FROM THE EDITOR

The film industry, says Maori film-maker Ainsley Gardiner, is built on a white, patriarchal model, straight out of Hollywood. It is with unreserved delight, then, that this week in Canvas we have two absolute kick-ass women who defy the industry norm and fight for change; two wonderful women at different ends of their career and in different parts of the world making an enormous impact in their own way: screen legend Sigourney Weaver and producer and director Gardiner — and there are some surprising parallels to their stories. Weaver talks to Joanna Mathers about the film industry being in crisis, with a lack of women and people of colour in crews. The director of her latest film, My Salinger Year, is Philippe Falardeau — a French-canadian. Women headed all the departments in the film. Gardiner (Te Whanau-a-apanui, Ngati Pikiao and Ngati Awa) has collaborated on Night Raiders ,an indigenous Maori and Native American film directed by Danis Goulet, a Canadian of Cree descent. Gardiner’s most recent film, Cousins, was almost entirely helmed by women and the structure was more akin to a marae (everyone’s role is important) rather than the hierarchical, Western model. The film she made with Taika Waititi,

Two Cars, One Night, was Oscar-nominated for Best Live Action Short Film in 2005. In July this year Gardiner was announced as a new member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, so she’ll have the chance to vote for the next Oscars. Cousins, which she co-directed, has been picked up by Oscar-nominee Ava Duvernay for release in the US and UK. In the wake of #Oscarssowhite and #Metoo, she talks with Shilo Kino about the responsibility and privilege of making indigenous films. In New Zealand, many of our top 10 films of all time are Maori content. Gardiner is quietly, brilliantly, intelligently continuing to forge her own path, telling stories with a true voice. Stories audiences want to see.

Ma te wa