Hinemoa was a silent film made in New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 by Gaston Méliès

Gaston Méliès

Gaston Méliès was the brother of the more-famous French film director Georges Méliès. He also produced and directed a large number of early films in the United States....

 in 1913

1913 in film

The year 1913 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* The Squaw Man, the first Hollywood feature film, is made.* December 29, Charlie Chaplin signs a contract with Mack Sennett to begin making films at Keystone Studios.* D. W...

. It is probably the first feature film produced in New Zealand, although it is doubtful that it ever screened in the country.

Plot

No copy of Hinemoa survives, but the film would have told the story of the legend of Tutanekai and Hinemoa.

Background

In 1912, the Méliès brothers' company Star Film was in some financial strife, as a result of which Gaston Méliès travelled to the South Pacific in search of fashionably exotic locales, people and stories.

Hinemoa was one of five two-reel films screened in New York in 1913, several other films shot by Méliès on the expedition having failed to survive the tropical humidity.

See also

• Loved by a Maori Chieftainess
• Hinemoa (1914 film)
  Hinemoa (1914 film)
  Hinemoa was an early film produced in New Zealand in 1914. It was claimed to be the first feature film produced in New Zealand, although it should not be confused with a film of the same name shot by Gaston Méliès a year earlier. It was billed as "The first big dramatic work filmed and acted in the...
  
  - New Zealand produced and released film a year later.