Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu’s electric debut is a rallying cry for girls to stick together across the various divides that people use to disempower them.
New Zealand in the 1950s was not an especially friendly place for outcasts, especially for those who also happened to be young, queer, or Māori women. When teenage Nellie (Erana James) and Daisy (Manaia Hall) are rounded up on the city streets, they are sent to the School for Incorrigible and Delinquent Girls under the care of a devout matron (Rima Te Wiata). There, they meet Lou (Nathalie Morris), a wealthy Pākehā girl whose parents sent her to the school to curtail her wayward behaviour.
At its heart We Were Dangerous is about hope, girlhood, and a celebration of female friendships. It’s a film about our power and having autonomy over our own bodies. Layered underneath this, we also examine the impacts of colonisation on young women and our indigenous Aotearoa New Zealand communities.
