Whanganui youth get a look through the lens

Mentors Benji Timu and Ariah Kapa (at back) working with Riley Heka (left), Ella Waitokia and Tea McMenamin-Wood at the filmmaking workshop. Photo / Bevan Conley

Benji Timu was presented with an honours degree in architecture in Auckland this week and by Thursday he was in Whanganui mentoring young filmmakers.

"I wanted to be a YouTuberand while studying for my degree I have been more and more drawn in to the world of filmmaking," he says.

"Now I'm taking a leap of faith to become a filmmaker rather than an architect."

Timu was among a group of young filmmakers who travelled to four Pacific locations with the Through Our Lens Project last year.

The nine short films that resulted from the project were screened at the Davis Lecture Theatre on Thursday night and Timu, along with fellow mentor Ariah Kapa, was selected to lead workshops at Ngā Tai O Te Awa in Whanganui this week.

The initiative was launched by the Ōtaki -based Māoriland Charitable Trust last year to give rangitahi (youth) aged 13 to 24, the opportunity to join the E Tū Whānau Rangatahi Film Challenge.

"Rangitahi respond better to people who are closer to their own age and we have chosen mentors who can lead with their own filmmaking experience," said project leader Maddy de Young.

"Filmmaking in the regions is becoming really strong and we are running the workshops at a number of locations in the central North Island."

Kapa, from Te Kauwhata in Waikato, says she became interested in film because she wanted to tell stories of her whānau.

"I wanted to make a film about my Nan and tell her story.

"I was in my last year at school and I stayed on for a year so I could study filmmaking.

"My dad who is a teacher told me about Through Our Lens."

Whanganui 13-year-olds Ella Waitokia, Tēa McMenamin-Wood and Riley Heka were planning their film projects on Thursday before heading out to shoot footage on Friday.

"I haven't made any films before but I'm really interested and that's why I'm here," said Riley.

They will be able to enter their completed films for screening at the annual E Tū Whānau Rangatahi Film Awards in March 2019.

The Māoriland Festival is an international event established by Libby Hakaraia and Tainui Stephens in 2013 and it brings indigenous filmmakers from around to Ōtaki in March each year.