Rangi's Catch

Film (Full Length) – 1973

Anyone

After being spotted performing for tourists in Rotorua, Temuera Morrison got his first screen role in this adventure tale, which was made downunder by Kiwi expat Michael Forlong. Rangi (Morrison) and three friends have adventures with horses and sharks near their remote Marlborough Sounds farm. Meanwhile two robbers (Ian Mune and Michael Woolf) pop by to steal some food. The scene is set for crims and kids to chase each other all the way to a Māori Concert Party in Rotorua. Funded in the United Kingdom as an eight-part TV series, Rangi's Catch screened in New Zealand cinemas in this movie version.

I wasn't acting in that ... I was just playing. That was what [Director Michael] Forlong wanted. He told us not to try to act, just to be ourselves and concentrate on the action side of things. Although there was a script, he didn't seem too fussed about us learning it.
– Temuera Morrison, in his 2009 autobiography From Haka to Hollywood