PEOPLE + WATER SERIES

Dive deeper into the relationship between tangata and wai with our mini documentary film festival featuring 2024 DocEdge sell-out Ko au te Awa, ko te Awa ko au – I Am The River, The River Is Me, poignant short-film Tuhaymani’chi pal waniqa (the water flows always) and acclaimed 2016 hit Gaza Surf Club. 

3.30pm Tuhaymani’chi pal waniqa (the water flows always) (USA, 2023) [20min]
Tuhaymani’chi Pal Waniqa (The Water Flows Always) follows a Cahuilla, Cupeño father and daughter attempting to reconnect in a journey through their Indigenous roots in the ancient springs of the Mojave Desert, just as a new water-mining project threatens their very existence. The film addresses the efforts of protecting water resources and the sacred places of Indigenous nations, permeating the relationship between father and daughter seeking to strengthen their bonds and ancestral roots within their ancestral territory.
Directed by Gina Milanovich (Cahuilla, Cupeño) and Nils Cowan

4pm Ko au te Awa, ko te Awa ko au – I Am The River, The River Is Me (Aotearoa, 2024) [86min]
The Whanganui River is the first river in the world to be recognised as a legal person, as a living adult indivisible being.
Māori river guardian Ned Tapa invites a First Nations Elder from Australia and his daughter, who are activists to saving their own dying river back home, on a five-day canoe trip down this sacred river. Both mirror and inspiration, the river unites all the travellers organically, where everyone has a voice to share stories of humour and light, and a space to heal from the darkness of the past, of enduring historical injustice. 

6.30pm Gaza Surf Club (Germany, 2016) [90min]
Trapped in “the world’s largest open-air prison” and ruled by war, a new generation is drawn to the beaches. Sick of occupation and political gridlock, they find their own personal freedom in the waves of the Mediterranean – they are the surfers of Gaza.

“A group of young men, as well as a few girls, hit the waves as a way of mentally escaping the Gaza Strip in this handsome, uplifting documentary.” – Variety