Tauranga’s history is being brought to life through a film made by fusing local stories and artificial intelligence.

It’s a collaboration between local support services trust Te Tuinga Whanau and German film company Atara Film, with the purpose of educating children in schools on the region’s history.

Te Tuinga Whanau chief imagination officer Tommy Wilson tells SunLive Reon Tuanau brought the stories to the table along with the trust, and Atara Film founder Robert Morgenstern provided the technology to bring them to the screen.

The result is a 45-minute film named 'Happy Hikoi', which will be sent to all schools in the Western Bay of Plenty area after its premiere today, a move supported by local school principals who want to play the film in schools to educate pupils.

The main storyteller, Reon Tuanau, says the stories involve the “right at the beginning of the cosmos” through to the history of Aotearoa, specifically in Tauranga Moana.

“I’ve been providing the information for Robert, and he puts it into video for people to watch.”

Reon Tuanau, left, with Te Tuinga Whanau chief imagination officer Tommy Wilson. Photo: Taylor Rice/SunLive.

Reon says seeing the stories come to life has been an “amazing experience”.

“We’ve had some really ‘wow’ moments on our journey, especially when we have our tupuna (ancestors) on screen talking.”

During the film, the descendants of those who were involved in the battle of Gate Pā were able to provide voiceovers for their ancestors.

“This is really a slow chronology of the Māori world perspective, through the creation, the environment, the settling of the people, right to where we are now."

The film covers the history of Tauranga, from the creation to where we are today. Image: Supplied.

“There’s stories of resilience, challenges throughout the years, but also happy stories. We don’t want to be stuck in the cauldrons of talking about wars and battles all the time, because there’s some beautiful stories to tell too.

“One of the key things I believe is enabling the teachers, and giving them the confidence to pass on these subjects.”

“There are already frameworks in Tauranga where iwi work with schools, but what we are doing now is providing some content to tell the stories of our region.”

When the film gets to classrooms, Reon says he hopes it “opens the imaginations” of young people.

“I really want it to enable them to tell the story the way they want to tell it. We have tools we can provide alongside this experience, which will help teachers and students decipher what the stories mean in a modern context, through AI and other means young people use these days.”

“A lot of our teachers who are non-Māori are a bit apprehensive about the content we are sharing with them. We are here to let them know it is ok and they can do this.”

Film director Robert founder Robert Morgenstern says everything animated in the film is made using AI.

Everything animated in the film is made using artificial intelligence. Image: Supplied.

“We have fed prompts into different AI generators to create these images. We have used a variety of them, such as ChatGPT, Midjourney, Runway and more. It’s like a wild mix of different services to make as many mistakes as possible to provide insight for the teachers and kids who want to use it themselves.

“We came up with ideas, tested all the apps, saw the different outcomes, and took the best one to go forward.

Robert describes this process as “crazy mad and fun”.

“Everybody is really excited because it’s so fresh and it has been a very organic process. Right up until the very last minute we were changing stories, adding new characters and reanimating.

“This is only the first step. This is not the final product, this is simply a showcase of what can be done. We are hoping it will encourage more people to come forward to work on the project further or share their ideas and insights.”

Thanks to the power of artificial intelligence, Robert says the animation process of the film took "about two months".

"It was very speedy. We've been working on the project as a whole for about eight months now."

Check out some more stills from the film below (supplied photos):