Aspiring Waiheke filmmaker Kayla Hamilton has just screened her short film Kahurangi at the 2021 Māoriland Film Festival, the largest indigenous film festival in the Southern Hemisphere.
Thousands of people crowded into cinemas in Ōtaki to watch 120 short and feature films from over 80 indigenous nations from around the world.
Snippets from her film were included in the festival trailer, and Kayla says she is blown away by the exposure she has been given.
This is the third film festival Kayla has been invited to screen at. Kahurangi had its world premiere at the Wairoa Māori Film Festival, where films like Taika Waititi’s Two Cars, One Night have been screened. This was followed by an invite to screen at the annual Aotearoa New Zealand Film Showcase at the Honolulu Museum of art in Hawaii. Although showcased online because of Covid, it was technically the first time it was screened overseas.
“It has been very exciting for my student film, that I made at 18 years old to be screening at such big film festivals,” Kayla told Gulf News. •Liza Hamilton
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