A Kingsland man's new film is gritty and political but also entertaining, writes Renee Jones
Sandor Lau wants to tell the stories other people are afraid to confront. The 31-year-old from Kingsland co-produced and directed the documentary Squeegee Bandit that follows nine months of a Maori man's life washing car windows
at intersections in South Auckland. ''The thing I feel passionate about is uncensoring the things that are censored . . . the things people are afraid to tell the truth about.'' The 75-minute film is a finalist in the the Air NZ Screen Awards. Lau came up with the concept in 2003. ''We wanted to tell a story about the collateral damage of the colonisation of Maori people. It's not a coincidence that people out there washing windows are Maori, or half the people in prison are Maori. You have to ask yourself if Maori are criminal or it's criminal to be Maori.'' He wanted to make a film that was gritty, serious, political but also entertaining. ''I think it says a lot about New Zealand. [Main character] Starfish talks in the film about stealing food. No one who is in a country with so much of everything should have to go around and steal food.'' Sandor spent four months looking for the right person for the documentary until he met Starfish, a 40-year-old roofer by trade, who had been washing car windows for nine months. ''I met a lot of window washers and then I saw this guy at the Otara Markets making more money than anyone. He had a huge personality. ''Our eyes met across the parking lot and I knew he was the one for me. ''The first thing you notice ? he's charming. He's like Maui, he's superhuman but he's flawed. He's changed as a person now, has his anger more under control. But you see the film and understand the reasons behind his anger.'' Sandor Lau is New Zealand's only Chinese/Hungarian-American and arrived in 2000 as a Fulbright scholar to study at Auckland University. Before coming to New Zealand he lived in the US, Mexico, Spain, France and Taiwan. He completed a master's degree in film and television production and made his first documentary, Behaviours of the Backpacker, in 2003, walking from Auckland to Cape Reinga.
