Julian Arahanga: From acting in Once Were Warriors to directing Songs from the Inside...

Interview – 2016

Actor turned producer/director Julian Arahanga made his screen debut at age 11, in short film The Makutu on Mrs Jones. He shot to fame playing novice gang member Nig Heke in landmark movie Once Were Warriors, then starred in Broken English. Since setting up his own production company Awa Films in 2001, Arahanga has directed and produced TV series Songs from the Inside, comedy Takes a Village and acclaimed documentary Turangaarere: The John Pohe Story.

In this ScreenTalk, Arahanga talks about:

The privilege of working alongside Annie Whittle, kaumātua Sonny Waru, and Arahanga's father Larry Parr on The Makutu on Mrs Jones
How everything in movie Once Were Warriors was extreme — and making it was like "riding a bull in a rodeo"
Training for the role of Nig in the film
Feeling a self-imposed pressure while starring in big screen romance Broken English
Being a little disappointed at being killed off in What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?
Getting some intriguing direction from Ian Mune
How the 'beautiful' and quirky script for Fish Skin Suit drew him to the project
Being spellbound by the Māori war hero featured in his 2008 documentary Turangaarere: The John Pohe Story
The challenge of convincing prison authorities to back music in prison show Songs from the Inside

This video was first uploaded on 29 March 2016, and is available under this Creative Commons licence. This licence is limited to use of ScreenTalk interview footage only and does not apply to any video content and photographs from films, television, music videos, web series and commercials used in the interview.

Interview, Camera and Editing – Andrew Whiteside

Getting the Department of Corrections across the line on Songs From the Inside was initally hard, because they've got a particular role and giving people free reign to point cameras around and write songs and create Prison Idol — potentially make pop stars of people — is kind of not what they're there to do.
– Julian Arahanga on the challenge of convincing the Department of Corrections to back his TV series Songs from the Inside

Julian's Full Profile