Thank you, youz fellas.
The next issue was, when was Lee available to direct? As a popular and highly sought-after director, he and his agent had to juggle his schedules but — hurrah! — he had a short window in 2014 which we tried for … and missed. There was another window in April 2015, but would all the funding elements be together to allow the film to start on time?
We had to make it, otherwise the film would have been delayed, possibly another year. Our funders would have lost their window as well and put their money towards other projects. Production staff would have moved on, actors too. We would have had to start the entire production countdown again. Worse, the film could have died on us.
I tell you, making a film is not for the faint-hearted.
Meanwhile, with Tem Morrison at the head of the Mahana family, other casting occurred around him. Nancy Brunning became Grandmother Mahana; veteran actor Jim Moriarty was cast as Tem’s arch rival, Rupeni Poata; and youngster Akuhata Keefe was plucked from Ruatoria to play the plucky hero, Simeon. The cast was a big one but they became a wonderful family, and not only on-screen. When Akuhata’s grandmother died, for instance, his movie grandfather Tem Morrison flew to Gisborne to represent the cast at her tangi.
I was on location when Lee was filming the race to the church. I marvelled at the mastery of his direction and the concentration of the production staff and cast. We are lucky to have had Ginny Loane as our director of photography. I was also on location when she and Lee and her team filmed the ‘rape’ scene. Over and over they went through the rehearsal as a very huge and heavy camera was carried around Grandmother’s house, onto a crane and up, so that the audience could ‘look’ through the window and into Ramona’s bedroom. On the day of filming, the scene took almost the entire day to film. On screen it lasts, say, a minute, but it has such power and potency.
I was also on location during the filming of the Golden Shears sequences. You wouldn’t know it, but the rain was absolutely bucketing down. Extras had been bussed in and must have been freezing. How everyone maintained concentration, I just do not know.
The film was shot over thirty-five days in April and May 2015. Now titled Mahana, test screenings were held two months later. I fell out of my chair with laughter when I saw that Lee had added his own love of 1950s movies by referencing My Darling Clementine, 3:10 to Yuma and Elvis in Flaming Star.
After she saw one of the early screenings, a friend of mine told me she felt that she had been invited into the film and the family. My Dad would have been proud of that comment.
One last memory: when I first went on location at Jonkers Farm, what I saw was a group of film trucks and vans, with crew and cast laughing and taking a coffee break. My mind went back to France, 1993. A Romany encampment. Men and women and children chatting and having lunch just outside Nice. I was with my friends William and Nelly Rubinstein.
‘Who are they?’ I asked William.
‘Oh, they are gypsies,’ William answered. ‘They come to the French Riviera every year to sell their wares, tell fortunes and …’ he paused and, knowing my penchant for drama, added, ‘… steal babies … and maybe torture grumpy Maoris like you.’
When you see Mahana, I hope those same gypsies, shearers, film crew and cast will also steal your hearts.