Now streaming on RNZ, NZ Wars: Stories of Waerenga-a-Hika,co-directed by DEGANZ member Richard J Curtis, brings a pivotal moment in Aotearoa’s history to the screen.
Drawing on the perspectives of iwi historians and Dr Vincent O’Malley, a historian whose work specialises in Māori and Pakeha relations, the documentary presents the story of Waerenga-a-Hika, one of the most devastating battles of the New Zealand Wars in 1865. Focusing on the descendants of those who fought and survived, NZ Wars: Stories of Waerenga-a-Hika sheds new light on a history that has long been overlooked in Aotearoa.
Aiming to honour the communities that suffered from the war and land loss, the series serves as an act of remembrance and reclamation.
The 43-minute doco is a mix of drama reenactments with interviews and footage from present day. Richard wrote and directed the drama scenes, while co-director Cameron Bennett took the lead on the factual aspects.
You can watch NZ Wars: Stories of Waerenga-a-Hikaon RNZ now!
https://www.deganz.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/WEBSITE-Featured-Image-1-1.png4561200admin/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/DEGANZ_logo_home.pngadmin2026-07-30 13:50:072026-07-30 14:50:18History Brought to Life: Curtis’ New Historical Documentary
DEGANZ member Pon Torthienchai’s short film Rice Run is scheduled to screen at the 49th annual Asian American International Film Festival in New York City. This follows its premiere at the 20th Tasveer Film Festival in Seattle in September of 2025.
The Asian American International Film Festival (AAIFF) is the first and longest-running film festival in the United States dedicated exclusively to showcasing works by media artists of Asian descent and highlighting the Asian diaspora experience.
Rice Run follows a 9-year-old boy named Tent who is tasked with delivering a sack of rice to his family’s restaurant. His sense of duty and familial commitment are tested when he encounters an older, unruly group of teenagers who challenge his obligations. This coming-of-age drama explores notions of duty and burden.
The film was developed through the PASC Short Cuts lab and funded by the New Zealand Film Commission’s Fresh Shorts programme.
Congratulations, Pon and the Rice Run team, on the selection!
https://www.deganz.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/WEBSITE-Featured-Image-1.png4561200admin/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/DEGANZ_logo_home.pngadmin2026-07-30 13:48:002026-07-30 13:48:00From Aotearoa to New York: ‘Rice Run’ Selected for AAIFF
The Big Screen Symposium has run its course for another year. This time around, it had an emphasis on local content makers on the big and small screen, with micro-budget productions getting a good share of the limelight.
I moderated a session with DEGANZ director member Callum Devlin and actor and director Chelsea Preston-Crayford, who took wildly different pathways to their debut features.
Callum did it in a collaborative, micro-budget effort with his creative partners on The Weed Eaters, while Chelsea took the more traditional development and production path with Film Commission funding on Caterpillar.
In another session, Daniel Betty (What Lies Between), Matt Hicks (The Tavern), and Tom Levesque and Eva Trebilco (Shut Eye, Notes From A Fish) spoke about the trials, tribulations and joys of making, marketing and distributing their own micro/low-budget films.
In 2024, we ran a session on low-budget feature filmmaking with Tom Levesque (Shut Eye), former DEGANZ board member Michael Duignan (The Paragon) and Tom Sainsbury (Loop Track), who spoke about the production of their self-funded features for less than $500k.
The approach outside the traditional funding body path is more prevalent than ever. Government funding for films is tightening, and financing productions through traditional means is becoming harder.
But it’s not just on the big screen where filmmakers are finding their way forward.
The incredible success of YouTuber Curry Barker with horror feature Obsession, made on a reported “micro-budget” of US$750k for a box office gross of US$400 million plus, has driven Hollywood studio offers for him to direct. His feature opportunity came off the back of his YouTube channel short, The Chair, which attracted the attention of Obsession’s US producer James Harris.
YouTubers Viva La Dirt League, who operate out of their fan-funded $4.2 million studio lot in Henderson West Auckland, are intent on a similar pathway from YouTube to feature.
Back in 2009, Uruguayan Fede Alvarez, director of the Evil Dead remake for Rob Tappert and Sam Raimi and which was shot here, got the offer to make his debut feature because of his YouTube short Ataque de Pánico!.
The traditional path of film shorts to features has paid off, too.
Jackie van Beek’s trajectory came off the back of multiple film shorts that led to her first feature Inland Road, before going on to her now successful career as a director of film, TV and commercials.
