New Zealand Mirror No. 14

This magazine newsreel mixes buried treasure with a classic Brian Brake-shot performance piece. Opener 'The Long Poi' captures a poi dance. In 'The Buried Village' tourists examine fireballs and Māori stone carvings buried in the 1886 Tarawera eruption. The final piece showcases the talents of Kiwi pianist Richard Farrell and director Brian Brake. Brake's moody studio lighting and lively compositions frame this performance of a Chopin waltz. Farrell would die after a car accident in the United Kingdom in 1958 — the same month Brake won his first big spread in Life magazine. 

... there are few Māori girls who can perform a poi as difficult as the one you see here, being staged for tourists in the reproduction of an old-time village at Rotorua.

– Narrator

Key Cast & Crew

Brian Brake

Director, Camera

Michael Forlong

Director, Editor

Ron Skelley

Extra, Sound

Bruce Weir

Narrator

Alan Whittle

Camera

John Carson Parker

Narrator