Mr Minto sees ‘Patu’

Press, 5 September 1983, Page 9

Mr Minto sees ‘Patu’

PA Auckland The Springbok tour film, “Patu,” should be compulsory viewing for every New Zealand police recruit, said HART’S national chairman, Mr John Minto. Speaking after the Auckland premiere on Friday evening, Mr Minto said the film showed very clearly that violence during the tour came from the police, not the anti-tour movement. “Police officers should see the film because it would dispel a lot of illusions that they were the passive ones. “It should be used as a training film for the police to learn how to control themselves in tense situations.”

Violence by anti-tour supporters during the last test in Auckland on September 12, 1931, was an inevitable

result of the tension which built up over seven weeks, he said.

But the chairwoman of Free Nation New Zealand, Mrs Yvonne Wilcox, who was also at the screening, said “Patu" was a training film for revolutionaries, which depicted the police as “villains.”

She said the documentary was “an arrogant, egotistical justification of provocation for violence,” and also recommended that every New Zealander should see it

The film was “terribly biased” in that it showed only what happened between police and protesters, and did not attempt to analyse the effect of isolating South Africa. “We wanted the film to be made, but this is not a histdfical documentary of the tour,” she

said. She accused the protest movement of “spiritual provocation” of the police during the tour. Mr Minto said he felt “really, really sad” after viewing “Patu,” because he felt that New Zealand had not learned its lesson from the tour.

HART would try to stop the planned 1985 All Black tour and was prepared to Erotest again if the Springoks came to New Zealand, he said.

The film-maker, Ms Merata Mita, said “Patu,” was a statement about New Zealand for anyone who cared about correcting injustices in this country. “We want a free and open society where people like me can make these sorts of films without people like Mrs Wilcox sayhraf* we shouldn’t,” she said. ™

The film had its Christchurch debut at the Academy Cinema on Saturday evening. Ms Mita was treated to a full Maori welcome, and was presented with gifts from Mdori elders and from members of HART. The film met troubles before it arrived in Christchurch. Two prints had been sent from the Australian processors on Friday, but the Customs Department would not release them until the Minister was called in to say it was all right. The cinema manager, Mr Martin Bullimore, said he was worried that the film would not arrive in time, but, just before the scheduled time, Ms Mita and one of the film’s advisers, Mr Geoff Murphy, arrived with the print, having brought it from Auckland themselves.