A school teacher turned film director is one of the latest nominees for the Māori Pasifika Shorts section at this year's New Zealand International Film Festival.
Maruia Jensen nō Ngāpuhi and Ngāti Porou is the director of Disconnected – a short film about a construction worker, who, after losing the last connection he has with his late mother, spirals into depression, prompting an intervention from an unlikely source.
“This is quite a personal story,” Jensen says.
“It was inspired by the death of my mother in 2013. So it’s inspired by real events and just about how we cope with grief, or how we don’t cope with grief.”
The former teacher of 20 years was born and raised in the small forestry town of Tokoroa. Jensen taught kapa haka in her hometown and te reo at various secondary schools in the Far North while dabbling in scriptwriting and on-screen work for TV series Tōku Reo.
She has left teaching now to pursue a film career and since shooting Disconnected has interned with the director of feature film Whina, and worn numerous pōtae on Māori productions Muru, Kairakau ll and Hui Hoppers.
Abundance of love
“There are a couple of reasons I left teaching to pursue filmmaking. Firstly, when I would watch films or TV programmes I never saw my story. I understand that there are people out there who grew up in gangs or suffered abuse and, while everyone is entitled to tell their narrative, that just wasn't mine,” she says.
“I had a great upbringing in Tokoroa and, although we weren't rich, there was always an abundance of love and support. Education was always encouraged in our home too, and I vow to write a scene in one of my future projects where a Māori woman graduates.”
Disconnected is one of five films selected in the Ngā Whanaunga Māori Pasifika Shorts section of the 2021 NZ International Film Festival.
Ngā Whanaunga is a competitive section of the Festival and by being selected for it, Disconnected is eligible for the Wellington UNESCO City of Film Award for Best Film ($3000 cash prize), which will be judged by a jury. Disconnected is also eligible for the Letterboxd Audience Award ($1000 cash prize), which will be voted by the audience members at the Wellington screenings.