Island quest for feathers
She calls herself the Angelina Jolie of cancer, and now Jean Neshausen's film debut has been met with accolades as well.
The former Thames woman shares the same BRCA1 gene mutation as the Hollywood actress, which predisposes carriers to breast and ovarian cancer.
She's ‘‘been a survivor'' since 2015, and now aged 73, Neshausen, bluntly spoken and witty, tells her story in a film called
The award-winning short film chronicles Neshausen's journey to the Chatham Islands, where the korowai weaver isn't afraid to wring the neck of a weka or two in search for rare feathers.
‘‘We met Jean and the group of korowai weavers at the Thames market in 2013, and they were raffling a korowai to raise money to go to the Chatham Islands to be part of a weka hunt,'' one of Pluck's directors, Viv Kernick, said.
‘‘Being curious, we said: ‘Can we come along?' ''
Weka feathers are second only to Kiwi feathers in status and the only place in NZ where it is legal to cull the bird is on the Chatham Islands, Re¯ kohu, 600km off the coast of Christchurch.
Fellow director Kirsty Griffin went on the trip, sharing a room with Neshausen and quickly recognising there was a star quality within the woman.
When Neshausen learned there were tumours growing on her right ovary and around her heart, she feared she wouldn't get the chance to create a korowai using weka feathers for her only daughter, Gwendoline.
‘‘She was feeling strung out about that, so we said let's go back and get it finished,'' Griffin said.
The film was a labour of love for both the filmmakers and Neshausen, and was completed during the Covid-19 lockdown.
It is part of the Doc Edge Film Festival, where it won Best NZ Short, and is available online until July 5. There will be a community screening at the Thames Cinema at 4.45pm, Sunday, June 28.