Nun’s ‘great gift’ inspires short film set at boys’ home
Nelson road policing officer Stef Harris once lost out to Peter Jackson in a film-making competition during his teenage years.
Harris has long been into film and writing, and his latest project is a short film, Sister Josephine, that draws on memories of his own time in a boys’ home when he was about 9 to 10 years old.
The officer, who works six days on and four days off in the Tasman police district, spent his spare time in late January on location in North Canterbury with an Ōtautahi film crew.
“I’m on highway patrol, so we work 10-hour shifts. [We are] based in Nelson, but we drive out as far as Collingwood, Blenheim and down to Murchison, Springs Junction, those places every day.”
During his time off is when Harris delves into his creative side. He said he has always liked telling stories and had written five books in 12 years before getting published.
His first book in print was in 1999 and he’s had two more published since. The most recent was Double Jeopardy, a crime thriller novel set in Boston about a detective named Frank Winter.
“I’m very much a writer, so I like to write books and stories. I’ve sort of fallen into directing films just because it’s just a natural progression,” he said.
“Once you’ve written it, you want to have some control and make it how you imagine it to be.”
Sister Josephine is a drama that tells the story of Maaka, a “frightened” 10-year-old boy who is being bullied at school, and Josephine, a nun who takes it upon herself to teach him to box.
The cast comprises Kiwi actor Alison Bruce alongside five Christchurch boys who are all first-time actors, including Jaxon Barbarich-Campbell, 11, in the role of Maaka.
In a Facebook post describing his inspiration for the project, Harris said the kind
ness he experienced as a child from nuns in a North Island boys’ home was like “sunshine on my back”.
He had never forgotten the day the reallife Sister Josephine singled him out for boxing lessons, describing it as a “great gift”.
Editing has recently finished, and the film will now go into sound and music production, Harris said.
His previous forays into film and directing include The Waimate Conspiracy, an award-winning mockumentary based on
his first novel, and No Petrol, No Diesel!, a comedy.
In 2018, he made a film called Blue Moon that was shot entirely on an iPhone.
Harris hopes Sister Josephine will be a “cathartic experience” for younger audiences and a valuable resource on self-respect, self-confidence and positive values, especially as it deals with school bullying.
The short film comes out early next year, and Harris is looking to enter it into all the film festivals overseas including Venice and Berlin.
Producer Amanda Jenkins said the crew was seeking help with post-production costs through a Boosted crowdfunding campaign, which closes this week and had already surpassed the $10,000 target.
The project also received funding and development support as part of the Kōpere Hou Fresh Shorts programme run by the New Zealand Film Commission in partnership with Script to Screen.