Kete Aronui - Merata Mita

This film is the total opposite of how a television documentary is made. It has a partisan viewpoint, is short on commentary and emphasises the overkill aspect of the combined police/military operation. It is a style of documentary that I have never deviated from because it best expresses a Māori approach to filmmaking.

– Merata Mita on being surprised that Bastion Point Day 507 screened on New Zealand television, in 1992 book Film in Aotearoa New Zealand, page 46

It was interesting because the whole idea of it isn't like getting the scripts in order, it’s about nurturing and helping the screenwriter and the director to reach the point where they feel confident about going out and directing the film that they've written.

– Merata Mita on her film lab for aboriginal writers and directors

The huge emotional impact of that day just stopped me in my tracks. I thought this is the most important part of this history. It's happening here while we can record it and be witness to it, and hundreds of other people would be witness to it. And it won't just be something that children will read in history books, it's something they'll be able to see on the screen.

– Merata Mita on Bastion Point: Day 507

I always think that the best directors know what everyone's job is on the set, and the best way of finding that out is to do them yourself. And so I've always welcomed the opportunity to work on the set, so that I understand as I'm directing a film or directing people on a set...understand just what they feel like, how they feel.

– Filmmaker Merata Mita on directing, at the start of this excerpt

it was just so profound to me, and It's never left me. You just feel that wherever you are in the world, that you went through the ultimate experience with them . . . it was a transformation — life-changing stuff for me.

– Filmmaker Merata Mita on the bond she feels with the protestors at Bastion Point

I never watched the film, for about 20 years, because I knew the mana that was in it, and I didn't have to view it. And I didn't want to view it because it would make me hostile, angry and upset . . . It was an important record, it was an important statement that was made.

– Joe Hawke on Bastion Point: Day 507, at the end of this excerpt