Me He Manu Rere

What if the stories we tell ourselves to survive are the very thing keeping us trapped? Me He Manu Rere, meaning "a flock of birds in unity," is a Māori-language short film about grief, memory, and the weight of a love that never found its ending.

At the heart of the film is Āi, a man who carries his grief literally; a Tūī lives inside his stomach, its song the last thread connecting him to a son he lost. When the bird begins to starve itself, Āi is forced to confront the memories he has been carefully rewriting and ask whether the stories we tell about the people we've lost are memories, dreams, or something we simply need to believe.

Me He Manu Rere is written by Tainui Tukiwaho and told entirely in Te Reo Māori. It is a film of striking visual imagery, quiet devastation, and profound humanity.

The project has already secured $40,000 in production funding, enough to bring the film to life. But to take it further and to give it the best possible chance on the international stage, we need an additional $10,000.

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