jawnbc | Whale Rider, fantastic!

A couple of years ago my (then) Kiwi boyfriend--who aside from being hunky and kewl is doing his D.Mus in opera composition at the U of Auckland--was working for some mates on a film. It was set on the East coast of New Zealand's North Island, just up from Gisborne...Kiwi man grew up there, and while he's pure pakeha (Caucasian), he's very much in-tune with the Maori culture of the region.

Anyways the film has been out for several months in NZ, and is doing the festival circuit. It's already won audience prizes in Toronto and Sundance.

It's called Whale Rider, and it's fookin awesome. Moving, substantive, it honours and challenges. Fantastic performances. Keep an eye out for it in your neck of the woods (it's due for some release in North America in July/August)....

After having heard about it for so long, I mostly expected to be disappointed. I wasn't.