‘Patu’ shows ‘N.Z. underbelly’

Press, 23 June 1984, Page 12

‘Patu’ shows ‘N.Z. underbelly’

By

DIANA DEKKER,

in London

Merata Mita’s film, “Patu,” shows the “weird underbelly of New Zealand life” brought out by the 1981 Springbok rugby tour, according to the “Guardian” newspaper. The “Guardian” devotes a third of a page to a review of the film and an interview and picture of the Maori film-maker whom it describes as “a veteran campaigner against oppression at a personal as well as internatinonal level.” The piece is written by Robert MacDonald.

Merata Mita’s film is showing at the Phoenix Cinema, East Finchley, in London.

“New Zealnd’s reputation as a bland and pretty place where nothing much ever happens was shaken in 1981

by the Springbok tour riots.” Macdonald writes. “For the first time since the land wars of the nineteenth century the country made headlines in overseas newspapers, when police and rugby fans confronted a huge anti-tour protest movement.

“In the centre of the uproar was a courageous camera crew directed by a Maori woman, Merata Mita. As bottles and bricks whistled through the air, Merata held her cameraman by the shoulders, moving him to dodge the projectiles while he kept his eye to the viewfinder. In Hamilton they escaped just ahead of a crowd of maddened rugby followers who were pursuing protesters through the streets screaming at one point. ‘Get the Jews, get them.’ “This was the wierd un-

derbelly of New Zealand life being presented to the world for the first time, and out of all these events Merata Mita and her colleagues fashioned an extraordinary documentary film. ‘Patu’ a Maori word for a type of fighting club and a word which also means to kill, to strike, or to chastise.” The article says that the film “contains some remarkable footage of the New Zealand police’s ferocious Red Squad bashing down protesters — so remarkable that the police ‘visited’ Merata on a number of occasions while she was making it. She took the wise precaution of sending the negative overseas for safe keeping.” “Television film was seized by court order, ostensibly so that the police could identify _ lawbreakers,

and in official custody it tended to disappear or be wiped mysteriously.” MacDonald say’s he remarked to Merata Mita that Britons who regarded New Zealand as a model of racial harmony would be very surprised by scenes from “Patu.”

“Everyone,” he says she replied to him, “buys that peaceful, harmonious, egalitarian multi-racial society, and one of the things about ‘Patu’ that shook a lot of people is that it isn’t — it’s not a nice society at all. There is something ugly in there that is very rarely exposed.” MacDonald said Merata

Mita had won great acclaim and a number of awards for her film but was "a prophet with little honour,” in her own country. Merata Mita left London this week after being interviewed by a number of newspapers and Radio London.

While in Britain she discussed the possibility of making a television documentary for the 8.8. C. and another for Central Television. She also had talks with representatives of the Greater London Council about the inclusion of “Patu” and two other films in a G.L.C. festival in September.