Mārama

So, you know, this is actually, funnily enough, something that I've seen not solely operating between the two legacy parties in this term of Parliament.

But I recall the instance where myself and Marama wrote to Christopher Luxon and Nicola Willis at the start of the fossil fuel crisis, asking to work with the Nats to do anything to insulate our economy from imported fossil fuel inflation.

And we're kind of rebuked, as we have been time and again throughout this parliamentary term, to me is indicative of the fact that it's not just the two legacy parties that might at times have an opportunity to work together, but also any other potential collaboration between all of the other parties that exist in our parliaments under MMP.

That's kind of what a far more mature system should look like, I think.

But the next film that we're going to be covering is

Marama.

Hopefully I pronounced that correctly.

I'm very excited to watch.

There was a beautiful film that ended up being one of my all-time favorites of last year's Fantastic Fest.

It was called Marama, and it took place in New Zealand.

It was a Maori governess who took a job at a remote estate.

It takes all of these ideas of just the buttoned-up, kind of gothic take with this very heavy line of colonialism, racism, fetishization, these Maori women that are going to this estate of a guy who appreciates the culture.

But also just this incredible work from an amazing Maori director.

The cast is amazing.

So that's Marama.

It's going to be coming to Shudder soon.

You know, this year we've had Mom, I'm Alien Pregnant.

Sits alongside, yeah, The Weed Eaters I mentioned, Caterpillar, Marama, um, Big Girls Don't Cry.

And what I found writing that story was that I think a lot of it has come, you can trace it back to kind of, well, COVID as a, as a quite, as a powerful sort of incubator for people putting their ideas down and, and suddenly sort of being like, "Fuck it." [laughs] You know? Like, "Let's just do it." Um, along with some other, you know, just kind of funding decisions and some, uh, mentoring programs through New Zealand, um, Film Commission.

But yeah, there's definitely a sense of energy and, um, originality, and it just feels like a really great time at the movies in New Zealand.

Looking at you.

So we have Dust Bunny, Marama, Queens of the Dead, The Serpent Skin, and Touch Me.

So this one, you know, as I said, you know, you and me haven't watched everything that got nominated, but we're definitely gonna make sure we see everything before this.

The award show.

think it's Mexican.

Yeah.

Yeah, I've seen a lot of buzz about Marama by Tao Stepard.

I know it's like about kind of like a woman that goes to New Zealand and it's got stuff to do with like colonization and it's kind of like a gothic horror movie.

Straw 2 is coming out.

No, Marama, a Maori Gothic story of retribution on Shudder, September 11th.

Well, I got to say, Shudder does sometimes do these horror movies from different cultures, and they are oftentimes quite good.

I haven't seen Marama, though.

There's one I saw.

Oh, damn.