THE ROMANCE OF HINE-MOA

First reel only.

This feature film was shot in 1925 at various locations around Lake Rotorua and on White Island by the Danish director Gustav Pauli for the British company Sphere Films Ltd. It tells the story of the romance between the beautiful puhiwahine ‘Hine-moa’ (Hinemoa) and the young chief Tutanekai who lived on Mokoia island in the middle of Lake Rotorua.

The legend had already been filmed twice before; by Gaston Méliès (brother of Georges) in 1912 (a short released [abroad only] in 1913) and by George Tarr in 1914. (Tarr’s version is considered to be New Zealand’s first feature film.)

In London, on Dec. 16, 1926, NZ Prime Minister Gordon Coates attended the trade screening by the Gaumont distribution company of THE ROMANCE OF HINE-MOA. It was released worldwide in 1927. The Bioscope declared “it should be welcomed with pride throughout the British Empire.”

This only surviving reel was discovered in 1981 - in the garden shed of Pauli’s old home outside London.