A Northland film-maker is heading to the world's biggest indigenous film festival next week to share his debut movie.
Jason Taylor, a teacher at Oromahoe School in the Bay of Islands, will travel to Toronto next week for a screening of The Turning Tide at the ImagineNative Film and Media Arts Festival.
Mr Taylor made the 10-minute film with another Far North teacher, Adam Hogg. It features two first-time teenage actors as they are confronted by the damaging effects of commercial fishing methods on traditional food gathering. It was shot at Wainui and Piapia Bay, north of Matauri Bay.
The film debuted at Wainui Bay Recreation Centre in May and the following month won an award for best music in a short film at the Wairoa Maori Film Festival in Hawke's Bay. It was shown at the NZ International Film Festival as a short ahead of the US film Songs My Brothers Taught Me.
"The cool thing is that this little story is from Northland, but it's a global story and it's being shared with an international audience. Wasteful fishing practices affect all coastal communities," Mr Taylor said.