From Tauranga City Library’s archives
Hei Tiki, was a ground-breaking film in New Zealand's early cinema history, shot in 1930 around Lake Taupo and Waihi. Featuring an all-Māori cast, primarily from the Whanganui and Tūwharetoa iwi, it was one of the country's first talking pictures. However, the film's production and release were not without controversy.
Reels were often tinted blue to indicate a night-time scene
It didn't.
Markey showed little to no interest in Māori tikanga or culture. Instead, the film employed the "star-crossed lovers" theme popular in Western film and literature. The two protagonists, love interests played by 16-year-old Ngawara Kereti (Te Arawa) and Ben Biddle, and themselves royalty from separate tribes in a pre-European Māori idyll, must find a way to be together.
Markey's directing style was characterized by a domineering, impatient, and disdainful attitude towards the cast and crew, many of whom were amateurs. Ben Biddle often acted as a negotiator for the entire cast and crew's benefit. He confronted Markey when wages were withheld or insults became intolerable. He would apply as the leading man by disappearing for up to several days, retreating further up into the nearby mountains where he would hunt wild pigs or deer.
Markey borrowed numerous articles from local participants to use as props and costumes in the film, such as taiaha, tewhatewha, korowai (woven feather cloaks), taonga like the hei tiki pendant that Mara wears around her neck, mere, kete, and woven floor mats. He later absconded to the United States with these items, leaving behind many debts that the film's financial backers never recovered.
The film was released in Great Britain and America with the cringeworthy title, "Primitive Passions" in 1935. The New York Times called it "a disappointment, a sorry mélange of antique melodrama (and) spotty photography...a native legend... native to Hollywood, so many versions of it having been filmed there".
New Zealand wouldn't see it until 1939.
The reel stills that make up part of Ams 227 are in excellent condition, particularly considering they are made from cellulose nitrate, a medium first used by George Eastman in 1889 and regularly thereafter in 35mm motion picture film until the 1950s before being replaced with more stable formats.
Green tints were sometimes used to evoke mystery
Scene from Hei Tiki. Photo 19-202
Red tint was sometimes used to convey intense emotion
Sources:
- Limbrick, Peter (2010) Making settler cinemas: film and colonial encounters in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand
- New York Times Review: https://www.nytimes.com/1935/02/02/archives/at-the-globe.html
- Adventures in Māoriland - Alexander Markey and the Making of Hei Tiki: https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/adventures-in-maoriland-1985
This archival collection has been digitised and is available to view on Pae Korokī. For more information about this and other items in our collection, visit Pae Korokī or email the Heritage & Research Team: Research@tauranga.govt.nz
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