Lottie Hedley is a freelance photographer.

They are writing a story about Southland's migrant communities for New Zealand Geographic.

On Good Friday they joined a group taking part in the Stations of the Cross in Lumsden.

This is the seventh time Filipino Catholics from throughout Southland have organised this event.

Before their visit to Lumsden Morris and Hedley had already visited Knapdale, Invercargill.

"The story is about various migrant communities in small-town New Zealand, and especially about the Filipino community in Southland," Morris said.

The theme of the story is the way that migrant communities are changing the face of small towns and rural New Zealand.

"I am seeing how incredibly positive the effect migrant communities are bringing to these towns through the churches and with schools gaining more pupils and students now growing up in a multicultural environment," Morris says.

"This seems like a positive thing to me."

The boom in the Filipino population of Southland is largely driven by working opportunities in dairying, the largest employer in the agricultural sector.

Between 2010/11 and 2014/15 (years to June), an average of 322 temporary work visas were granted each year to Filipinos for work in Southland as dairy farm workers, as registered in the Immigration New Zealand database.

But this is likely to be an undercount since many work visas granted did not have the region of work specified.

Morris has worked a lot for Natural History New Zealand over the last 10 years.

His last big job for them was shooting the Auckland Islands episode of Our Big Blue Backyard.

Another of his documentaries is the feature-length The Sound of Her Guitar, which is the story of New Zealand songwriter Donna Dean and her struggle to escape a life of alcohol and violence to follow her musical dreams.

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• thestar.co.nz
• asianz.org.nz
• Image: stuff.co.nz

The festival featured 25 short films from a variety of genres and garnered 1 million views during the two-week period following its July 14 launch.

Maria was judged the Most Popular Film, determined by votes cast by viewers.

It centres around the loss and strain faced by a family after the passing of a young child.

The script was written by Taofia Pelesasais. Karin Williams produced the film which was was directed by Jeremiah Tauamiti.

The title role is played by Leiataua Si'ulepa who at 80 years-old is fast making a name for herself acting in New Zealand.

Maria is the matriarch of a large Polynesian family who lies bedridden and silent, unable or unwilling to speak after a long illness.

When a family crisis strikes, she gets some unexpected help as she struggles to reunite her fractured family.

Williams says the film is based on a true story from Pelesasais' own family and the passing of his niece.

He wrote the script as a tribute to the women of his ‘aiga - extended family - and their resilience.

He wanted to show the quiet strength of mothers who shoulder the burden of responsibility for elderly parents and young children, often in silence.

The film was shot in Pelesasais' home community of Rotorua, in New Zealand's North Island.

Watch the movie

Source

• RNZ
• PBS
• PBS
• FaceBook
• Image: Festival.vonline

Verdon College Year 12 students Liam van Eeden and Jean-Martin Fabre picked up five awards last week for their short films Rewind and Message in a Bottle.

At the awards ceremony in Wellington on December 5, the short film won the Leadership award, Best Editing and Secondary Schools Category Award.

They had taken the film to the Someday awards last year, where it placed in Top 20 and won the Like Minds Like Mine Health Promotion Agency award. Continue reading