Kāinga

I often say inside me I have the coloniser, the indigenous and the settler and I have lived with that my whole life, trying to 'be at home' but feeling unsettled, all these kind of tensions and understandings about place that are inside me and I feel like that was something that my grandparents also experienced and my Mum's generation as well.

– Writer Mei-Lin Te Puea Hansen on her mixed Chinese and Māori whakapapa feeding into her story in drama Kainga, RNZ, 20 August 2023

The thing about...this film as a whole it's about those kind of stories, people looking at their relationships with this place, with Aotearoa as a home and how it can...scar you, how it can support you, how it can feed you and nourish you but also take so much from you. I think that's the beauty of the line up of stories in this film.

– Mei-Lin Te Puea Hansen on the themes running through anthology feature Kāinga, Radio New Zealand, 20 August 2023

Adhering to just one-shot for the film was very challenging. Every move, every step the characters took had to be carefully planned out. I was warned that scenes would be dropped in the actor director workshop after walking through the script and this was true. Ten minutes goes by quickly! The one take rule forced me to think creatively about how to transition seamlessly from scenes that took place in different locations.

– Director Julie Zhu on the challenges of filming her Kāinga segment, WIFT NZ website, 12 July 2022

My segment is about mental health — I hope if there is anyone out there that is struggling, know that you’re not alone. And sometimes all you can do is make it through the day and that’s okay. From the film as a whole — a little compassion and kindness for those who have taken the leap of faith making a fresh start.

– Writer/director Asuka Sylvie on the themes of her story in movie Kāinga, WIFT NZ website, 12 July 2022

Kāinga maintains the stylistic and production hallmarks of the trilogy: the one-take shots, the workshop sessions, even a lot of the same crew. But there was one major difference — the pandemic.

– Writer Brook Heinz on the Melbourne Film Festival website, 19 August 2022

We can find a million excuses every day for not hiring women or people of colour in certain areas. But it’s the producer’s job to make the space for setting up everyone for success. If those people need extra help to get them to a point where they can succeed, then organise that help. For me, it’s about doing that, rather than putting it off until they go and get the experience somewhere else. They’re not going to get the experience until we give them the opportunity for the experience.

– Kāinga producer Kerry Warkia in an interiew with E-Tangata, 22 September 2019