FROZEN CHAMPION PAST TRAUMA: ‘LET IT
Scandinavian filmmaker who helped Disney properly portray indigenous people takes up residency a world away – in O¯ taki. Virginia Fallon reports.
You know the song, even if you haven’t seen the movie. When Disney’s blockbuster Frozen was released in 2013, so was its track Let it Go, an earworm with a chorus so catchy nobody was safe.
While that song spent 33 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 charts, it was the movie’s opening number, Vuelie, that caused controversy.
‘‘It was our music,’’ Anne Lajila Utsi says.
Utsi is the first film-maker to take up a residency at the
Ma¯ oriland Hub in O¯ taki, designed to strengthen ties between indigenous film-makers around the world.
She’s been in the country for only a few days, but has already had a few trips to the beach, something that would be impossible in her homeland right now.
Currently, the temperature in Kautokeino is -20 degrees Celsius and the sun shines for only a few hours a day – come summer, it won’t set.
Don’t know where
Kautokeino is? You’re not alone, she says.
Think Northern Lights, think reindeer, and now, think Frozen and its sequel Frozen 2, which has just been released.
It’s a bittersweet experience seeing your people and culture depicted by animated characters, Utsi said.
After having been invisible for so long there’s a pride that someone has finally paid attention, but when the details are wrong it stings.
The first Frozen movie was heavily criticised for appropriating the culture of the Sa´ mi people, the indigenous communities of Scandinavia.
The opening number was copied from a traditional song – or joik – sung in an ancient vocal style once forbidden by missionaries and, while the blockbuster portrayed their culture, motifs and clothes, the Sa´ mi weren’t acknowledged.
When they heard there would be a sequel, they wanted to get it right.
The Sa´ mi parliament wrote to
Disney asking if the studio wanted to collaborate on the next film and, as it turned out, they did.
Utsi was one of six Sa´ mi who formed Verddet, an advisory group.
As part of the collaboration, the studio giant signed an agreement, which included promises that the Sa´ mi people would receive a film credit and their culture would be portrayed appropriately.
She is pleased with the end result.
‘‘Seeing our indigenous culture on screen, especially for our young people, is positive and makes them proud.’’
The importance of indigenous film-making is behind her journey to Aotearoa.
Head of the International
Sa´ mi Film Institute, which champions films made in the
Sa´ mi languages, Utsi will spend a month based at Ma¯ oriland, itself a trailblazer of indigenous film.
The new residency programme will see film-makers from New Zealand and around the world base themselves in O¯ taki to develop or complete fim projects and collaborate with
Ma¯ ori film-makers and other artists.
There’s parallels between the Sa´ mi people and Ma¯ ori, especially when it comes to language, Utsi says.
‘‘In the Nordic countries there has been a long time of assimilation where they tried to erase our language. Up until the ’60s they were not allowed to teach it in schools.’’
In the late 1970s an uprising over the Norwegian government’s plan to dam a river and flood a Sa´ mi village led to demonstrations, hunger
‘The Nordic countries . . . tried to erase our language.’ ANNE LAJILA UTSI
‘‘I think the behaviour of previous Government and current Government has been immoral and in my opinion utterly unfair but I am not going to (get compensation) with that.
‘‘What I’m complaining about is the minister has not got the backbone to say to his officials a mistake was made and the court found the mistake, we don’t want to conceal the mistake.’’
In a statement, Robertson acknowledged there had been communication between his office and Lee, but would not go into detail.
‘‘There has been a large amount of correspondence between Chris Lee and my office, which I have told him he is welcome to publish, along with the letters and emails to the previous Government and their replies,’’ Robertson said.
Timaru community leader Janya Lobb said she would have liked to see Lee fight longer to clear Hubbard’s name and gain compensation.
‘‘I would have to be very disappointed for the people who have suffered as a result of what
I believe was erroneous procedures at the time,’’ she said.
‘‘It has taken the Government 40 years to apologise for Erebus so maybe he could have tried longer.’’
Lobb said that although some investors were paid out, many, especially those with preference shares, continued to be shunned by authorities.
‘‘My heart goes out to those people. They continue to suffer as the big players get bailed out by Government.’’
Lobb said next year’s election would be an opportunity to apply further pressure. ‘‘Just keep writing letters to the politicians, there’s got to be someone.’’
Lobb described Hubbard as a ‘‘financial hero’’ in South Canterbury.
Hubbard died in a car crash in 2011. His widow, Jean, passed away in June 2018.