Also at BSS, Kiwi director James Ashcroft spoke about his pathway from shorts to features, starting with his low-budget NZFC debut feature Coming Home In The Dark. This led to directing films with John Lithgow and Geoffrey Rush (The Rule of Jenny Penn), Robert De Niro (Whisper Man), and most recently Emilia Clark and Natascha McElhone (When Darkness Loves Us).
The landscape for feature filmmaking has certainly changed, but the number of pathways to making that first film has expanded. All you need is bloody-minded perseverance and a little bit of luck.
Making that first film, however, isn’t always a precursor to career success as a filmmaker, even if you’re talented. So celebrate the achievement if you do it. Every film that gets made deserves it, whether or not it’s a hit.
The highly anticipated 2026 Whānau Mārama New Zealand International Film Festival (NZIFF) is just around the corner, bringing a curated lineup of more than 130 films to audiences across the country, including works from almost 20 DEGANZ members.
In the programme’s foreword, Artistic Director Paolo Bertolin describes the 2026 lineup as “diverse, free, and adventurous”, promising films that will “inspire, entertain, provoke, and ultimately transport you”.
The festival opens with Big Girls Don’t Cry, following its acclaimed international run, where it was a finalist for the World Cinema Dramatic Award at Sundance and won the Grand Prix at Festival Nouvelles Vagues in France. The festival’s centrepiece film, LOMU, a powerful documentary on rugby legend Jonah Lomu, will premiere at The Civic on 1 August.
Check out the films from DEGANZ members below, and keep up to date with NZIFF to find out when you can catch them on the big screen!
Raised in 1980s Russell by Merry, an artist whose life became local folklore, filmmaker Gwen Isaac returns to her far-north hometown to untangle fact from family legend and confront the inheritance she carries into her own motherhood.
Paloma Schneideman’s coming-of-age debut launches the festival with a tender portrait of 14-year-old Sid as she tentatively traverses insecurity, identity, and desire during the summer of 2006.
It follows a group of teenagers and young adults from Kaduna, Nigeria, who taught themselves visual effects to make homemade, guerrilla sci-fi films with smartphones and found props.
Rugby’s first global superstar was also one of its most private—a shy, gentle giant caught between two worlds, whose story mirrors Aotearoa’s own coming of age.
Dunedin’s Robert Sarkies ventured into weightier territory after Scarfies, reckoning with a defining tragedy of gun violence that rocked Aotearoa’s sense of security.
Ngā Whanaunga: Aotearoa New Zealand’s Best presents the very best of Māori and Pasifika filmmaking alongside the best films made by everyone in Aotearoa. A total of 130 films were submitted for this year’s competition, with 14 finalists chosen by the selectors.
Yes David
Director: Ghazaleh Gol
A near future where absolute compliance and obedience are strictly required.
Arrival
Director: Ahmed Osman
Assimilation via torment and curiosity.
Tall Horses
Editor: Allan George
A charismatic tale of a thoroughbred that captured the hearts of many and tortured the heart of one.
Kurī
Editor: Sam Small
Blunt, unapologetic & beautiful, Kurī resonates.
Lady Shaka: Sonic Sands
Editor: Josh Yong
The triumph of the marginalised migrating to the world arena.
A Wave in the Ocean was a 12-month intensive driven by filmmaking powerhouses Dame Jane Campion and Philippa Campbell. offering an opportunity for developing filmmakers to deepen their craft and encouraging feature filmmaking through short-film development.
A Very Good Boy
Editor: Brendon Chan
A househusband’s secret desire, leading to disaster.
Girl Time
Director & Editor: Eleanor Bishop
Marianne is getting ready for a dreaded family dinner when two mysterious young girls appear, wanting her to play with them.
Congratulations to DEGANZ board member Kim Webby, who has been awarded a $2,000 prize through Film Bay of Plenty’s Regional Producer Accelerator (RPA).
The RPA is an intensive eight-month professional development programme for emerging screen producers based in the Bay of Plenty. Offering the opportunity to work alongside Matthew Metcalfe and other experienced industry mentors, the programme is designed to build participants’ confidence in developing, pitching, and selling their projects.
As part of the programme, Kim joined the rest of the RPA cohort at Film Bay of Plenty’s Screen Connect & Pitch Evening in Rotorua, where she pitched her project live to a panel of judges and an audience of industry peers.
We look forward to hearing more about the project in the future!
