Leading role for Kiwis at film fest
AThames-set time-shifting crime thriller, a manalone story set in Central Otago and documentaries on a Centrepoint survivor, a prominent Kiwi scientist and a pioneering Ma¯ ori film-maker are among the Kiwi films that will screen at this year’s New Zealand International Film Festival (NZIFF).
The festival announced a roster of eight feature-length New Zealand movies on Thursday morning, five of which will have their world premieres in the programme.
NZIFF director Bill Gosden said they were thrilled that NZIFF was the platform for these Kiwi filmmakers to ‘‘launch their stories and their characters into the world’’.
‘‘We’re also very happy to host the first New Zealand screenings of several films that have premiered overseas recently.’’
The confirmed New Zealand films, with Gosden’s descriptions of them, are:
Angie (world premiere)
Angie Meiklejohn, prominent and articulate Centrepoint survivor, is joined by her siblings in this lucid exploration of the legacy of sexual abuse, directed by Costa Botes (Candyman, The Last Dogs of Winter).
Bludgeon (world premiere)
The armour is heavy and the stakes are high in Ryan Heron and Andy Deere’s warm-hearted and charmingly offbeat documentary about a group of modern knights competing to represent New Zealand in the brutal sport of ‘‘medieval combat’’.
The Heart Dances – The Journey Of The Piano: The Ballet (world premiere)
This elegant new film from
Crossing Rachmaninoff director Rebecca Tansley takes viewers backstage at the Royal New Zealand Ballet as a brilliantly theatrical European interpretation of a New Zealand classic re-enters the culture that inspired it.
Maui’s Hook (world premiere)
The new film by Ma¯ ori psychologist and film-maker Paora Joseph (Ta¯ tarakihi: Children of Parihaka) invites open discussion of suicide through the brave testimony of five grieving families travelling to Cape Reinga.
Mega Time Squad (NZ premiere)
Writer/director Tim van Dammen’s follow-up to the trailer trash romance Romeo and Juliet: A
Love Song is a wild smash-up of parochial Kiwi comedy and mindbending time travel crime-thriller.
Merata Mita: How Mum Decolonised The Screen (world premiere)
Merata Mita, pioneering Ma¯ ori film-maker and renowned international champion of women in indigenous film, is celebrated by her youngest son, archivist Heperi Mita, collaborating with his siblings to deliver a richly personal portrait.
Paul Callaghan: Dancing With Atoms
Shirley Horrocks, cine-biographer of many notable New Zealand artists, delivers an invaluable survey of the work and legacy of one of our most exceptional scientists and public figures.
Stray (NZ premiere)
Two damaged strangers fall into a complex relationship in Dustin Feneley’s beautiful and rigorous debut feature film. Capturing New Zealand’s moody and majestic southern landscape with terrific clarity, Stray demands to be seen on the big screen.
Two films with a Kiwi connection have previously been announced for this year’s festival: director Pietra Brettkelly’s Yellow is
Forbidden and Leave No Trace starring New Zealand actress Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie.