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Hero image for Kaitangata Twitch - First Episode

Kaitangata Twitch - First Episode

Television (Full Length Episode) – 2010

This multi award-winning series follows 12-year-old Meredith, who sees eerie visions as a Governors Bay island is drilled for mining. The Māori Television series was adapted from a Margaret Mahy novel by longtime collaborator Yvonne Mackay. Mahy makes a rainbow-wigged cameo in this episode where the locals protest a subdivision, and Meredith apprehends the island's 'twitch'. Newcomer Te Waimarie Kessell stars, with Charles Mesure and George Henare. The mix of the Māori concept of wairua with a willful 21st Century teenage heroine won a Remi Award at Worldfest-Houston 2010.

... according to the legend the cannibal’s spirit was absorbed into the land, and when he’s angry or hungry he [the ahi kaa] comes to life: the so-called ‘Kaitangata Twitch’. It’s freaky eh!
– Meredith’s Dad (Charles Mesure) reads local history for the bedtime story

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