DEGANZ Watch List: Addressing Aotearoa’s Hard Conversations

The projects in this week’s DEGANZ Watch List address some of Aotearoa’s hard conversations, including patriarchy and systemic racism.

DEGANZ member Stella Reid directed the punk rock band Dick Move’s latest music video, titled F*ck It. Edited by fellow member Sam Small, the music video is a two-minute single take following the lead singer through the morning after a raging party. The song screams about the ever-impressing presence of misogyny, most poignantly with the line, “All of me belongs to me / My thighs, my voice, my tits / But still I have to walk home / With my keys clenched in my fist”.

Meanwhile, documentary The Stolen Children of Aotearoa,  edited by DEGANZ board president Ben Powdrell and fellow member Trinity Ludlow-Hudson, unearths the chilling history of the systemic abuse of an estimated 250,000 children, many of whom were Māori, between 1950-2019. Led by veteran journalist Aaron Smale, the film investigates the origins of this mass injustice, tracing back to Aotearoa’s colonisation, which stripped Māori of their language, culture, and land.

F*ck It

Music Video

Director: Stella Reid

Editor: Sam Small

Check out the music video for Dick Move’s latest single, F*ck It.

 

The Stolen Children of Aotearoa

Documentary

Editors: Ben Powdrell and Trinity Ludlow-Hudson

Confronting the painful truth of this forgotten chapter in our history, survivors from New Zealand’s state care system speak out about their stolen childhoods and the abuse they endured after being separated from their families.

The film premiered at Māoriland Film Festival in March 2025, and is now available to stream on TVNZ+.

 

Last updated on 6 August 2025