Settlers Film Club presents "This Way of Life"

"This Way of Life" Cert. PG **.

Shot by Napier-based Cloud Nine Films, the award-winning documentary is the story of Peter and Colleen Karena. They are in their early 30’s. They have six children and 50 horses.

This Way of Life is a film about freedom. It is about risk and wilderness and how one family chooses to live more connected to wild nature than the shiny life of the mall.The film captures a way of life and a consciousness that has almost disappeared, a life where self-sufficiency is central, where time is not money, it encompasses an understanding of a tangible relationship with nature and natural morality - unframed by regulation or compromise.

Narrated by the eldest son, eleven-year-old Llewelyn, the film explores the lives of the six Karena kids and their parents over a four-year period. The narrative arch of the film is defined by the dysfunctional relationship between Peter and his father. How Peter traverses this emotional minefield and his own relationship with his eldest son frames the universal story of father and son.

Set against the mountains and beaches in an isolated part of New Zealand, This Way of Life is an intimate portrait of a Maori family and their relationship to nature, adversity, their horses and society at large. It is also a story of survival, from the outside the Karena’s may look like some ‘Little House on the Prairie’ family but beneath that self-assured competency they are real people; flawed, articulate, profound and emotional. When they lose a baby, when Peter’s father rejects him and steals all his horses, when their beloved home burns down they show remarkable resilience, turning their desperate circumstances into gold.

Cert PG. **Please note, all under 16 year olds must be accompanied by an adult.

Event listed by RKA

View their other events or contact promoter