1:00:00
Terry Stringer / Taonga Puoro: The Silence Is Over
Two documentaries from the Artsville series compiled into one programme. The first is a profile of sculptor Terry Stringer, a key figure in New Zealand art whose public works include The Risen Christ in Christchurch’s Cathedral Square, Grand Head in Wellington and The World Grasped in Newmarket, Auckland. Over several months, cameras follow his creative process as he works on a new sculpture for an Auckland collector.
The second documentary, The Silence Is Over: Taonga Puoro, is about Taonga Pūoro, treasured Māori instruments and their place in modern music. Traditionally the instruments were played not for entertainment, but were played more for the spiritual world of music in birth, life, and death. The argument here is whether they have, in modern times, transcended to being used as entertainment in western orchestral music and pop or rock.
The documentary is presented through two avenues. One tells the story of Horomona Horo, a young man with three mentors: Richard Nunns, Brian Flintoff and the late Hirini Melbourne. These three men made a committed trio dedicated to the revival of Taonga Puoro, and Horomono Horo is their young student, wanting to maintain the tradition and continue the revival.
Their message is these instruments need to be played, not left gathering dust on museum shelves, and to this end they play them to people and spirits atop beautiful landscapes.
Then we move to the Michael Fowler Centre. Six musician/composers debate what place in the future these traditional Maori instruments will have in western orchestral music and bands. Included are well known composer/musicians Gareth Farr, Gillian Whitehead, Aroha-Yates Smith, Moana Maniapoto, Jeff Henderson and Richard Nunns himself.