Upfront
Taika Waititi
by Gordon Campbell
Gordon Campbell talks to rising film-maker Taika Waititi about humour, art and changing your name
So you’re 28, your movie is in the Sundance Film Festival … and in a few days Robert Redford will be shaking your hand and patting you on the back. In the circumstances, a little bit of preening and bragging would be forgivable, but Taika Waititi is taking it in his stride. “People go there [to Sundance] basically to pitch any projects they’ve got and to make contacts, which is something that I know I’m not going to be that good at. At best, I’m not very good at selling myself, or trying to promote the stuff I do.” If he could, he would take along a real salesman to network for him. “I’m just going to try to enjoy myself, get away from Wellington,” he says, laughing. Given his film’s rural Kiwi dialogue, he’s also curious to see how it goes down with a foreign audience.
In person, Waititi seems as modest and smart as the short film – it’s called Two Cars, One Night – that got him to Sundance. In an industry rife with hustlers, he moves at his own pace on several fronts. As the writer/director of Two Cars, One Night, Waititi is one of our most promising film talents. As Taika Cohen, he has long been one of the country’s most promising actors in theatre and film – he made it to the finals of the NZ Film Awards in 2000 for his role in Scarfies and also appeared in Snakeskin.
As half of the Humourbeasts, with Jemaine Clement, he is one of the country’s best comedians – which may not be saying much – and has performed at festivals in Melbourne and Edinburgh. No political satire though, please. “It’s a mistake to make comedy out of current affairs. It never lasts. You should treat it like art and make it stand the test of time.” The Wes Anderson films, he says, tend to be the sort of thing he finds funny.
In addition, Waititi is a talented painter – an exhibition of painted-on banknotes earned him some media notoriety in 2000 – a book illustrator, art photographer and musician. Not that there’s any confusion, in his mind at least, about who he is. “Cohen” is the name on his birth certificate and “Waititi” is his father’s surname, but his current choice of surname doesn’t signal a shift in identity. “I’ve used both names throughout my life, for different things. ‘Cohen’ has always been what I’ve used for my acting, writing and the stuff to do with theatre … and ‘Waititi’ is what I’ve used for my art, painting and photography. For all the visual arts stuff, as opposed to all the performing …”
Presumably the name Cohen helps him to avoid getting typecast – enabling him to be seen more as a Maori who acts, rather than a Maori actor? “Yes. That’s the problem I’ve had with everything I’ve done. I don’t ever want to be seen as a Maori artist. I’d rather be an artist who just happens to be Maori – and not like my art must always, and necessarily, reflect being a Maori.”
Ironically, though, Two Cars, One Night is appearing in Sundance’s “Native Forum” section. It’s a peculiar distinction, given Redford’s PC credentials. Does Waititi mind being included in this “darkies with cameras” kind of category? “I don’t understand why it’s there,” he says with a laugh, “but I don’t really care.” One advantage: “Native Forum” directors, he says, are the only ones who get their fares paid to attend.
Not that he sees his film as some exotic slice of indigenous life. For those who missed it at last year’s film festivals, Two Cars One Night is a sharply written, beautifully acted account of three children left to their own devices outside a pub, while their parents are inside. “That situation is universal,” Waititi says, “no matter what race you are, or your socio-economic origins. Everyone has been left somewhere by an adult. The film is trying to deal with that sort of thing – the feeling of being left, coupled with being a kid trying to create your own world. Discovering new things and creating bonds with other kids.”
Waititi drew on his personal experience and filmed in the East Cape setting where he grew up, shooting outside the local pub. After scouring 10 schools to find his cast, Waititi finally found all three children at the same school. Rangi Ngamoki, his eight-year-old lead, won the award for “best performance in a short film” at the NZ Film Awards last month.
“It was a little bit difficult,” Waititi says drily, about the shoot. “It was madness to do a first short film with kids. Madness.” When he tried to tell them what he wanted, he recalls, they’d look at him like … what on earth are you talking about? Finally, things clicked into place. For one thing, the kids were locals – so they talked the talk naturally and showed no trace of the overacting commonly seen in child performers.
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