Culture

Directed by Ian Mune, (5/5).

Billy T – Te Movie is awesome. Ian Mune does a wonderful job of exploring Billy T James as an icon and most importantly, as a person. It was really interesting to watch the difference between his on-stage and off-stage personae develop. A New Zealand documentary, the film is really easy to watch, and has some wicked remastered footage. Billy T was really funny. He’s a rascal! Totally un-PC, he was the personification of cheeky New Zealand humour. Mune takes this element of Billy T. James’ performance and integrates it into the film and the whole thing has a slightly offbeat feel to it.
Billy T – Te Movie achieved the perfect balance between James’ personal life and his professional career. The remastered footage of his skits, as well as some of the old interviews with him, are brilliant. The cartoons that demonstrate the high points and low points of James’ life are a definite highlight – they hit the sweet spot of giving the viewer a chance to relax rather than watching people for 89 minutes.
The quality of the film is amazing, The shots are well composed, the focusing of the camera is fantastic, and the way each interviewee is placed (and what with) explains so much more than the two line caption that accompanies them. It is wonderfully artistic in its creation.
Watching the film, it became really apparent how much James has influenced our culture. There are parts of the film where you could very easily see the link between performers like The Naked Samoans, Taika Watiti, and Billy T. As a Maori comedian, Billy T was a big player in normalising race. By using his humor to draw attention to race and racism, he altered the way people conceived of it. He effectively relaxed the public about the issue of skin colour by joking about it, and I think that it is something we probably need to revisit now to gain perspective.
I thoroughly enjoyed this film – so much so it’s almost obscene. I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone. It’s easily watchable, it’s really funny and pretty moving as well. I triple dare you to go – it’ll be good fun I promise!