GFC FILMS, in association with the New Zealand Film Commission, present
"DAWN RAID"
The rise, fall and spiritual rebirth of the most iconic and influential music label in Pacific history, Dawn Raid Entertainment
NZ TO NYC. THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE MUSIC THAT INSPIRED A GENERATION
DAWN RAID is the story of two Manukau Polytechnic students, Andy Murnane and Tanielu Leaosavai'i (aka Brotha D) who turned a bootleg t-shirt business and Hip-Hop night at a local bar in Otara into the influential Dawn Raid Entertainment empire. From humble beginnings to fame and fortune, Andy, Brotha D and the Dawn Raid artists gave voice to a disenfranchised Pacific community, for which the violence of the dawn raids, twenty years previously, was still raw.
But the bravado and contempt for the status quo that drove Andy and Brotha D to the top, was also the unravelling of their empire. Unpaid tax debts, rifts between artists, and a feeling of betrayal and failure underpinned the downfall of Dawn Raid Entertainment, though not before they had created an immeasurable musical legacy that would pave the way for future New Zealand artists to reach international audiences.
In 1996 two Manukau Polytechnic students, Andy Murnane and Tanielu Leaosavai'i (aka Brotha D), who occasionally moonlighted as bootleg t-shirt creators, started a Hip-Hop night at the Hunters Inn in Otara. No one wanted to give urban Hip-Hop a platform. Andy and Brother D believed they could do so.
Twenty years before, the Government initiated dawn raids had indiscriminately targeted Polynesian communities in South Auckland searching for overstayers. In the years following, the New Zealand Polynesian communities seethed with resentment. A generation of artists grew up searching for an outlet. Andy and Brotha D would give it to them. They just didn’t know what their Hip-Hop night at the Hunters Inn would soon unleash.
Giving local artists a long awaited voice, the music nights soon began selling out; the profits flying in. Ambitious, and ever wanting to carve their own path, Andy and Brotha D soon decided to parlay their cash from the illegal t-shirt sales and the Hip Hop night into their own record label – Dawn Raid Entertainment. They would own the music; be the masters of their own fate.
No longer unwanted in their own society, the pair would become influential, respected, rich. Dawn Raid Entertainment spoke to the past of a community and became its path into the future, changing the face of New Zealand music and reaching a global audience. At their peak, the Dawn Raid team would be collaborating with Pitbull and Soulja Boy, see their tracks featured in the Seth Rogan comedy Knocked Up and have gold and platinum albums by the truck load.
But this wasn’t to last. The same bold push against societal prejudice, the rage that drove them to do the impossible, would in the end see them undone. The arrival of music piracy collided with ambitious, and arguably reckless growth ultimately ending in financial disaster. As Andy says in the film “we took our eye off the ball” and the business school dropouts ended up battling the IRD for unpaid tax debts that ended in liquidation.
Rifts developed, artists would rail against the betrayal, and a sense of failure would hang over those who built the Dawn Raid empire. A group of business leaders got together to bail the company out, and “Dawn Raid 2” was born, but now employees in their own company, the new venture never quite managed to top the impressive heights of the first wave of Dawn Raid. But not before they created an immeasurable musical legacy that would pave the way off-shore for future New Zealand artists.
While this is, in part, a story of failure, it is ultimately a positive and uplifting story. DAWN RAID is a narrative of hustle, daring and chutzpah. How some lads from Otara, Auckland changed the music scene in the Pacific. DAWN RAID celebrates the underdog and what can be achieved when the mind is focused on a single-minded goal.
DIRECTOR’S VISION
“The story of Dawn Raid Entertainment is a redemption song about hope, love, flying high, crashing and burning, and legacy. That’s the lyrical version. It’s also a rollicking story about a couple of hustlers from the same downtrodden neighborhood who, armed with a dream, work ethic and a lot of hustle, created a cultural phenomenon and in the process dragged their community into the international spotlight. It was one hell of a ride and one that continues to change lives even today.
Of all the various parts of New Zealand, nowhere has more stigma and conjures up more prejudice and fear than South Auckland. Just say the name ‘South Auckland’ and regardless of whether someone has been there or not, there will be a host of images and impressions, and most of them will probably be negative. The most notorious suburb was Otara, which became the heart of the Pasifika community in Aotearoa following Central Auckland’s gentrification. It was a place of families, churches and communities whose goals were the same as everyone else in New Zealand, to build a good life for themselves and their children.
