Maori Boy Genius Interview (with Pietra Brettkelly and Ngaa Rauuira) - Sydney Film Festival

13/06/2012

You can read our Maori Boy Genius review here.

Pietra Brettkelly (Director) and Ngaa Rauuira Pumanawawhiti

Transcript of the Interview

Libby: Hi, this is Libby Popper from Sticky Trigger, coming to you from the Sydney Film Festival. I’m here with the director, Pietra Brettkelly, and Ngaa Rauuira Pumanawawhiti, whose journey to Yale is the subject of the documentary Maori Boy Genius. We also have Ngaa Rauuira’s mother, Ma, here with us today. For our audience who hasn’t seen the documentary yet, Ngaa Rauuira, could you quickly describe the story?

Ngaa Rauuira: So the story follows myself and my journey to Yale, portrays my upbringing and gives context to the purpose and the reasons for which I was able to study overseas.

Libby: Ngaa Rauuira and Ma, you’ve both seen the film, how did you feel watching your life on screen?

Ma: It took a bit of getting used to and it was nerve-wracking at times because people were coming into, you know, the cameras were coming into our home, coming into our backyard. So it took a while for us to get used to that and really just prepare when we knew that we had a shooting date scheduled.

Ngaa Rauuira: Though, after a while, they became a part of our family so it wasn’t so much that they were documenting us from a distance but they overtime integrated into our household and it didn’t really become a problem after a while.

Libby: Yes, I noticed that Pietra, you didn’t ask many questions but took a very non-intrusive approach to the filming and when you did ask questions, it seemed like you naturally integrated them into the scene.

Pietra: My style is to try and observe more than construct and some filmmakers do wonderful jobs of constructing situations but that doesn’t sit with how I want to tell stories. So yeah that’s just my way. And I think with a young person, as well, I didn’t want to be constructing things either because they have a particular way and a naturalness that I think, as adults, we lose. For me to start telling Ngaa Rauuira what to do... that wouldn’t work I don’t think. You start to get, people will start to become performative, if you start telling them what to do then you’re talking to an actor, that’s how I feel.

Libby: Pietra, what drew you to Ngaa Rauuira’s story?

Pietra: We cast for people like drama people do, so I have these ideas and then you know you meet people, or you don’t, or you hear about people and I think I’ll pursue a certain idea. So one of the E.Ps [executive producers] Joanna Paul had heard about Ngaa Rauuira, through I think a relative of his - an article that was in their local paper and said that this might be someone worth following up on. And I’d read somewhere about in our sixteenth year, that’s when we start to realise, some of us more than others, our place in society and become more politically aware or start to realise social inadequacies or injustices. Like many things some of us don’t realise that those are forming probably for some time – I know I wasn’t particularly politically aware when I was sixteen – but apparently that’s when our brain starts to have those realisations. I’ve always thought that was quite interesting and then with Ngaa Rauuira, he was a young man who this was absolutely happening to and in a very intense and condensed way. I mean he says himself, he’s an accelerated learner but I think he’s accelerated in many aspects of his life and that I thought was interesting to follow, for his sixteenth year.

Libby: Watching the documentary, I felt like I got to see Ngaa Rauuira’s view of the world but Pietra, because you ultimately got to choose what we saw, did you feel your voice was prominent?

Pietra: Oh completely. All my work has my name to it, any person can approach a story and it will be different and so I think every filmmaker’s voice comes through in their work, so definitely, yeah.

Libby: Ngaa Rauuira and Ma, did you have any concerns going into the film before the shooting actually started?

Ma: Oh I mean the initial thing was oh my God the house! You know, clean it up, do this, do that but we got over that. I suppose, because we hadn’t done anything like that either, so there were some anxieties about what if we say something stupid? One of the kids breaks out in one of their fights? All that family dynamic stuff that was like... there are some things that we don’t want everybody to see so...

Ngaa Rauuira: The other one was something I strongly noticed was that the cameras started to influence other peoples’ behaviour; you know like, with my friends and my family which had its positive and its little negative effects. What I mean by that is, I know a couple of my friends were saying or doing things that I know, for sure, that they wouldn’t usually say or do.

Libby: What is it about the medium of the documentary that interests you?

Pietra: I suppose I’ve been brought up to be interested and fascinated by other people and cultures and just that interest in something else beyond my life. And to me I think documentary is the most exciting form of anything. I remember my dad, when he was a young boy they lived in Bahrain, which is an island off Saudi Arabia, and he told us this story one time, when I was little: There was this oil field, which was the by-product of the oil manufacturing, and a lot of people had to cross this oil field to get to work. If they left it too late in the day, the sun would get up and it would melt, that was disaster. There was this one man, who got up too late, and he and his donkey got stuck in the middle of this oil field. The sun came up and basically, it starts to melt, and they get sucked in. To me, I remember it so clearly, him telling that story to us. I could just see pictures and I thought what a really sad story but what a fascinating... you know that man’s life, what’s his life? I mean, his life is over but what was his life? What was his environment and those sorts of things? I just want to go and meet all these people.

Libby: Ngaa Rauuira, what’s next for you?

Pietra: Exams!

Ngaa Rauuira: Exams! I’m a student back in New Zealand at Victoria University studying, pretending to study, law. I belonged to a political movement party but have since withdrawn. I don’t know whether to claim that I’m apolitical but definitely in the background. I just want to see it for what it is, as it is, for now, as opposed to participating. As well as, I belong to a team investigating constitutional transformation. Basically we have begun a road show tour around the country, collecting information and stimulating discussions around New Zealand’s constitutional order for two years. By the end of that two years then start developing a model by the people for the people.

Libby: What’s next for you, Pietra?

Pietra: Next week I go to London actually, but then after that to Afghanistan to begin my next film, which is called Oasis. It’s an idea I’ve had since I was in Afghanistan in 2006, and I’ve been working on it since then and we’ve got the funding, so off I go.

Libby: Unfortunately that’s all we have time for. Thank you for coming and I wish both the best of luck on your journeys. If you want to read my review of Maori Boy Genius just click the link above or go to our movie reviews section.

This has been Libby Popper from Sticky Trigger coming to you from the Sydney Film Festival.