Good Morning - Merata Mita Tribute

Television (Excerpts) – 2010

A week after pioneering filmmaker Merata Mita’s death in 2010, Good Morning hosts Brendon Pongia and Matai Smith interview two of Mita’s colleagues to pay tribute. Film editor Annie Collins and Himiona Grace of the NZ Film Archive (now known as Ngā Taonga Sound and Vision) remember Mita’s passionate vision, unwavering commitment to kaupapa and formidable intellect. A strong “advocate for social change”, Mita made history as the first Māori woman to direct a feature solo with Mauri (1988), and is arguably best known for her Springbok tour protest documentary Patu! (1981).

..In whatever project that she worked on she set the kaupapa, and her spirit was very true to that kaupapa all the way through, and there was this great passion and fire in the belly that she had for anything that she took on. And when you’ve got that, your film's interesting, because the passion and the fire builds into the film.
– Merata Mita's longtime editor Annie Collins