Hautoa Mā! The Rise of Māori Cinema

We've got a lot more people on the ground than we did 20 years ago ... we still have to compete a lot with others who ... see the commercial value and the artistic and cultural value of our stories. And we're competing with everybody — including ourselves — to get to those stories.

– Actor/producer Cliff Curtis

Don would tell us all that we needed to be well trained. Now I can see that we were part of his vision to carve out a place for Māori films and filmmakers — by being seen in films.

– Actor Lawrence Makoare on late actor/director/mentor Don Selwyn

...I knew that I was going to get hung out to dry because we were trashing all the good work that many people had been trying to do over the years...We worried that in making this story we were cementing a lot of pretty bigoted people's views that Māori are all like this, and this is what they deserved, and this is the life they had and I was making a film that was actually almost affirming this.

– Once Were Warriors director Lee Tamahori on his fears of how the movie would be received

From a Māori perspective this is a new thing that we're trying to do. On the one hand, this is the first action movie that we've ever made, and certainly the first in the Māori language. But on the other hand it's really just a retelling of old tales.

– The Dead Lands co-producer Tainui Stephens

.... people like Barry Barclay and Don Selwyn, who wouldn't be pushed around or shut down — they just kept making the films they wanted to. They left a set of principles behind, which is like — you have a right to tell your story, so tell your story and don't whinge about not having that access, just get out there and do it.

– Hautoa Ma! director Libby Hakaraia, in an interview with Stuff, 4 February 2016