Looking back on Baseball

Filmmaker looks back at life through his camera lens

A debut filmmaker has put his

North Shore childhood community at the heart of his new film.

Baseball was written and directed by Theodore Elliot, and looks back at a time when a child’s whole world is only the size of his neighbourhood.

Elliot says growing up in the North Shore’s Bayswater gave him a great childhood.

So, when he decided to make his first feature film, there was no better place than his hometown.

Elliott says he wanted to describe feelings of being a teenager, from a now adult perspective.

‘‘I always lived on the Shore, but, as you get older, your perspectives change. Baseball is looking back how I felt,’’ Elliot says.

‘‘I always felt there was a sense of almost growing up in a small town environment here. A disconnect between the world and me. As much as I saw stuff on TV, I thought it would be cool to make a movie that reflects how pop culture always seemed so far away from growing up here.’’

Baseball was filmed entirely on the North Shore and stars an ensemble cast of young Kiwi actors.

Scenes of junk-filled houses and deserted streets are harnessed by Elliots’ unique ‘‘abandonedsuburbia’’ aesthetic, as he experiments with unusual camera angles and sound equipment through a series of interconnected vignettes.

Elliot says that, while outwardly the film may seem stereotypically experimental, it’s only the structure that’s unusual.

‘‘It isn’t an art film because it doesn’t just fit in a gallery,’’ he says.

Baseball screens October 9, from 6pm at The Vic, Devonport.