New Zealand

  • Rolf Hädrich – Among the Cinders (1984)

    1981-1990DramaNew ZealandRolf Hädrich
    Among the Cinders (1984)
    Among the Cinders (1984)

    Teen Nick is estranged from his family, and blaming himself for his Maori mate’s climbing death. He runs away to his straight talking grandfather – who takes him bush – and loses his virginity to Sally.Read More »

  • Slavko Martinov – Propaganda (2012)

    2011-2020DocumentaryNew ZealandPoliticsSlavko Martinov

    Quote:
    Propaganda is presented as a North Korean “educational video” about the evils of western capitalist societies. Crude-looking and blunt in its narration, it contains no winks to the audience hinting that it’s a forgery. Since reviewing it, in fact, I’ve learned that when director Slavko Martinov first presented the movie on YouTube, millions of viewers were convinced that it was real.Read More »

  • Vincent Ward – Rain of the Children (2008)

    2001-2010DocumentaryDramaNew ZealandVincent Ward

    Vincent Ward weaves drama with documentary to unravel the extraordinary story of Puhi, the Tuhoe woman who welcomed the young filmmaker into her home in 1978. Ward made the observational film In Spring One Plants Alone about Puhi’s day-to-day life in the remote Urewera Ranges. By then almost 80, she was obsessively caring for her schizophrenic adult son Niki, whose violent fits terrified her. In this new cinema feature Ward sets out to unravel the mystery that has haunted him for 30 years: Who was Puhi?

    And why was she so obsessed with this last remaining son?Read More »

  • Merata Mita – Mauri (1988)

    Drama1981-1990Merata MitaNew Zealand

    Official Selection, 2019 Venice Film Festival

    RESTORED IN 2019 BY THE NEW ZEALAND FILM COMMISSION

    There’s a lot of watching in Merata Mita’s landmark MAURI. It’s the 1950s and there’s a storm coming to a once-thriving Maori settlement. Rewi, holding on to an unsettled past, watches the woman he loves (and who loves him back) slip into the arms of a white man. Kara, the town’s elder matriarch, is stirred by the change in the air, of birthrights trembling and a land falling captive. And then there’s Awatea, a young girl standing watch from the circumference of this simmering circle, staring not out of tragedy but of awe, at a Maori life-force re-shuffling off the rippling coasts of the North Island.Read More »

  • Pietra Brettkelly – Yellow is Forbidden (2018)

    2001-2010DocumentaryNew ZealandPietra Brettkelly

    A glimpse into a world of luxury and wealth, where global power dynamics, art and commerce meet. Guo Pei dresses China’s new elite but dreams of conquering Paris, the capital of haute couture.Read More »

  • Grayson Cooke – after – image (2012)

    2011-2020ExperimentalGrayson CookeNew ZealandShort Film

    Quote
    “after – image” is an art-science project by Grayson Cooke, exploring material memory and forgetting. It features time-lapse macro-photography of photographic negatives being chemically destroyed.

    This project was produced in consultation with scientist and artist Amanda Reichelt-Brushett and with sound by Matt Hill.Read More »

  • Taika Waititi – Boy (2010)

    2001-2010ComedyDramaNew ZealandTaika Waititi

    Set on the east coast of New Zealand in 1984, Boy, an 11-year-old kid and devout Michael Jackson fan, gets a chance to know his father, who has returned to find a bag of money he buried years ago.Read More »

  • Gaylene Preston – Perfect Strangers (2003)

    2001-2010DramaGaylene PrestonNew ZealandThriller

    Synopsis
    When Melanie goes home from the pub with a handsome stranger, she’s captivated by his charm and attentiveness.
    He sails her away to his ‘castle’- a rundown shack on a deserted island. But when seduction becomes deception and passion becomes possession, Melanie realizes that she has been kidnapped.
    Torn between fear and desire, Melanie must escape – but her ardent admirer has other plans.Read More »

  • Peter Jackson – Meet the Feebles (1989)

    1981-1990ComedyCultNew ZealandPeter Jackson

    Playful Puppetry, for Adults Only
    The well-named Feebles are a raunchy troupe of show-biz puppets able to ooze, drool, sniff, retch and copulate in ways that would make the Muppets blush. Sprung from the febrile imagination of Peter Jackson, they run seriously amok in “Meet the Feebles,” a 1989 film padded out to feature length and destined to stand as an unfortunate footnote to Mr. Jackson’s career.Read More »

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