Festival Season:
July 2024
Mauri
Directors:
Writers:
Zaya Benazzo, Maurizio Benazzo
Producers:
Atarangi Murupaenga, Donna Kerridge, Maurizio Benazzo, Zaya Benazzo, Finley MacNeil
Run Time:
1:10:48
Awarded for the following Category(s):
Awarded Category(s)
Mauri (life principle, life force, vital essence inherent in all living things)
The film is an intimate, visually stunning testament to a land and a people who have survived removal, exploitation and colonization — and to the healing ways that are part of the Māori ancestral knowledge. It juxtaposes the enduring trauma of colonialism with the resilience offered through Māori ancestral healing traditions.
Mauri explores intergenerational trauma and the loss of indigenous identity experienced by the native people of Aotearoa (New Zealand). It also contrasts Māori traditional healing practices, which provide a holistic approach to well-being, with Western therapeutic trauma-healing methods, disconnected from the indigenous worldviews and relationships.
The viewer can feel the healing radiating through as we journey into the world of Māori healers and discover the specific way in which each of them works. Altogether, Mauri is a fascinating portrayal of the loss of cultural heritage and the healing available through the return to ancestral ways.
Submitter Statement
Zaya Benazzo is a filmmaker from Bulgaria with degrees in engineering, environmental science, and film. For many years, she worked as an environmental activist in Holland and Bulgaria, and later produced and directed several award-winning documentaries in Europe and the United States.
Maurizio Benazzo grew up in Italy, and in 1984 came to the United States on a ninety-eight-year-old sailing boat. He started working as an actor, model, and filmmaker, but his thirst for knowledge was only satisfied in 2001 upon encountering I Am That, the seminal work by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, while he was in India shooting the award-winning documentary Short Cut to Nirvana.
Maurizio and Zaya merged their lifelong passions for science and mysticism when they met in 2007, and their first project together was filming the documentary Rays of the Absolute on the life and teachings of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj. This project sparked their next level of creation and collaboration: SAND, a global community inspired by the timeless wisdom traditions, informed by modern science, and grounded in direct experience. In 2018 they met Gabor Mate and decided to make a film about him which led to the highly acclaimed “The Wisdom Of Trauma”
They live, work and play on the unceded ancestral lands of the Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo, in Sebastopol, California.
Key Cast
Tohe Ashby
Atarangi Murupaenga
Donna Kerridge
Other Credits
Composer: Jerome Puoro