Draft 2 PhD Introduction - ResearchSpace@Auckland

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traditional values is at least in part attributable to the cinéma vérité techniques that
Ward utilized. The film was made at a time when this traditional way of life was fast
disappearing and it is arguable that if Ward had not made the film when he did, it would
have been too late. Kero Te Pou commented that it was perhaps Puhi’s choice to live
this traditional way of life that explains in part the isolation in which she existed. “She
probably didn’t have too much family around. They all left and didn’t want to come
back to this kind of life”. 569
Ward showed sensitivity to both Puhi, and to members of the Tuhoe people at
Waimana, by taking the film to show her individually, and then to show the community,
before the film was screened publicly at the Wellington Film Festival in 1980. He also
refused to allow the film to be screened on television while the old lady was still alive.
Helen and Toka Tewara screened the film twice at the local marae, and on both
occasions they say it was a moving experience for the audience. While the old people
were surprised in the tangi scene to see the ururpa, they were not upset, because the
camera recorded individual people, many of whom had since died, and it was very
moving for the audience to see them again on screen. Helen recalled that everyone
cried because: “It was so real: a very good portrait of the whole atmosphere and the
whole way of life”. She said that they always knew that Puhi was dedicated to Niki, but
when they saw the film, they realised just how devoted she was. Helen and Toka
pointed out that if the film had not been right, the people in the area would have been
the first to complain, and they believe that, “[Ward] did a good job […], a professional
job. He was a real genuine guy”. 570 The local Tuhoe whom I interviewed, had their
own way of reading the film and their own use for it, in that while they stressed the
importance of the film as the documentation of a traditional way of life, they equally
valued it as a record of individuals whom they had known and loved.
That the film had a profound effect on Ward himself is evidenced by Alison Carter, one
of Ward’s co-writers of Edge of the Earth. She believes that the film was “a sort of
profound […] experience for him” and “probably something that really changed a lot of
things for him”. The project was a huge challenge because of ill health and his feeling
of being an outsider to the community, as well as problems with funding and filming
difficulties. In addition, it was a difficult time politically to make a film of this nature,
569 Lynette Read, interview with Maui and Kero Te Pou, 15 April 2000.
570 Lynette Read, interview with Helen and Toka Tewara, 16 April 2000.