Kingi's Story

Using Kingi's own memories, this film shows how the problems in his life led him into ineveitable conflict with the law.

It is not until he is in the solitary confinement of a police cell that Kingi starts to think about his life. His relationship with his mother and his father, his stepmother, his schoolmates and his girlfriend, his teachers and a welfare officer, are all recollected, Kingi also remembers his failures at school, his early delinquency, and his ultimate arrest by a patrolling policeman.

The screenplay is based on the ideas, writings and real life experiences of a group of New Zealand teenagers, predominantly Māori, while they were under the supervision of the Department of Social Welfare. it is their personal and direct response to the question: why did they become wards of the State?