Three NZ filmmakers travelled to New York to showcase their short film Womb to international audiences at Tribeca Film Festival before its NZ International Film Festival debut. They share their travel diary with Viva.
Getting to premiere your short film at the festival co-founded by Oscar-winning actor and
NZ film-makers Ira Hetaraka (Ngātiwai, Ngāpuhi), producer Amanda Jane Robinson and editor Sophie Coombs did just that in June. The trio travelled to New York to premiere their short film Womb at the Tribeca Film Festival 2025, an event where nearly 120 films were screened across 10 days.
Womb was the only film from Aotearoa and the wider Pacific, as part of Floating Roots, a collection of short films that include Asian, Asian American and Pacific Island heritage in their making. The programme was co-curated by Seigo Tono, the executive director of Short Shorts in Japan.
The film follows a Māori girl caught in a custody battle between the conservative Pākehā couple assuming the role of carers and her mother, who is only able to visit once a week.
The Tribeca Film Festival was co-founded by de Niro and producer Jane Rosenthal 24 years ago, to revitalise New York’s Lower Manhattan district post-9/11.
Ira got the chance to meet de Niro at a director’s lunch where she says he shared insights into his career, including the fact he still gets nervous and is often late for appointments.
It was a reassuring detail, as Ira found herself running late for Womb’s red carpet premiere, which she says was “chaotic and silly but all very exciting”.
“My itinerary was packed on the day and since unfortunately I am allergic to checking the time, I arrived back at the accommodation with a total of eight minutes to do hair, makeup, outfit, and leave in the cab again,” Ira tells Viva.
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Advertise with NZME.“Luckily, I have an amazing producer and editor who were ready and waiting to assist. So they got to it as I rattled through my plethora of excuses as to why I was late but mostly why I was no longer panicking for my post-premiere Q&A.
“During all this, Amanda accidentally burnt a scar into my forehead with a hair straightener to commemorate the occasion and 12 seconds later, we were out the door.”
The world premiere at Tribeca came before the first showing at home, which is scheduled for this year’s Whānau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festival. Ira says the screening of the film in Aotearoa “will always be the scariest and special part of this journey”.
“While New York was incredible in so many ways, being so far from home and celebrating without the crew, whānau and friends that actually helped bring this film to fruition really left a bit of a hole in the overall experience.
“It reinforced the importance of staying grounded, being physically present on the whenua, learning and listening and celebrating our stories with the tautoko of the communities the stories are actually about. The best storytellers (in my humble, unbiased opinion) are back home and I look forward to watching the other Māori films in this year’s NZIFF.”
Ira and producer Amanda share with Viva more highlights from their trip to New York.
At the festival
The Floating Roots cohort was incredible. Every film had its thing, and its thing was done well. I felt honoured to have been programmed among such beautiful films. Post-screening and Q&A, we wandered over to the after-party for celebratory [drinks] and lots of talking.
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Advertise with NZME.A highlight [was] speaking to audience members after the screening and hearing how the film resonated with them or answering questions about back home but mostly, getting into bed that night feeling a glimmer of hope that there really is a growing space and desire internationally for indigenous films.
It felt very surreal to premiere Womb to an American audience. It was a sold-out screening and the theatre was much larger than expected, so I was already surprised that this many people were still paying to watch short films. It’s a very Māori story, specific to Aotearoa, so whether they got it or not, my heart was already warm that the bums were in the seats.
In the end, it seemed they got it, or at least pretended to, as our following two screenings sold out and by the end of the 10 days, I’d lost my voice from talking about it all. — Ira Hetaraka
A longer itinerary
I was lucky enough to extend my trip beyond the festival and ended up staying in New York for a month. I’ve only visited once before and this time cemented my love – it really is the best city in the world. I loved that I could leave the apartment and walk in any direction and find something to see or do.
I loved the cinemas – there were so many more I wanted to see, but I went to screenings at Metrograph, IFC, AMC and Anthology Film Archives and had the best time. I also visited the Posteritati gallery and spent an afternoon browsing their movie poster archives.
One of the very best moments was the night Zohran Mamdani was elected the Democratic nominee for Mayor of New York City. I’d gone with a friend to an election watch party and she’d explained we probably wouldn’t know the final results for a week or two, so when the party’s host announced Cuomo had conceded, the room erupted. It was electric. — Amanda Jane Robinson
Food tour
We lived off nopales tacos most of the trip, but celebrated the premiere with lobster pasta and unbearably salty martinis at Lucien. The best meal I ate was at Qanoon – a Palestinian restaurant in Chelsea – this creamy lemon za’atar ravioli I’m still dreaming about. My favourite bar was Carousel in Bushwick.
After the festival was over, I moved to a sublet in Crown Heights, so Cotton Bean was my daily coffee spot. I also loved Derby Cup Coffee in Chinatown – their coffee cola with an amarena cherry on top saved me during the heatwave. — Amanda
Home base
I stayed in Hell’s Kitchen, Bed-Stuy, and the East Village, and the latter two competed for my love. Brooklyn seems to be its own thing, and it’s loud and lively at night. My East village accommodation was near Washington Square Park, and I found myself there most days, people-watching. So I’d recommend people sit somewhere and watch people (respectfully), and also bike! Citibike was a really good way to see the city and cover ground in minimal time. — Ira
Finding inspiration
Sophie and I had a moment to spare one morning, and she wanted to walk the High Line, which is an old train line that used to run over Manhattan and has since been converted into a green walkway.
A few minutes in, we were met with a giant pigeon sculpture, larger than life, very provocative. Sophie couldn’t look, and I couldn’t stop. It sat there in all its glory, the size of a three-storey building, watching the city and evoking what seemed to be very extreme reactions. The colours were very considered, well I guess they were regular pigeon colours, so perhaps it was the positioning and sheer size of the pigeon that was considered. I thought about that giant pigeon a fair bit and perhaps it will inspire me creatively one day soon. — Ira
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