DEGANZ member Taratoa Stappard‘s debut feature film, Mārama, is out now in Aotearoa cinemas with a stream of positive reviews following, currently holding a 100% Fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes!
Set in Victorian-era North Yorkshire, the gothic horror film follows a young Māori woman named Mary fighting to reclaim her identity and connect with her whakapapa and culture while living in a foreign land. Taratoa describes the film as a Māori gothic, drawing on the horrors of colonisation in Aotearoa.
Madeline Hakaraia de Young, director of the Māoriland Film Festival, reviewed the film for RNZ, commenting,
In the days and weeks since I first saw the film […], its memories have lingered. Its images return to mind and trigger a succession of trains of thought. It’s a film you want to talk about. It disturbs not to shock, but to reckon. And in doing so, it expands Māori cinema not as spectacle, but as authority.
The film is also screening in the Māoriland Film Festival as the closing night film on 28 March 2026. If you can’t catch it then, you can find a screening of Mārama near you here!
https://www.deganz.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Marama-Cinemas.png4561200admin/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/DEGANZ_logo_home.pngadmin2026-02-26 11:32:312026-02-26 11:32:31‘Mārama’ Has a Bloody Good Premiere in Local Cinemas
DEGANZ member David Stubbs‘ hit family adventure series, Secrets at Red Rocks, has been greenlit for a second season!
Season one was adapted from Kiwi author Rachel King’s novel Red Rocks. The sophomore season will expand the world, introduce new characters, and dive deeper into the established mysteries, while continuing to blend Aotearoa’s dramatic coastal landscapes with myth, adventure, and family drama.
Secrets at Red Rocks season one received three Children’s & Family Emmy Award nominations recently, including Outstanding Editing for a Preschool or Children’s Live Action Program by fellow DEGANZ member Alex Boyd, Outstanding Writing for a Preschool or Children’s Series, and Outstanding Music Direction and Composition for a Live Action Program. It was also the National Winner for Best Children’s Programme at the Asian Academy Creative Awards.
David will continue to helm the project as the director and producer for season two, which has already begun production in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, and is set to be delivered in October 2026.
Congratulations to the team and we look forward to season two!
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17 DEGANZ members have work selected for the 2026 Māoriland Film Festival (MFF). This year’s theme is “He taonga tuku iho te rama ataata,” meaning “The light that reveals our legacies.”
111 films have been selected from 130 Indigenous nations and 27 countries, ranging from Arctic love stories to Māori gothic dramas to climate resistance in Papua New Guinea to language revitalisation across the Pacific. They will all come together across five days of storytelling, connection, and celebration.
The festival describes the selection saying,
These are stories that shine in the darkness. Stories of resistance, love, land, language and survival. Stories that remind us we are part of something bigger, and that we have the power to build the world we deserve.
MFF is the world’s largest Indigenous film festival, not only by showcasing Indigenous stories, but by bringing filmmakers, artists, rangatahi, and audiences together for premieres, screenings, industry events, art exhibits, and community events. It is returning to Ōtaki from 24 to 28 March 2026.
Check out the festival trailer and the selected DEGANZ members below!
Kiriata – Feature Films
Mārama
Director: Taratoa Stappard
1859. When a young Māori woman is summoned from New Zealand to North Yorkshire, she uncovers the horrific truth of her colonial heritage and sets out to destroy the titled Englishman who has devastated her family. In his debut feature, Taratoa Stappard (Ngāti Toa, Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga, Ngāti Tūwharetoa) presents a bold and unsettling gothic tale of colonial reckoning with a stand-out performance from Ariana Osborne (Ngāti Mutunga and Te Āti Haunui- a-Pāpārangi).
Mārama is the festival’s closing night film.
Pakipūmeka – Feature Documentaries
Taiarahia: Te Kākahu Tawhito
Director: Nicholas Riini
Taiarahia: Te Kākahu Tawhito revisits the 1985 protest and occupation of the sacred mountain Taiarahia in the Ruatoki valley – a stand led by the people of Te Māhurehure hapū to protect their sacred maunga from being stripped of its ancient native forest and replanted with pine for financial gain.
Kiriata Poto – Shorts
Ace
Writer/Director: Ray Edwards
In a quest to save his parents’ marriage, Jimmy ventures to the east coast of Aotearoa in search of papers he believes will keep his family together.
Ata Pūao
Producer: Angel Kameta
Amid the nightlife of a new city, a young Māori trans-woman reckons with safety, isolation, and the fragile bonds of old friendships outgrown.
