Miki Magasiva: Tinā director on the films massive success

New film Tinā is shaping up to be a Kiwi classic and has already earned more than $1 million. 

The film ranks third as the biggest opening weekend for a New Zealand film.

Director Miki Magasiva talks to Ryan Bridge about the movie and why it's connecting with audiences nationwide. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ryan Bridge News Talks. They've been nineteen after five. This
is the trailer of what is shaping up to be
one of the best films to come out of New
Zealand in the last few years. Well is this. There
are a bunch of spoiled Bridge kids that have everything
they could ever want. You don't know them. You can't
just throw some Sunday school group together to sin conboy.

(00:22):
Are you felt that I could give these kids something? Yeah,
it's pretty good. The name is Tina and it is
also far earned more than a million dollars, ranking as
the third biggest opening weekend for a New Zealand film.
It's also setting a record for the widest KIWI release,
heading one hundred and twenty eight locations in New Zealand
so far and beyond. Mika Munga Seva is the TENA director.

(00:46):
He's with me this evening.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Hi, Mikya, thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
How are you feeling? This is excellent news.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
We've been overwhelmed by the support. We just feel Oh,
I feel like it's a dream come true. So we're
just so happy.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
It's a story about a teacher who an educator who's
in christ Church Tina is her name, and everyone's falling
in love with her because she's lost a daughter in
the christ at earthquakes. She's kind of down and out
and she takes on this job and basically teaches a
choir not just to sing, but to love and do

(01:29):
all sorts of other things at this elite private school.
What is it about this film that you think is
connecting with people or people are connecting with.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
Well, I feel like everybody has somebody in their lives
who has been a bit like that, who has been
a mentor to them, who has guided them and doesn't
have to be their pearance necessarily, And that's sort of
where the teacher role comes in. That we've always had
somebody who's mentored us, who we've fallen in love us,

(02:00):
that has guided us and whatever career path that we've
gotten into and has inspired us outside of our own parents.
And although this is you know, cortinar and it is
about parenting and guidance, so I think everybody can you know,
respond to it because everybody has had some sort of

(02:21):
inspirational leader that they can turn to and remember.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
Miki are the middle aged woman just leaving the cinema
crying in their drives.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
Oh look, I tell you what there have been, but
I might just add to that there there have also
been men quietly crying in the corner there. I actually
had a My sister had a friend who said, I
took my dad. He never ever cries. He's a restaunch
white man, and yet he cry. I could hear him going.

(02:56):
I love that.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
There's a lot of talk after the Oscars about the
fact no one's going to this anymore. Clearly, you've got
them there. Do you think there's something wrong with the cinema,
the price, or is it that we're not making enough
movies like this.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
I think it's a combination of all of those things, perhaps,
and that it is tough times for everyone at the moment.
I recognize that ticket prices are very high, but also
recognize that it's a part of the economy that's happening
at the moment. There's larger things that play here. But
I also feel like that some of the old films

(03:36):
that we absolutely loved as children we've gone away from,
and I've tried to bring a lot of that back,
and We've heard a lot of commentary about you know,
these are working on the same tropes and these are
the same sort of things we've seen before and lots
of other movies, and I a part of me loves
that because it's exactly what I intended for film. It's

(03:58):
what I grew up with and I absolutely loved. And
I show my son old movies all the time and
he loves all of them. So, you know, I think
we should look to our past with regards to filmmaking
and stories and tap on all of those things that
we loved as children. And just because we've been through

(04:19):
it before, it doesn't necessarily mean our children have seen
these films before. So we should tap into a bit
of that.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
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