{"id":486314,"date":"2026-06-20T01:25:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T01:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/486314\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T01:25:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T01:25:09","slug":"unlikely-kin-documentary-rotoruas-mike-jonathan-and-kim-webby-bring-whale-stranding-ritual-to-screen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/486314\/","title":{"rendered":"Unlikely Kin documentary: Rotorua\u2019s Mike Jonathan and Kim Webby bring whale-stranding ritual to screen"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cA lot of the public sometimes get offended by what\u2019s happening … \u201d<\/p>\n

The Haka Boy Films founder said the \u201cancient process\u201d was to render down bones or flesh, which were then buried and \u201ceaten away\u201d over 12 months.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen the group comes back, picks up the bones … and they give them back to the people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whale bone could be used in carvings and as treasures, he said.<\/p>\n

Jonathan said the documentary explored why 30 to 50 people from Te Tai Tokerau [Northland] voluntarily travelled through the night to an area where whales were stranded.<\/p>\n

He said the documentary was inspired when Webby was helping at a stranding as a masseuse.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019d never seen anything like it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jonathan said Webby, as a \u201cpioneer in New Zealand journalism\u201d, became interested in why this was done.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo years later, she brought me on as a director of photography and then she just said, \u2018Look, are you keen to do this together?\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

They worked with RNZ, the New Zealand Film Commission, NZ on Air, and Pacific Islanders in Communications, he said.<\/p>\n

The documentary was mainly filmed in Northland, but also in other places in New Zealand, including Taranaki.<\/p>\n

He said it was a \u201cblessing\u201d to know it was coming to the big screen after six to seven years of work.<\/p>\n

From television to filmmaking <\/p>\n

Jonathan began his career by working for a small Rotorua production company, Cardno Video Productions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was being brought through to film Te Karere … [in] 1995.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s where I cut my teeth and learnt how to shoot and edit and direct, pretty much kind of all aspects of video production and filmmaking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jonathan established Haka Boy Films in 2006.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn between that, we had Hula Haka Productions and our biggest sort of show at that time was Marae DIY.\u201d <\/p>\n

This involved giving 120 marae a makeover during the show\u2019s seasons.<\/p>\n

Hula Haka Productions went into liquidation in 2007.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"RotoruaRotorua filmmaker and Haka Boy Films founder Mike Jonathan. Photo \/ Damien Nikora<\/p>\n

Jonathan\u2019s debut feature Ka Whawhai Tonu \u2013 Struggle Without End brought the story of the 1864 battle of O-R\u0101kau to the screen in 2024<\/a> in a major te reo M\u0101ori production developed alongside iwi.<\/p>\n

He said the feature\u2019s success had been \u201cmonumental\u201d and was \u201cstill making waves today\u201d.<\/p>\n

Jonathan said he enjoyed sharing knowledge and stories through his work.<\/p>\n

\u201cStorytelling\u2019s in our blood as M\u0101ori … from doing an epic period drama like Ka Whawhai Tonu that\u2019s all in te reo M\u0101ori to doing documentary, I\u2019ll tell stories in whatever format.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really riding that wave of making delicious content for the masses.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Doc Edge Festival\u2019s full programme and tickets are available on the festival\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

Megan Wilson<\/a> is a health and general news reporter for the Bay of Plenty Times and the Rotorua Daily Post. She has been a journalist since 2021.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cA lot of the public sometimes get offended by what\u2019s happening … \u201d The Haka Boy Films founder…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":486315,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[1443,95,3021,9539,50605,859,11746,156,5131,31405,16411,12125,243989,1456,409,111,139,69,16083,31124,36202,1327,38715,5419,243992,1361,1961,61,122,24358,243990,26010,243991,1530],"class_list":["post-486314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-about","tag-and","tag-bring","tag-content","tag-creating","tag-documentary","tag-edge","tag-entertainment","tag-festival","tag-filmmaker","tag-jonathan","tag-kim","tag-kin","tag-mike","tag-movies","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-premiere","tag-riding","tag-ritual","tag-rotorua","tag-rotoruas","tag-screen","tag-strandings","tag-that","tag-this","tag-to","tag-unlikely","tag-wave","tag-webby","tag-whale","tag-whalestranding","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}