Not that you’d think so if you were to see the news coverage. Even when positive initiatives occurred such as the famous Otara Markets, coverage would focus on the gang who were tasked with keeping the car park safe. New Zealanders seemed happy to believe the negativity.
In 1973, one of the great wrongs in New Zealand history occurred. Government-initiated immigration raids of dubious purpose and morality began, targeting the large South Auckland Samoan community. The ‘dawn raids’ as they came to be known, led to the disenfranchisement of a generation of Pasifika children from society, creating a burning sense of anger and displacement. It was this rage, this determination to push back, that would ultimately feed one of the greatest stories of cultural revival this nation had ever seen; the story of Dawn Raid Entertainment, the most successful Polynesian record label in the world.
Our film tells the story of Brotha D and Andy Murnane. Two hustlers from South Auckland who decided to chart their own destiny. It’s a tale of achievement, community and cultural empowerment, and all of the glamour and glitz that comes with success in the global recording industry. It is also a narrative of failure, of crushing defeat and devastating loss. But most of all, it is a story of rebirth. Of a culture, a people, an art form. And of the legacy that rebirth has left behind.
This is the Dawn Raid story. And what a story it is.”
Oscar Kightley, 2020
KEY CONTRIBUTORS
ANDY MURNANE has over two decades experience in the music industry as the CEO and co-founder of New Zealand’s highest selling indie label Dawn Raid Entertainment. Andy was also responsible for co-founding Frequency Media Group (sub-labels VP Records, Dirty Records, YGB Records, Samples ‘N’seconds Records and Dawn Raid Catalogue), and has signed and worked with many local and international stars including Savage, Aaradhna, Akon, David Dallas, Gotye, Home Brew, Katchafire, P-Money, Etana, Common, SWIDT and more. Andy’s leadership locally has been recognised with over 100 Million streams, 40 + Gold & Platinum Records, including ten #1’s and 15 VNZMA Tuis. In 2013, Andy was awarded the Music Managers Forum (MMF NZ) New Zealand manager of the year award. Andy lives in Auckland with his wife and two sons.
TANIELU LEAOSAVAI’I (BROTHA D) co-founded Dawn Raid Entertainment with Andy Murnane in 1999, after meeting each other at a business management school. Better-known in the music industry and entertainment world as ‘Brotha D’, he has served his community and the streets of South Auckland since the 1980’s, as a founding member of the BOO YAA Tribe NZ in 1989, president of the Manukau City Islanders (American Football League), and member of the Fuemana family backed Urban Pacific Records group, ‘The Lost Tribe’. Starting his musical journey as a youth in his family’s Samoan church band, Brotha D went on to discover and produce the highest selling Polynesian artist of all time, Savage, along with Aaradhna, Katchafire, Adeaze and SWISS to name a few. Racking up sales in excess of 500 Million streams, 40 + Gold & Platinum hit records, including USA RIAA Double Platinum (2 Million), 15+ VNZMA / Tui’s, and the first label in NZ history to have 10 consecutive top 10 hit singles, including over 10 #1 Records. In 2015, Brotha D shifted his focus, to again serve his community and began working directly with at risk youth in South Auckland. He formed his own company ‘40 Days Youth Service’s’ to help mentors and strengthen youth within the community through a partnership with Oranga Tamariki, the government ministry for children. Brotha D runs his own music studio in South Auckland, and continues to executive producer records regularly. Brotha D marks his 50th birthday in 2020, and still lives in South Auckland with his wife and two children.
ABOUT THE CREW
OSCAR KIGHTLEY (Director and Writer) has worked in the Kiwi entertainment industry for over twenty five years, acting on the stage and screen, as well presenting, writing and directing. On the stage he’s performed in productions including Fresh off the Boat, Niu Sila, Dawn Raids and the comedy group Naked Samoans, who’s debut 1998 tour sold-out nationwide. The group went on to create the animated show, bro’Town, which earned Kightley a joint Best Comedy Script award at the 2005 NZ Screen Awards and 2006 Air NZ Screen Awards. Kightley wrote and starred in Sione’s Wedding, which quickly became an iconic example of Kiwi cinema; leading to the sequel six years later, Sione’s 2 - Unfinished Business.
His other film and television credits include roles in Hunt for the Wilderpeople, The Breaker Upperers, Moana, Harry, Aroha Bridge and Educators. He has directed the documentaries All of Nothing: All Blacks, Class Act and Ladi6: Return to Africa, and the TV comedy series Supercity. Kightley features in Taika Waitit’s upcoming film Next Goal Wins. His first short film Tom’s Dairy was nominated for Best Short Film and Best Script - Short Film at the 2013 Rialto NZ Film Awards, and won Best Short at the 2014 Belize International Film Festival. Kightley has received a Laureate Award from the Arts Foundation of New Zealand, a Senior Pacific Award at the Arts Pasifika Awards, and is honored with a New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to television and theater.
