WORLD OF TAIKA FORUM

Sorry, I meant to continue the story in the opening post, but run out of time.

I met Taika four years after starting the WOT website. Jemaine and him came to London for the UK premiere of What We Do in the Shadows at Film4 Summer Screen at Somerset House in London on 20th August 2014.

I don't usually remember dates, but I documented the event and posted some stuff on YouTube and Soundcloud so I've just popped in there and checked.

My friends and I managed to get tickets to a limited space event before the main screening. It was called "Behind The Screen: Shadowmen Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement in Conversation". I've uploaded the audio here: https://soundcloud.com/world-of-taika/film4-summer-screen-behind-the

We came a bit earlier, just in case they were already around so we could stalk them, but they were successfully hiding somewhere in the building giving the interviews and what not and only just before the event they came down when we were already waiting in the hall to enter the room for the event.

I remember sitting on a couch and spotting Taika as he was taking a peek into the hall and noticing me and for a moment I had the feeling he recognized me. We had never met before but we exchanged a few messages on fb, so I was wondering if he remembered me from my profile picture. My first thought was, "wow, are all Kiwis so tall?". I had already met Jemaine and Bret and remembered how surprised I was how big Bret was and Sam and Luke from The Phoenix Foundation are tall guys as well.

I was with three friends. Two of them had already met Taika when he was in London showing BOY a few years back. I still lived in Poland back then and couldn't join them. After the Conversation, we approached Taika together and he immediately remembered my friends, hugged them and looked happy to see them and then said something like "I'm happy to meet you, Sylwia" and hugged me as well. So sweet! Yep, he knew me already. And because it was his birthday that month, I gave him a present, a T-shirt. I've never seen him wearing it, though, lol.


before one more hug


The reason why I bought him this is that when he was campaigning to raise money to release BOY in the USA, he called his backers Smurfs, so he was Papa Smurf and Threadless just released this T-shirt. The tattoos simply sold it.

The organizers were pushing us out and it was time for them to come out and introduce the film. Us and the rest of the public came out to the courtyard and found some space to sit and soon after the 'show' began.

Here is their introduction of the movie,


And here is a Q&A after the screening,


My life as a fan was complete. It was great to be in the same room as Taika, have a word with him. Sure, I was nervous then, but he was cool and easy-going, nice and polite. I used to be a Jemainiac, but that night Taika completely won me over. There were moments when I was getting annoyed at Jemaine that he didn't let Taika say anything, but he was trying to outshine and be funnier than him. You can have your own opinion when you listen to the Conversation. I wish Taika said more, but he was too polite to interrupt or block the second guest and his friend.