Festival film favourites
He has starred in the TVNZ series Girl vs Boy, worked as Martin Freeman’s body double on the Hobbit films, and created numerous short films, including Dick Off, which was picked as a wild card by Peter Jackson during the 2014 48 Hour Filmmaking Challenge.
Chronesthesia was Weal’s biggest challenge to date.
Forget ‘‘low-budget’’, it is a ‘‘no budget’’ film, he says.
But with the cinematography prowess of Simeon Duncombe, animation supervisor at Weta Digital, it does not feel like one.
‘‘Having people work really hard for long amounts of time for no money was the biggest challenge, which is why we ended up with a group of people that were passionate about the film and filmmaking in general, people worked on it for love not money.’’
Filmed in places like Mt Victoria, Seatoun Beach, Evans Bay Parade and Castlepoint, Wellington almost takes on its own character in the film.
‘‘I just loved Wellington, I lived there for nine years and had all my favourite spots. I’d go running and find these little areas and I kind of wanted to show them off, I suppose.
‘‘Also, my friends and I would always talk about how we don’t want to make films that are just two people talking in a room, a lot of New Zealand films are two people talking in a room.
‘‘So, even though a lot of this film is dialogue driven, I still wanted to make it look visually interesting, so I threw a view behind them.’’
A challenge more frustrating than budget was the temperamental Wellington weather, including being totally rained out, and wind that made dialogue near-impossible.
‘‘But there were lots of time where the weather would do a certain thing that would work so much better for the story, or it would make us change our minds and it often turns out that your third idea is better than the first.’’
Weal is currently working on the third draft of a new feature film with a different beat.
‘‘It’s a detective comedy film with a female lead, which will need a budget, and hopefully we can find a budget somewhere after Chronesthesia.’’
Weal says opening at the NZIFF is both a thrilling and terrifying dream for the Chronesthesia crew.
‘‘It’s a huge, huge honour and I couldn’t imagine a better way to premiere this film than at the film festival of the country, in the capital, where we shot it.’’
Chronesthesia screens as part of the New Zealand International Film Festival at the Paramount on Friday, July 29 and August 3, and at Lighthouse Petone on July 31. Weal will be in attendance for all sessions. If I told you one of the most entrancing films I’d seen this year was an indie-documentary about the shadowy world of Japanese underground fight clubs for disabled people, you would probably label me either delusional or sociopathic.
And yet, I’ll tell anyone that exWellingtonian Heath Cozens’ film is one of the highlights of this year’s festival. Cozens lived in Tokyo for nearly two decades, eking out a living as a language teacher and freelance filmmaker, when he was introduced to a world where – because true equality doesn’t allow value judgments - the disabled demand the right to beat the hell out of each other if they want to.
Doglegs is a challenging and confrontational film. And it’s the liberals who might find this assertion of human rights the hardest to swallow. Hugely recommended and completely unforgettable.
I’ve also been particularly taken with Otar Iosseliani’s Winter Song, which starts out as a series of, perhaps disconnected, scenes set in and around one Parisian neighbourhood, but which gently coalesces – like a symphony bringing together its themes –into something whimsical, but satisfyingly complete. If you were hoping for a Roy Andersson film at this year’s festival, then Winter Song will fill the gap.
And any film from Cristian Mungiu, the maker of the still astonishing 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, is always worth seeking out. Graduation (Bacalaureat) follows a father down the rabbithole of the choices he makes after his daughter is assaulted on the day before she had been due to sit her final exams.
With all of his hopes and dreams for his child in the balance, a series of bad-decisions-for-goodreasons are made.
Lastly, and a lot lighter in tone, the doco Mr Gaga is a bit of a treat. Prolific Israeli film-maker Tomer Heymann and a team of terrific cinematographers turn the camera on the revolutionary choreographer Ohad Naharin and his work. This is a film full of life, movement and the sheer joy of having a body to move around the place in. Dance and film make for very good partners.