MASTERCLASS with Taratoa Stappard

Saturday, Sep 26th @ 1:30 pm

Transitioning from Short Films to Your First Feature

Paramount Theatre

503 Victoria Street
Kamloops, BC Canada + Google Map
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Transitioning from Short Films to Your First Feature: Making the jump from short films to a first feature is one of the toughest transitions in cinema. In this masterclass, writer-director Taratoa Stappard (Mārama) breaks down how he navigated that shift — from expanding a short concept into a full-length script to securing funding, managing scale, and directing his debut feature.

His feature debut, Mārama (a Maori Gothic horror film set in Victorian England), directly grew out of his earlier short film, Taumanu.

● About Taratoa Stappard:
Taratoa Stappard was born in Hawera, Aotearoa New Zealand. His mother is Māori (Ngāti Toa, Ngāti Raukawa me Ngāti Tuwharetoa) and his father was English. Taratoa’s debut feature film, MĀRAMA, received development support in the imagineNATIVE Indigenous Screenwriting Intensive, the Toronto IFF Writers’ Studio, the Black List New Zealand Project, the Zurich IFF Academy and the Berlinale Co-Production Market.

His six previous short films have all been acquired for broadcast on BBC, Film4, SVT and Canal+ and have screened in festivals including Angers, Aspen, Busan, BFI London, Edinburgh and Māoriland.

Paramount Theatre

503 Victoria Street
Kamloops, BC Canada + Google Map