North Shore Times (New Zealand)
Short Shorts winners are crowned at awards show
A viking-love story, a campsite conversation with Tane and a mystery case of a shore-dwelling kelpie. Not to forget addressing the question: ‘‘Did children eat Weetbix for breakfast 100 years ago?’’
These were just some of the stories that made it to the finals of Short Shorts, a film contest for school children in the North Shore’s Kaipatiki area.
Short Shorts’ return for 2016 came with the theme Kaipatiki Mysteries: Fact or Fiction, and the winners were announced at a special screening and awards ceremony at Bridgeway Theatre, August 22.
Independent judge Orlando Stewart says he had a hard job picking the winners.
‘‘I make films for a living and to see kids making films like this, it’s gratifying and also slightly scary,’’ Stewart says.
‘‘I might be out of a job soon.’’ Stewart crowned Takapuna Normal Intermediate School students Quinn Sugrue, 12, and Maxwell ‘‘Max’’ Houston, 12, as the primary school category winners for their film: Kelpie’s Nest.
He described the film as a bit like watching ‘‘an early Peter Jackson’’ movie.
‘‘Funny, imaginative, with that tinge of outrageousness that we love,’’ he says.
Quinn and Max say they ‘‘just ran with the myth of the Kelpie idea’’ for their film.
The two best mates played the entire ensemble cast between just the pair of them, switching between a medley of mad professors, bearded Scottish pirates and inquisitive historians.
The Wairau Valley Special School cast secured the secondary school top spot for their witty depiction of what happens beyond the gates of the Chelsea Sugar Factory.
Steward described the film as ‘‘magnificent’’.
Vouchers for Sony filmmaking equipment were handed to both the winning film-makers and their schools, in amounts of $500 and $1000.
Short Shorts was conceived by the Kaipatiki Public Arts Trust and funded by the Kaipatiki Local Board.
Board member Lindsay Waugh says she encourages these early ‘‘creative catalysts’’.
It is events like tonight that will have long-term effects on the participants, Waugh says.
‘‘In the future, the students will remember that it was this night, which was the start of their creative career.’’