Public Screening

Utilising observation, forensic, and analytical strategies, the work of six artists offer cinematic approaches to capturing community-based realities. Through their exhibition, and a series of reading groups and events, Ex-ante is interested in tying stories and storytelling from the Canadian North, Northern Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, and Aotearoa.

Through the duration of the exhibition we will be holding a series of events that build on and extend the concerns of Ex-Ante, beginning with a film screening of Snow in Paradise and Hotu Painu.

Nikki Si'ulepa and Justine Simei-Barton's short film, Snow in Paradise gives a snapshot of life on a remote, picturesque island in the south Pacific through the eyes of a young Polynesian girl, As she ventures out on her daily routine she encounters the familiar faces of her family and the small community that she loves. Like her, theyy are all unsuspecting of the devastating power that lies beyond the ocean reef in a nuclear testing facility. In one moment her world will change forever.

Pita Turei's wide-ranging documentary, Hotu Painu, explores the history of nuclear testing in the pacific - and its relationship with French colonialism in Tahiti (which locals claim has made then strangers or "Hotu Painu" in their own land). There is compelling testimony of serious health effects from previous tests; and Turei's cameras follow a Greenpeace protest flotilla to Moruroa as the French keep watch. Interwoven throughout is the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior and its aftermath, as DGSE agents are tried and the ship finds a final resting place at Matauri Bay.