Maori Boy Genius (2011)
“He’s precious, and gifted, a Matakite – a wiseman… but really he’s just a child.” A coming-of-age film profiling future leader Ngaa Rauuira, railing against his people’s statistics of uneducated youth, 40% of prisoners, and alarming suicide rates. Ngaa’s story reveals a family of eight on a modest income, committing to a US$35,000 Yale bill; a weighty tribal expectation that he will be the voice of his people AND bring success in war dance competitions; laughing and crying with best friends, approaching adulthood and diverging pathways. What if we could turn back the clock and watch the minds forming of those who would create political zeitgeist shifts in the future?
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The Worst Film Ever
Highly Overrated But Still Good
Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.
One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.