Ruia Taitea: The World is Where We Are

This documentary looks at the life and work of acclaimed author Patricia Grace. Filmed at home, on marae and in classrooms, Grace discusses her writing process, her Hongoeka Bay upbringing, her children’s books, criticism of her work, and her Māori identity and belonging to the land (a theme of her then-recently successful novel Potiki). In particular she affirms the importance of writing from experience. The film features interviews with publishers and friends, and excerpts from Grace's stories are read and dramatised, including At the River, The Hills and Mutuwhenua.

We wrote mainly of second-hand experience from books and comics that we had. It was all based on writing that didn’t belong in this country [...]. I never thought of ‘a day at the seaside’ about being at the beach or ‘a day in the forest’ about being in the bush. [...] They [the stories] didn’t just have togs they had bathing costumes [...]. I’d write about tinkling brooks or bluebells, things that I’d never seen or words that I’d heard spoken...

– Patricia Grace, on her early writing as a child

Key Cast & Crew

Barbara Cairns

Director, Producer, Writer

Faifua Amiga

As: Manu

Margaret Henley

Producer

Alun Bollinger

Cinematographer

Dell King

Director - Drama Sequences

James Anderson (actor)

As: Boy