The New Zealand International Film Festival PR machine has started to kick into gear, as they finalise this year’s programme – a line-up that could well be the best ever. Ten (yes, ten!) New Zealand documentaries have been selected to screen at the fest, and we take a look at them here.
This is encouraging news for two reasons: 1) the sheer number of New Zealand films on offer for us to see (and for the filmmakers to have seen) and 2) that documentary filmmaking is alive and well in this country.
NZIFF Director Bill Gosden says it best: “Another growth area we had not anticipated in our early planning was the number of New Zealand-made documentaries we’d be seeing and selecting. Recent announcements of the genre’s demise in our fair land have obviously been exaggerated. Today we announce ten of them.” Bill goes on to say “What’s not been exaggerated is the paucity of infrastructural support for our documentary filmmakers. We applaud the passion, commitment and sheer tenacity of the ten filmmakers represented here. For some of them our screenings will herald the light at the end of very long tunnels indeed.” Nicely put.
Here are the Kiwi doco delights on offer this year:
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The Last Dogs of Summer
Director: Costa Botes
For the past 40 years, in a remote and harshly beautiful corner of northern Manitoba, Brian Ladoon has devoted his life to preserving and breeding an endangered species: the Qimmiq, Canada’s indigenous Eskimo dog.
Click here to find out more.
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How Far is Heaven?
Directors: Christopher Pryor & Miriam Smith
Filmmakers Chris Pryor and Miriam Smith lived at Jerusalem on the Whanganui River and have produced a lively, visually beautiful picture of the local community and the three Sisters of Compassion stationed there.
Click here to find out more.
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Songs of the Kauri
Director: Mathurin Molgat
Mathurin Molgat’s comprehensive documentary about the past and future of the mighty kauri centres on an inspiring artisan: Northland luthier Laurie Williams.
Click here to find out more.
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Persuading the Baby to Float
Director: Keith Hill
The ongoing artistic collaboration between pianist Norman Meehan, poet Bill Manhire and singer Hannah Griffin has produced two sublime CDs. Keith Hill’s doco captures them mid-process and in performance.
Click here to find out more.
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The Last Ocean
Director: Peter Young
The Last Ocean is an activist feature documentary directed by Peter Young, one of the country’s leading nature cinematographers and a major figure in the movement to end fishing in the Ross Sea. The film combines ravishing Antarctic footage with a detailed account of the conservationist case and the long political campaign to have it recognised.
Click here to find out more.
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Tatarakihi: the Children of Parihaka
Director: Paora Te Oti Takarangi Joseph
Tatarakihi tells the story of a ‘journey of memory’ taken by a group of Parihaka children following in the footsteps of their male ancestors who were transported south after the Taranaki land confiscations of the 1860s.
Click here to find out more.
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Maori Boy Genius
Director: Pietra Brettkelly
Internationally lauded Auckland filmmaker Pietra Brettkelly (The Art Star and the Sudanese Twins) accompanies 16-year-old Māori scholar Ngaa Rauuira Pumanawawhiti to Yale and a critical turning point in his education.
Click here to find out more.
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Pictures of Susan
Director: Dan Salmon
Fascinating, admiring documentary by Dan Salmon about NZ ‘outsider artist’ Susan King who stopped talking aged four and has produced more than 10,000 drawings throughout her life, now sought by art dealers worldwide.
Click here to find out more.
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Tongan Ark
Director: Paul Janman
This lyrical documentary inducts us into the surprising world of Tongan Futa Helu and his Atenisi Institute. Probably the world’s smallest university, this unconventional institution proudly stands apart from church and state.
Click here to find out more.
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Village by the Sea
Director: Michael Heath
Documentarian Michael Heath transports us to the Irish fishing village of Bunmahon where NZ artist Edith Collier painted during 1914–15. A gentle investigation of her work, the landscape, and the locals in this beautiful town.
Click here to find out more.
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Which of these takes your fancy?
The festival begins in Auckland (19 July – August 5) and open simultaneously in Wellington and Dunedin a week later (27 July – August 12), then in Christchurch (9 – 26 August). Further regional dates are being advised on the website as they are confirmed.
(Source: NZIFF)
