Fragments of the Great South Road

The Great South Road has seldom been considered as more than a mere thoroughfare by most New Zealanders. Filmmaker Paul Janman ('Tongan Ark') and poet, blogger and historian Scott Hamilton ('Reading the Maps') want to change that. This Boosted campaign will enable them to process the material they gather on the road and kick off a feature documentary film.

Between 6th and 16th of December, the two artists will walk about two hundred kilometres from the edge of the King Country at the Puniu River up the Great South Road to Central Auckland. The Great South Road was built to bring a British army into the Maori Waikato Kingdom, and Scott and Paul want to confront some of the layers of myth and history that have settled on the route. They will show how the war for the Waikato still resonates in the twenty-first century, and how the Great South Road is still a route through which changes and conflicts flow.

Along the way, the walkers will be joined by locals, historians and artists who will share stories of their lives and their local landscapes. The public can track and even join the walkers via an embedded google map and regular updates on facebook and twitter. Cinematographer Ian Powell (reversalcine.com) will record and process additional analogue footage and film editor Corbinian Beitelstein will make video updates of Scott and Paul's discoveries.

Funding for a book has already been pledged to Scott Hamilton for this project by Auckland's Mayor Len Brown. This trip will also give an opportunity to finish his research and gather still images for the book.