Ata Pūao

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For Hiwa, our protagonist, Tāmaki is the site of both risk and becoming. It is where dreams stretch beyond the reach of small-town familiarity, and where new identities can be claimed, not without cost, but with undeniable possibility. The city’s lights, streets, carparks, and clubs become emotional spaces in the film, textured with memory, danger, sanctuary, and transformation. In Ata Pūao, Tāmaki Makaurau becomes a love letter to the people, whenua (land) and culture it sustains. A layered city whose spirit is rarely represented in mainstream film, particularly through the lens of takatāpui (Māori queer) lives. In the film, we see not a postcard-perfect city, but the rawness and beauty of urban Aotearoa through Hiwa’s eyes, where a dairy lit in harsh fluorescents can feel like a battleground, and a sweaty nightclub bathroom can echo with the ghosts of past violence. Yet in these very spaces, too, lie the seeds of collective care, resistance, and joy.