MATTHEW METCALFE (Writer and Producer) has worked for over twenty years in the film and television industry. He has produced a number of films through his own production company GFC Films, including McLaren, Born Racer, Beyond The Edge, Dean Spanley, Love Birds and The Dead Lands, which has since been adapted into a television show of the same name.
Metcalfe has had multiple films shown at the Toronto International Film Festival, these include, Dean Spanley, Beyond The Edge, Giselle, The Dead Lands and 25 April. Metcalfe won Independent Producer of the Year at the 2013 SPADA Screen Industry Awards, and received a Tui Award at the 2002 NZ Music Awards for producing the iconic music video Fade Away by Che Fu.
LEELA MENON (Producer) was a lawyer for thirteen years, before deciding in 2008 to focus on her passion for film. She joined production company Flying Fish as a commercials producer in 2010. During this time, she began her collaboration with Brown on the feature film Orphans and Kingdoms and produced several award winning short films. Menon moved to Metcalfe’s GFC Films in 2016, where she has worked on several documentary feature films including Wayne, Born Racer and We Need to Talk About A.I., and The Dead Lands television series. She is currently a producer on feature documentaries Dawn Raid and Mothers of the Revolution with Metcalfe, and on various productions with Fraser Brown including feature film Guilt, documentary Stylebender and series Juran. Menon is a founding member of the Pan-Asian Screen Collective.
FRED RENATA (Director of Photography) has worked on a number of documentaries, feature films, music videos and commercials. As a cinematographer, he has worked on Mt Zion, How Bizarre, The Story of an Otara Millionaire, Kawa, 800 Words, Poi E: The Story of Our Song, Maria and Herbs - Songs of Freedom. In 2003, Renata won a NZ Television Award for Best Camera in a Drama series for Street Legal.
TIM WOODHOUSE (Editor/Writer) has worked on some of the most celebrated documentaries to grace the big screen in Australasia. In 2005, he won an NZ Screen Award for Best Achievement in Editing and DIrecting for Haunting Douglas. His other work includes The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls, Beyond the Edge, 25 April, Finding Mercy, McLaren and Wayne. He has been nominated for multiple films across Australasia’s awards ceremonies, including the Qantas Television Awards, The Australian Screen Editors Guild Awards, The NZ Film Awards and the NZ Television Awards.
JAMES BROWN (Editor) has been working in documentary filmmaking for fifteen years. He has worked with many of New Zealand’s top directors, with his film credits, including Brother Number One, McLaren, Wayne, Capital In the 21st Century and We Need To Talk About A.I. Brown won Best Documentary at the Idyllwild Cinema Fest for his film Red, White and Blue: Odyssey, which was acquired by Netflix. His documentary on teen rugby players from Los Angeles, Red, White, Black & Blue: Odyssey, was nominated for a handful of awards at festivals around the world, winning the Rising Star Award at the Canada International Film Festival and Best Documentary Film Editing at the Amsterdam Film Festival. He won the Documentary Editing Moa (NZ Film & TV Award) in 2013 for He Toki Huna: New Zealand in Afghanistan.
CAST
Judd Apatow
John Barnett
Kirk Harding
Adam Holt
Danny “Brotha D” Leaoasavai’i
Malo “Scribe” Luafutu
Taupe “Alphrisk” Maoate
Andy Murnane
Mike Murnane
Che “Che Fu” Ness
Aaradhna Jayantilal Patel
David “Devolo” Punuani
Mark Kolani “Mareko” Sagapolutele
Demetrius “Savage” Savelio
Feagaigafou "Nainz" Tupa'i
Logovi'i "Viiz" Tupa'i
Peter “P Money” Wadams
Vitaly Zolotarev
CREW
Director - Oscar Kightley
Producers - Matthew Metcalfe, Leela Menon
Executive Producer - Fraser Brown
Written by - Matthew Metcalfe, Tim Woodhouse
Director of Photography - Fred Renata
Editors - Tim Woodhouse, James Brown
Composer - Lachlan Anderson
Research - Phoebe Shum
Sound Design - Bruno Barrett-Garnier
Sound Mix - Tom Miskin
Animation - Maka Makatoa
Titles & Graphics - James Brown
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