Stars of the new series, “Phunk Nation” will be the world champion kiwi urban dance group, “Prestige”
Creators of the show, Ondrej Havas and Lisa Morrison, Auckland based television producers, say members of Prestige and a 7-person film crew will be in the area for 3 to 5 days “depending on a few factors such as scheduling and weather”
Prestige will travel New Zealand - from Kaitaia to Bluff - in search of the “Phunk” in the heartland of the country
Ondrej Havas, says the series will be directly aimed at a young, multi-cultural New Zealand audience.
“These guys are a fantastic mix of talent. They also represent the growing multi-cultural nature of New Zealand’s under 30 population,” he said.
People and places of the Far North will be the subject of one of 13 shows in the series, which will be screened first on Maori television in the latter half of 2009.
Prestige is a home-grown group of talented young men of Maori, Polynesian, European, Cambodian, Taiwanese, Samoan and Filipino descent.
“Phunk Nation” will be their new 13 part TV series to screen in a prime time slot on Maori Television in 2009.
Maori Television and NZ On Air have backed the show “The intention is to make documentary TV and story telling relevant for mainstream Kiwis,” said Ondrej. Maori Television has positively responded to the idea of making the show available to other channels.
“The show will be a celebration of all that rural New Zealand is, through the eyes of a group of young urban men who have travelled the world with Hip Hop but never seen their own back yard,” says Director, Lisa Morrison. ‘Phunk Nation’ will present a strong sense of community values and showcase the talent that the lesser-known regions of NZ have on offer.
Filming will start early in the New Year. Ondrej Havas and Lisa Morrison are both excited at the prospect of being able to bring a positive entertaining half hour of television to kiwi’s screens “especially considering we will be getting the rare opportunity to actually meet our audience face to face as we travel,” says Lisa.
“We have a good record of producing youth television. Henderson to Hollywood is an excellent example of this,” says Ondrej. “People are now presenting ideas to us so we expect to grow this form of production and hopefully see our shows screened overseas.”
The new multi-cultural faces of New Zealand
The young men of Prestige began dancing in a garage in South Auckland when they were still in high school back in 2002.
Some of the challenges they faced reaching adulthood were difficult but their positive friendships and the fact that “they had each other’s backs” has helped to land them firmly on their feet on the world stage.
Often described as “New Zealand’s All Blacks of dance,” Prestige won the 2007 and 2008 New Zealand Hip Hop championships. They won the European World Hip Hop championship in Serbia, competing against 55 countries and took second place in the World Hip Hop championships in Los Angeles, the home of Hip Hop.
“Prestige is the perfect cast for this show,” said Lisa Morrison. “They have a genuine love and care for their contemporaries and have been involved in their community teaching kids to dance for quite some time. It will be a pleasure to introduce them to the rest of New Zealand.”
