Boy

Taika Waititi tells Kirstin Marcon how his memories of school on the East Coast and his primary teacher mother influenced his smash-hit movie Boy. (Be warned this story gives away some of the plot.)

Boy is the top-grossing New Zealand film of all time, the lightning in a bottle that is both a unique cinematic vision and a commercially successful movie. In June it successfully crossed the Tasman and won the coveted audience award at the Sydney film festival.

Boy gets to the heart of our culture in a way that is recognisable whether you are Māori or Pākehā, middle class, poor or wealthy, whether you grew up waiting for your parents at the pub, or being driven from ballet classes to hockey.

1984. A small rural community called Waihau Bay in the Bay of Plenty is where the central character, 11-year-old Boy, carves out his complex world. It’s a pure slice of New Zealand, from the tiny graveyard to the expensive iceblocks at the shop, the worn-down house where Boy lives, to the concrete steps of the primary school. It’s a realistic portrayal of a country school in the 80s: the tan aesthetic of the teachers; the pointless lino polisher; fantasy exercise book drawings; unspeakably cool girls called Chardonnay.

Actor James Rolleston as Boy with Manihera Rangiuaia and Darcy Ray Flavell-Hudson

For Boy school isn’t about learning, and it certainly isn’t about the teachers, instead playtime is the battleground of half-hearted bullies, and classes are the space where he can spin his wild stories. His absent Dad stars in most of these: he’s the captain of the rugby team; he can dance as good as Michael Jackson. No one believes Boy except himself.

Waititi says that, like Boy, he “draws a lot of inspiration from true and imagined memories”. The film is his second feature film and he wrote, directed, and acted in it, playing the central adult character, Boy’s dad Alamein.

Waititi credits his parents and the environment he comes from with his inspiration to be an artist. Waititi’s mother is a writer as well as a primary teacher, his dad an artist, and lots of his parents’ friends were artists. Waititi began by painting and didn’t consider film-making until he was in his late twenties. “I grew up without any limits creatively,” he says.

Te Aho Aho Eketone-Whity on set with Taika Waititi

Teacher cliché

Waititi says of his own primary school years that his mum often worked as a reliever at his school although she was never his own teacher. “She knew how the system worked and what teachers were looking for. Sometimes she’d read my homework and give me a critique, but she wouldn’t write my shit for me!”

There’s a wonderful moment where the film flirts with the cliché of a teacher inspiring a disadvantaged kid, and then shrugs it off - the teacher is off the clock and goes home without ever explaining the meaning of the word ‘potential’ to Boy.

In spite of having some fun with movie stereotypes, Waititi thinks it’s vital that the arts are taught in primary schools. “Without the arts we are just producing a generation of accountants and business-minded people. There's nothing wrong with making money but the arts include TV, movies, books and even video games. Life without any of these things would be very boring.

“I think one of the most important things to encourage is creative writing. At some point in our lives we are told to stop writing stories and start writing essays. I think that's crap and definitely screws with someone's creativity.”

Waititi says he can’t remember too many of his own primary school teachers. “My memories of early school life are basically hanging out in the playground or trying to find ways to escape the school grounds. It wasn't the teachers, I just had better things to do. I was very interested in reading, writing and art, but primary school was also a good place to meet new people.”

Message to teachers

He has a strong message for teachers. “Keep up the good work and make sure you're passionate about what you teach. There's nothing worse for a kid than watching a teacher who'd rather be somewhere else. I admire teachers greatly and it is one of the more under-appreciated occupations so we all need to support them.

“However, I think there needs to be a major overhaul of teaching standards in New Zealand, education is not about multi-choice questions and regurgitation of information. Learning should be about generating thinking skills, not recall skills.  “Also, we need to understand that every child is different.”

Kids’ humour

Waititi says there were many early versions of the script where Alamein’s journey was different, in some he tried harder to be a good Dad, and in others he left and never came back. The final film strikes a believable balance between the two, and gives us a little hope.

Taika Waititi leads the charge at Waihau Bay

Boy is based on Waititi’s first short film Two Cars, One Night, which is about some kids waiting outside a pub for their parents at night. But both Boy and Two Cars, One Night put the themes of hardship and neglect in the background and focus on the kids’ humour and cleverness, their social hierarchy and their friendships.

In some ways Boy seems like an update on another successful New Zealand film, Once Were Warriors, but with a more positive take. The children have greater control of their destinies. “I would agree with that,” says Waititi. “Boy definitely isn't as harsh a depiction of Māori life and it probably offers more hope. I didn't want this story to be a commentary on Māori society or an attack on how people treat their kids. It is more a portrait of a particular area at a particular time.”

In Boy the adult world does bleed through, we see glimpses of neglect, abuse and crime, but goodness too. Alamein’s great flaw is that he hasn’t grown up. He’s a source of humour and conflict in the film, but still likeable and believable. Waititi says, “I like to think it is a human story, closer to reality in that we see how children cope with these situations, how they make life more bearable.”

If you wanted to take a message from Boy it could be that kids are resilient, intelligent, funny and charming. Waititi says he cast the kids for type and then allowed them to be themselves. In the film the adults who once had these qualities are now damaged by life.

But the film is ultimately hopeful. Waititi says he “wanted to explore the painful comedy of growing up and interpreting the world.” If he could go back in time and tell himself something about life when he was the same age as Boy, he’d tell himself to have more fun, to make sure that learning is fun, and to make the most of the subjects he enjoys.

In the end, school is a small part of Boy’s life. His Dad, his brother and his friends play a role, but it’s Boy himself who becomes the hero of his own life.

In this film at least, the kids are going to be alright.

Comments

[Pauline Smith]

It is great to see the Arts being promoted as important in education. Mahi pai!
Teachers do make a difference and it is encouraginfg to see this portrayed in Taika's comments.
Boy is the BEST movie I have seen in years. I had to go three times!