women have directed feature films: Ramai Hayward directed 1972's To Love a Māori , with her husband Rudall, and Merata Mita directed Mauri in 1988.  WARU ('Eight'), responds to that history with a powerful, collaborative and change-making intervention. WARU is an 80-minute feature produced by Kerry Warkia and Kiel McNaughton of   Brown Sugar Ap...

Xuanyi Fu Back in April, I was invited to speak at Resistance, backlash and power – Gender equality and feminist new practice in EU and global discourse , at the National Centre for Research on Europe at Canterbury University. Afterwards, Xuanyi Fu came and chatted. I was thrilled because her project excites me and I always love to hear more about women’s filmmaking in China. And now she's kindly answered these questions. Where are you from and what’s your film background? My name is Xuanyi Fu  傅煊贻 . I was born in Chongqing, China. I did my bachelor degree in Cinematography at Sichuan The Fine Art Institute in China and I got my master degree with merit in Film and Screen Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London in the UK. I’m a PhD candidate in Cultural Studies at the University of Canterbury. My supervisor, Adam Lam, is an expert in Chinese films, literature, language and culture, which is why I came to New Zealand. What’s your thesis about?  My thesis is ...