The new documentary How Far is Heaven, which premiered at the Auckland International Film Festival, is a glimpse into the tiny settlement of Jerusalem, halfway between Whanganui and Raetihi on the banks of the Whanganui River.
How Far Is Heaven
Directors: Christopher Pryor and Miriam Smith
Release date: August 25
The new documentary How Far is Heaven, which premiered at the Auckland International Film Festival, is a glimpse into the world of the tiny settlement of Jerusalem, halfway between Whanganui and Raetihi on the banks of the Whanganui River.
It is a charming film recording the day-to-day life of some of the inhabitants with all their naivety, sophistication, concerns and hopes.
Jerusalem was made famous when poet James K Baxter settled there for a couple of years in the 1970s.
However, it was earlier the birthplace of the Sisters of Compassion, who, under the guidance of Mother Suzanne Aubert, were invited by there by local Maori in 1883.
They established a convent, an orphanage and a school, and there has been a continuous presence of sisters in the local community ever since.
They have been given the status of tangata whenua and Mother Aubert said they should never forget that a Maori village was the cradle of the order.
The documentary was made over two years by Miriam Smith and Christopher Pryor, who spent months at a time at the settlement shooting several hundred hours of film.
Ms Smith had originally gone to Jerusalem as a child when her parents visited James K Baxter’s grave.
“I also met the sisters and that memory lived on in my mind. Then I visited when I was at university, staying for weekends, getting to know the sisters a bit and discovering what a remarkable place it was.
“Eventually, I asked Sister Sue in 2007 if she was open to having a documentary made, and she agreed. The next year Chris and I went down with a camera and began filming.”
Mr Pryor, who had worked as a cameraman on several programmes for Maori TV, was interested in the idea and the project evolved from there, with the aim of recording the relationship between the sisters and the locals.
“The sisters have a unique relationship with the local community which goes back over 120 years,” he says. “It’s a sort of spiritual connection established with Mother Aubert and passed down through the family of the sisters.”
Rather than explore the inter-relationships between all the community and the sisters – described as a complex place filled with light and dark – they concentrated instead on the children at the local school where Sister Margaret Mary works as a volunteer.
Much of the film concentrates on DJ, a 10-year-old boy who is just starting to make sense of the world, and Chevy, who is worldly wise at the age of 13.
“There was also the fact that they were not going to be around much longer with the ageing of the order,” Mr Pryor says. “In fact, the three sisters who were there during filming are no longer there.”
Through Margaret Mary’s teaching and the "interviews”, where the off-screen filmmaker prompts the children for comments, we gain an understanding of the connections between adults and the youngsters.
And also between the sisters and the rest of the community, and the way Maori spirituality in terms of local taniwha have a real presence in the community's daily life.
“Margaret Mary has talked of their role as accompanying and providing compassion in her relationships with the people in the community," he says.
“We filmed a lot of what happened in the village but focused on the children and the sisters, because the they have always had a teaching relationship with the area.
"But also you see the world through the eyes of kids like DJ and Chevy and it’s the children who have more opportunities for change and growth.”
The film is elegantly structured in four sections set around the seasons.
“We had conceived it like that,” Ms Smith says, “but then forgot. It was only when we were at the editing stage that it became useful.
"Life is very much a part of nature there, so what you see of the seasons is a reflection of life and also what happened during the course of our stay.
“The locals had range of responses when we showed them the film. For the most part, they thought it was being really truthful – a gentle handling of the truth.
“Some things they were uncomfortable about, such as Chevy, who was very open about some of the things she said about her life when she was 13, two years before.
“Another area was swearing,” says Mr Pryor. “The parents thought they would be judged on the behaviour of their children. They didn’t like that there was so much of it, but because it was so much a part of the children’s dialogue we couldn’t really cut it out.”
The film presents a community which at times seems alien and at others like a paradise.
“We certainly felt it was a distinct community,” Ms Smith says. “I think all rural places are quite different, although probably Jerusalem is not much different from somewhere up north or on the East Cape, apart from the presence of the sisters.”
Mr Pryor believes the film will make people aware of the differences which exist between New Zealand communities.
“It is very different from the urban experience and I would hope that audiences, having seen the film, would think a bit more about rural lives before they judge, particularly around issues of bi-culturalism.
“I realised how ignorant I have been of this culture I have grown up alongside. Having seen that there is another cultural map of the country, I think I respect it as a treasure that I value.”