Devil in the Gat
Editor: Te Rurehe Paki
Desperate for his big break, an aspiring musician discovers a forgotten country singer at a nightclub who may hold the key to his dreams – but the answers come with a dark price.
Forget It
Director: Ashley Pye
A boy watches helplessly as his grandmother begins to slip into dementia.
I Am Not Your Dusky Maiden
Director: Vea Mafile’o
Editors: Lisa Greenfield and Jolin Lee
When a Sāmoan woman enters therapy, she must navigate a series of alter egos protecting herself from painful memories.
Kurī
Editor: Sam Small
Kurī hasn’t been back home to Te Urewera since she was bitten on the face by a dog as a child. After the death of her father, Kurī must return and face the uncertainty of grief – whether she is ready to or not.
O Alofa Nei, O Alfoa Na
Writer/Director: Giselle Ilaoa
Manaia, a young woman caught between expectation and self- acceptance, finds herself confronting her repressed sexuality when a chance reunion with her first love stirs old feelings
Rapido
Writer/Director and Co-Editor: Richard J Curtis
A young boy’s fascination with war comics comes closer to home than he could ever imagine.
Raupā
Editor: Allan George
When two people you love sit on the precipice of death, whose hands do you hold?
Spdrtwnbby ft JARNA – Back to Self
Director: Litia Tuiburelevu
‘Back to Self’ is a hypnagogic mirage of neo soul, R&B and art-pop, elegantly dressed in oneiric symbolism and poetic metaphors straight out of the South Pacific.
The Charm of the Magpies
Writer/Director: Liam Ngahina Joseph Maguren
A lone tūī must find her voice to speak up against her adoptive family before they start a war.
The Return
Editor: Alex Boyd
When Lupesina answers her ancestors’ call, she must accept herself, or risk being stuck in the in-between.
Womb
Writer/Director: Ira Hetaraka
A young Māori girl in the care of a conservative Pākehā couple savours her mother’s weekly visitations, as a custody battle driven by racial bias will ultimately decide their fate.
https://www.deganz.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/MFF-26.png4561200admin/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/DEGANZ_logo_home.pngadmin2026-02-26 11:32:122026-04-07 18:05:46Māoriland Shines a Light on DEGANZ Members’ Mahi
Katie’s The Haka Party Incident took home the 2nd Special Jury Award. The feature documentary details the historical events of May 1, 1979, when a group of young Māori and Pasifika activists, which later became known as “He Taua”, confronted engineering students at the University of Auckland who were rehearsing a “mock” haka for their end-of-year parade. The clash that followed forced the entire nation to confront systemic racism and set in motion a process of real change.
Meanwhile, the Best Fiction Short Film Award went to Pākehā, written and directed by Mana. Set in the 1980s in Aotearoa, a young Pākehā mother’s determination to learn Te Reo Māori exposes her struggles, resilience, and courage, in an inspiring true story of cultural reconciliation.
https://www.deganz.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/FIFO-Winners-2026.png4561200admin/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/DEGANZ_logo_home.pngadmin2026-02-26 11:31:582026-02-26 11:31:58Wolfe and Davis Take Home Awards from FIFO 2026
This week’s roundup is all about trailers for soon-to-be-released projects by DEGANZ members, including a memorial docu-drama honouring L. Sgt. Haane Manahi DCM, and a sneak peek into the lives of the wahine in a tiny coastal town with a thriving surf community at the bottom of the South Island.
Check out the trailers below. We look forward to seeing these projects when they are out in the world!
Sgt. Haane
Feature Docu-Drama Trailer
Film Editor: Francis Gelnday
The never-before-told true story of Sgt. Haane from award-winning writer and director Tearepa Kahi. This documentary-drama film follows Lance Sgt. Haane Manahi DCM (Te Arawa, Ngāti Raukawa) of B Company, 28th Māori Battalion, a soldier of extraordinary courage, whose actions proved pivotal in the 1943 battle for the fortified summit of Takrouna, Tunisia.
Wahine Waveriders
Documentary Trailer
Co-Director, DOP & Drone Pilot: Zyanya Jackson
Wāhine Waveriders is a documentary celebrating 3 generations of the Pou whanau wāhine and their unique relationship with surf culture on the South Island. The film explores their personal connection to the ocean and celebrates its profound impact on physical and emotional recovery. Through the lens of womanhood across three generations, the film highlights the evolving attitudes toward women in surfing.
