‘The need for community’: directors Ainsley Gardiner and Briar Grace-Smith on the beauty of ‘Cousins’

Their astounding adaptation of Patricia Grace’s much-loved novel about powerful Māori women finding their way in the world is a must-see.

Source: Vendetta Films

New Zealand author and proud First Nations woman Patricia Grace’s beloved novel Cousins follows the intertwining but divergent stories of three Māori women. Makareta is raised to lead her tribe, but has other ideas. Missy is the overlooked workhorse who steps up. Mata, stolen from her family, is determined to find her way home.

First published in 1992, it glimmers with emotional depth and complexity. The sort of novel to get lost in, it spoke to co-directors Ainsley Gardiner and Briar Grace-Smith on different levels.

“When I read Cousins in my twenties, it was the first time I’d read a book that was all about Māori women,” Gardiner says, resonating with Mata’s dislocation. “I was, and still am, somewhat disconnected from my culture and language, and I was raised pretty middle class, so it resonated with me really deeply, that sense of longing for identity.”

Long-time friend and collaborator Grace-Smith saw more of herself in Missy’s journey. “It’s about the need for community, connection and family,” she says. Adapting the novel had long been a passion project of their late friend and mentor Mereta Mita. Mita worked with the novelist to try and get the project up until her death in 2010. Indeed, Mita is honoured in the credits alongside fellow pioneering Māori women Irihapeti Ramsden and Nancy Brunning.

“The reasons she was unable to are grossly unfair,” Gardiner suggests. “It was just the culture and the politics of the time, and the funding bodies not understanding or having an interest in Indigenous storytelling. So that was a massive driving force for us to get the film made.”

Young Mata, Makareta and Missy: the film follows the cousins for 40-plus years. Source: Vendetta Films

When Gardiner and Grace-Smith committed to it, with the latter penning the screenplay, it wasn’t their intention to co-direct. “The step into directing came pretty late in the piece,” Gardiner says. “We had to do quite a big process of working out, not so much how we would work together, because we’ve got a long history together and a lot of respect for each other. It was more about the essence of how we could serve the project. And we realised that we were not only capable, but more capable than most because of how well we knew the story.”

Their touchstones within the novel became an elegant solution, Gardiner adds. “For me it was about Mata and her loss of connection. For Briar it was Missy and her community, and so we took the lead in those respective parts, but we were always side by side.”

The story spans 40-plus years from the aftermath of WWII on, necessitating the casting of multiple actors in each key role, including Hunt for the Wilderpeople and Thor: Ragnarok star Rachel House as the eldest, Missy. Grace-Smith also stepped into the role of the eldest Makareta when the late Nancy Brunning became too unwell to film. A sad loss, Grace-Smith recalls emitting a heavy sigh, settling on trying out for the role herself. “I was a very reluctant actor.”

Apparently, she had to audition four times, which seems quite remarkable given she was co-director. This point sets them both off in hilarious laughter. “It’s funny, because I didn’t really remember this until we were doing Q&As,” Grace-Smith says. “But I really did, and as I saw the other women auditioning, I became very competitive.”

Gardiner blushes at the recollection. “I was reflecting on that and thinking, ‘Why the hell did I do that?’ And that was actually because of my own uncertainty about a couple of things. Briar and I had worked so hard to get to a point of how we would work as co-directors, and this was just another thing in the mix.”

It also necessitated re-casting two of the actors playing the cousins, “Because they didn’t quite fit anymore with Briar,” Gardiner adds. “That was the other sticking point. But, in the end, a week out, we swapped those women around. So that was a big, big change, too.”

Briar Grace-Smith as Makareta. Source: Vendetta Films

It was, of course, an extra challenge for Grace-Smith. “It’s impossible [to direct yourself], I learned, because you get so insular when you’re in character that it’s kind of impossible to view yourself from outside. So that’s the other bonus of having a partner there.”

They had intended for the cinematographer role to be shared too, but another unexpected event saw the position fall solely to emerging talent Ray Edwards. “He’s a young Māori hotshot and he had a young male energy that created some interesting dynamics,” Gardiner notes wryly. “Our second DOP, Murray Lui, who is a Torres Strait Islander from Australia, had to go home because his dad got sick.”

Edwards has a remarkable eye. “Most directors are preoccupied with how they want things to look, but we didn’t have to worry about that at all,” Gardiner adds. “We just concentrated on the intimacy of relationships. I think it’s a massive mistake that emerging directors make, not to understand that the only real job is to deal with actors. Everybody else has got everything else covered. I’m not really into that auteur theory. We work really hard to embody collaborative community filmmaking. So it’s not mine and Briar’s film. It’s a film that belongs to this whole community.”

The film was embraced wholeheartedly when released in New Zealand earlier this year. Gardiner notes it’s been a bumper year for homegrown fare, with blockbusters missing in action. “It’s just such a shame that it takes COVID for us to appreciate what we have.”

She and Grace-Smith travelled to Campbelltown, on the outskirts of Sydney, to present a screening. “It was with a largely Māori, Aboriginal and Pacific Islander audience and it was so well received,” Gardiner says. “Most of the audience stayed for the Q&A, which is always a good indication.”

Grace-Smith was overjoyed at the reception. “It went on for hours,” she says, adding that the increasing profile of First Nations stories globally is brilliant. “The world’s changing. There’s a need to listen to old knowledge stuff, ey?”

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