He Hekenga Tūhura
2019 · 8m · New Zealand
Directed by Allan George
Genres: biography, documentary, historical
Tones: contemplative, mythic, tender
In his final interview, master navigator Sir Hector Busby reflects on reviving Māori celestial navigation and waka building.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
It's a reverential doc about an elder, which sounds like every heritage film ever made—but there's something quietly subversive about George letting Busby's voice BE the navigation, refusing to impose mythology where the man's lived knowledge already is the myth.
A masterclass in restraint and lineage: George positions this within the documentary tradition of elder testimony while honoring the genealogy of Māori wayfinding itself, each frame a deliberate argument about what deserves to be preserved and how.
The gamble here is letting an 8-minute runtime carry the full weight of a life's work—George commits entirely to Busby's voice and the decision to shoot him against nothing but ocean and sky, trusting that choice alone to do the ceremonial work.