Once Were Warriors is the first feature film directed by Lee Tamahori, an award-winning commercial director. His television commercial awards include a Mobius (USA), Facts (Australia), and Axis (NZ). Once Were Warriors is the first feature film directed by Lee Tamahori, an award-winning commercial director. His television commercial awards include a Mobius (USA), Facts (Australia), and Axis (NZ).
Tamahori joined the New Zealand film industry in the late 1970's as a boom operator before becoming an assistant director in the early 1980's. He began directing commercials ten years ago and has since directed over a hundred spots. Acclaimed for his trademark storytelling style, Tamahori cites mainstream action directors like Sam Peckinpah, Francis Ford Coppola, Sergio Leone, and Martin Scorsese as influences.
The 43-year-old Tamahori describes himself as a "classic hybrid," born to a Maori father and a European mother. Says Tamahori, "A culture like Maori culture has to examine itself from all aspects before it can truly assume its rightful place." He hopes that Once Were Warriors will further that end and spark a dialogue. "I've always admired films that make you reel out of the theatre and you have to go to a bar and get a drink. I wanted to make one that makes people stand up and makes the hairs on the back of their necks stand up."
Tamahori is currently directing his first American feature, "Mulholland Falls." Produced by Richard and Lily Fini Zanuck for MGM, "Mulholland Falls" is about the elite crime unit nicknamed "The Four Hats" that operated in Los Angeles in the 1950's, charged with keeping organized crime out of the city. Written by novelist Pete Dexter and Henry Bean, the film stars Nick Nolte.
New Zealand-born Robin Scholes completed her MA at Edinburgh University, concentrating in film studies. She then taught film at Essex University. Returning to New Zealand, she set up the film studies course with Dr. Roger Horrocks at Auckland University. At both Essex and Auckland, she initiated several film festivals, in particular, the South American Festival of Films in Auckland and The Auckland/Wellington Festival of Women's Film's. She then became a producer, director, and writer, first for Television New Zealand and then at the production company Communicado. Once Were Warriors is her first feature film production.
Riwia Brown has been involved with Maori theater as an actor in Wellington since the early 1980's. In 1988, Brown's first play, Roimata, was selected for inclusion in a five-part Maori drama series, which she adapted and directed for television. She has since directed all her own stage plays as well as those of other Maori playwrights including Daddy's Girl by Rena Owen.
Now internationally known for his Academy Award nomination for Jane Campion's The Piano, Stuart Dryburgh has worked in the New Zealand film industry since 1977. He spent his first eight years in the lighting department. In 1985, he moved into cinematography and since then his credits include Vigil, The Leading Edge, An Angel at My Table, as well as The Piano.
Mike Kane began his film and television career in costume design; during the past seven years he has specialized in art direction. He garnered attention for his work on last year's New Zealand production Desperate Remedies. Kane has worked on other New Zealand features including Bad Blood, Battletruck, and Geoff Murphy's The Quiet Earth and Utu. He has also worked on numerous commercials with Once Were Warriors director Lee Tamahori.
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