Merata Mita CNZM (19 June 1942 – 31 May 2010) was a New Zealand filmmaker, producer, and writer, and a key figure in the growth of the Māori screen industry.
[1] Mita taught at Kawerau College for eight years, where she began using film and video to reach high school students characterised as "unteachable", many of them Māori and Pacific Islander.
Maori culture was frequently overlooked and reduced to various myths and fantasies that reflected colonial sentiments of desire for subjugation and control.
However, it was primarily driven by the large-scale post-war migration of Māori from their rural and coastal ancestral territories into the Pākehā-dominated urban areas.
Moving into these new urban areas made it challenging for many Māori to pass on their cultural traditions to the next generation and consequently, many began to lose their roots and felt pressured to integrate into Pākehā society.
I see it as a central figure and actor, and the vehicle for the “mauri” (the principle or force of life) of the film's title [...] Fourth Cinema is a medium through which things pass, enabling people and place to be recollected and connected in the viewing experience.
(1983), about the violent clashes between anti-apartheid protesters and the police during the controversial 1981 South African Springboks rugby tours in New Zealand, and Bastion Point: Day 507 (1980), about the eviction of Ngāti Whātua from their traditional land.
[16] In 2016, the Merata Mita Fellowship was created by the Sundance Institute for native or indigenous filmmakers globally at any stage of their career or production.
[24][25] Her son Hepi Mita from her longtime relationship with Geoff Murphy produced a documentary on his mother's cinematic legacy which was released in 2018.