Inside Out - Genesis Potini

Television (Full Length Episode) – 2003

This episode of Inside Out is narrated by Genesis Potini, the Gisborne chess prodigy and mental health advocate who inspired movie The Dark Horse. Potini talks about his work with the Eastern Knights, an inclusive chess club he founded to serve his wider Ngāti Porou community. Potini is a natural showman, swapping chess pieces and put-downs in a game of speed chess with his mate 'Jedi'. At a meeting for mental health awareness project Like Minds, he recalls the breakdown that led to his diagnosis of bipolar disorder. This episode is a shortened version of Jim Marbrook's award-winning 70-minute documentary Dark Horse.

A lot of people won't even admit that they have a psychiatric illness. They don't want to face it and they'll pretend they haven't got it, and they won't take their medicines and so on...Genesis might do it for you, he'll get out all his pills and he'll show off all the pills he has to take, he shows them off to our visitors.
– Liz Potini on her husband's openness about his mental health condition