Patu! | Matariki Movies

14 July 2023

11am

Free entry

Part of Matariki is reflecting on the past and important people who have passed away. In this spirit we are offering a free screening of Merata Mita’s groundbreaking documentary Patu!.

In 1981 South Africa’s rugby team, the Springboks, were invited to tour New Zealand. The decision was extremely controversial; some people saw it as a tacit endorsement of apartheid while others insisted that politics had nothing to do with New Zealand’s favourite sport. Patu! is the definitive film of what followed, as attempts to disrupt the Tour pitched protestors against the government, police and rugby crowds, with violent results. Some of the era’s leading cinematographers captured the protests of winter 1981 in raw and confronting street-level footage, while the film made an explicit connection between apartheid abroad and racism at home.

Director Merata Mita (Ngaati Pikiao, Ngaai Te Rangi, 1942–2010) was a pioneering Maaori filmmaker and activist, whose documentaries Bastion Point: Day 507 (created with Leon Narbey and Gerd Pohlmann) and Patu! captured some of the most dramatic events in modern New Zealand history.

This preservation by Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision restores Patu! to its original length by reinserting scenes that were trimmed for television, and restoring the picture quality, colour and sound to the same state as when it was first screened.

Using the 1983 masters, the preservation team worked for nearly five years to bring this important piece of New Zealand’s film history back to cinema screens. In director Merata Mita’s absence, her son Hepi, also a filmmaker, represented the whaanau and Annie Collins (editor) and Gaylene Preston (co-ordinator) advised.

Preserved and made available by Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Courtesy of the Merata Mita Estate

Find out more: Matariki Ki Waikato Festival 2023