Songs
from the Inside is a brilliant documentary series
currently on Maori TV about four musicians coaching inmates at Arohata and
Rimutaka to write their own songs.
The documentary is a welcome antidote to
“reality TV”. Both the producer Maramena Roderick and director Julian Arahanga
are very aware that they do not want to create a prison version of Idol.
There are so many shows today glamorizing
the cops and encouraging us to identify with their brutality - like Highway Patrol - and an endless stream of
crime shows trying to make us support the police and ‘law and order’ panics. Songs from the Inside cuts against all
of this, and all of the right-wing ‘law and order’ politics of both main
parties from the last decades. It is not afraid to show colonization, racism,
loss of language and culture, and oppression, as issues that lead to so many
young Maori men and women ending up in prison.
What the documentary manages to do is
portray both the musicians - Anika Moa, Warren Maxwell, Maisey Rika and Ruia Aperahama
- and inmates’ relationships developing throughout the series in a breathtakingly
honest and brave way. The openness and trust that develops between them allows
the documentary to explore issues of sexuality, drugs, crime, and remorse. And
above all, the documentary humanizes
the inmates/students so that viewers can identify and relate to them.
Even though the show isn’t explicitly
political, in today’s New Zealand media culture telling those stories is a
radical move.
Listen to the interview featuring the producer and director of Songs discussing these issues and more with Kim Hill
Shomi Yoon
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