This Matariki, CIRCUIT is pleased to present THEY AIN'T WOKE YET (2023), a new film by Hiona Henare (Ngāi Tara, Muaūpoko, Ngāti Huia). The work is CIRCUIT’s fourth annual Matariki commission for Masons Screen in Pōneke, and runs from 18 July to 28 August 2023. The commission is curated by Leo Koziol (Ngāti Rakaipaaka, Ngāti Kahungunu).
THEY AIN'T WOKE YET features actors Lawrence Makoare, Ratu Tibble, Tamai Nicholson, and Isis Bradley Kiwi.
About the artist
New Zealand-born writer, director, and editor, Hiona Henare (Ngāi Tara, Muaūpoko, Ngāti Huia) trained in classical theatre and spent her early years in performing arts. She directed her first stage play in Wellington at Taki Rua depot, with a contemporary adaptation of Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov. She is credited as a writer and co-writer of four stage plays and as producer of several international theatre and contemporary dance tours across Europe, Australasia, Asia and the US. She graduated from South Seas Film School in Auckland, and earned a Master's degree in Māori and Indigenous Studies at the University of Canterbury. She is a returning alumni of Berlinale talents and a graduate of the Interdoc masterclass programme of Serbia. Her films are representative of 4th cinema and indigenous epistemology and have won several awards and accolades, including a Solid Screen arts award in Australia, a special jury prize from the international Oceanian documentary film festival (FIFO) in Tahiti and a screenwriting award from the New Zealand Film Commission.
She is the writer and director of the Māori Television series The Untold Tales Of Tuteremoana (2022), which interweaves three whakapapa stories of the ancient Ngāi Tara people and is told entirely in te reo. Henare is a protégé of celebrated filmmakers Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Tusi Tamasese. She is developing her first feature film with Dame Jane Campion.
About the curator
Leo Koziol (Ngāti Rakaipaaka, Ngāti Kahungunu) is the founder and director of Wairoa Māori Film Festival, and co-curator of Ngā Whanaunga Shorts at the Whānau Mārama NZ International Film Festival. Leo was also the curator for CIRCUIT’s Matariki commission in 2022.
