Hone Tuwhare: The Return Home (2004)

Poet Hone Tuwhare was born in the far north, near Kaikohe, but forced by poverty to leave as a child. 75 years on, Glenn Colquhoun (doctor, poet, Tuwhare fan) wrote a poem in the NZ Listener inviting him back. Hone accepted the invitation and this documentary is a record of his March 2002 Hokianga homecoming, taking in song, readings and plenty of laughs and kai moana. Silver-haired Tuwhare is irresistible, crooning Sinatra, charming school children with bawdy jokes or channelling the fire of his most famous poems.