WIFT NZ Mana Wahine Award to Briar Grace Smith
11 May 2021
Women in Film & Television (WIFT) NZ and the Wairoa Māori Film Festival Inc. are delighted to announce that the 2021 WIFT NZ Mana Wāhine Award recipient is Briar Grace-Smith (Ngā Puhi, Ngāti Wai), ONZM.
The Award will be presented at the Wairoa Māori Gala Film Awards at the iconic Gaiety Theatre, Wairoa, on Sunday 6 June.
Briar Grace-Smith (Ngā Puhi, Ngāti Wai), ONZM, is a renowned and award-winning writer, actor, director and producer. Briar was co-director (alongside Ainsley Gardiner), writer and actor in the adaptation of Patricia Grace’s novel Cousins, which took over $1 million in its first three weeks of screening in March this year!
This is but a small selection of her creative endeavours:
She has acted with the Māori theatre cooperative Te Ohu Whakaari, and Māori theatre company He Ara Hou.
Briar’s early plays Don't Call Me Bro and Flat Out Brown, were first performed at the Taki Rua Theatre in Wellington in 1996. Her play Waitapu, was devised by He Ara Hou and performed by the group on the Native Earth Performing Arts tour in Canada in 1996. For Ngā Pou Wahine, Briar earned the Bruce Mason Playwriting Award in 1995. She went on to win the Best New Zealand Play at the Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards in 1997 for Purapurawhetu. The Listener labelled the play “a new classic of New Zealand theatre”, and it was later filmed for the TV series Atamira (2012).
In 2000, she received the Arts Foundation Laureate Award. In 1993 she was Writer-in-Residence at Massey University, and in 2003 she was the Writers’ Fellow at Victoria University. Her 2014 play Paniora was inspired by the story of Spanish influence in the East Coast.
Her television credits include drama Fishskin Suit, which won best drama at the NZ Television Awards. Charlie The Dreaded, one of six Māori language stories, was produced for the Aroha series in 2002. Briar has also worked as a writer on various television drama series, among them Being Eve (2002) and Kaitangata Twitch (2010). She co-wrote Billy, a tele-feature about the life of comedian Billy T James, with Dave Armstrong.
In 2010, Briar won the NZ Scriptwriters Award for the feature film The Strength of Water, which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival, and which she also co-produced.
Briar has also directed films. In 2017 she was one of eight wāhine Māori to write and direct a piece for extraordinary and innovative feature film Waru, and in 2018 she directed the short film Krystal, which had its world premiere at ImagineNative, the largest indigenous film festival, held in Toronto each year.
Those fortunate to know Briar acknowledge her as intelligent, witty, humble, an incredibly warm and compassionate person, a loving mother, a supportive mentor, and loyal friend. Briar has an unwavering commitment to telling stories that reflect the complexity, diversity, and breadth of Māori culture and society, particularly from a uniquely woman’s perspective. As she states in her NZ On Screen biography, “I’m probably telling the same story again and again, and it’s about the underdogs. They’re the characters that interest me”.
The WIFT Mana Wāhine Award recognises and supports the achievements of Māori Women in film and television who work tirelessly, diligently and with vision to support and promote Māori culture, Te Reo Māori, Tikanga Māori and the welfare and stories of wāhine. The Award was first initiated in 2011 by Wairoa Māori Film Festival director Leo Koziol and his mother Huia Koziol.
Tickets for the Awards Gala and Film Festival can be booked at Eventfinda - Māori Film Awards only $50: Link to Festival Tickets https://www.eventfinda.co.nz/2021/wairoa-maori-film-awards 2021/wairoa
ABOUT THE FESTIVAL
The 16th Wairoa Māori Film Festival has over 60 short films and 10 feature films, all screening at the Gaiety Theatre over five days, from June 3rd to 7th 2021.
Watch feature films like Cousins and James & Isey and new international fare such as The Last Forest (Brazil) and Beans (Canada).
There is a strong Pacific focus with two short film programmes, and feature documentaries Loimata – The Sweetest Tears, directed by Anna Marbrook, and Tupaia's Endeavour, directed by Lala Rolls.
The festival awards this year will be presented at a special 16th anniversary celebration night at the Gaiety Theatre.
Wairoa Māori Film Festival has two wahine (female) guest curators who contributed to this year's programme. Tuāfale Tanoa'i (Linda T) has curated "Fetū Fitu" an hour-long programme of moving image art works by Pacific women. Judith Schuyler (Onyota’a:ka, Haudenosaunee) has curated "Turtle Island Shorts" a collection of indigenous moving image art works form Canada.
The programme overview is available at https://www.kiaora.tv
Along with the awards night, the other big night is the Pixie Williams A Homecoming Celebration event, with live music and the Pixie Williams documentary, only $50:
https://www.eventfinda.co.nz/2021/pixie-williams/wairoa
Festival Passes are available on request at maorimovies@gmail.com ($150 per person, limited availability, includes marae stay).
For media enquiries please contact Leo Koziol, Festival Director, Wairoa Māori Film Festival, on maorimovies@gmail.com or mob: 021 434 123.