NZIFF 2020: DEGNZ Member Round Up

Whānau Mārama NZIFF 2020NZIFF

After unveiling a brand new look and identity, Whānau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festival has announced the highly-anticipated programme for its online and in cinema programme.

Congratulations to all of the Directors & Editors Guild of NZ members who have been selected to play in the 2020 festival! We strongly encourage you to support these filmmakers and your film community by packing out limited cinema screenings or renting Kiwi films to enjoy at home. DEGNZ members are eligible for concession prices where offered.

The Girl on the Bridge

Directed by member and NZ Arts Laureate Leanne Pooley and edited by DEGNZ board member Margot Francis, The Girl on the Bridge follows the inspiring journey of 21-year-old Jazz Thornton during the pivotal two-year period she was emerging out of her own struggles with suicide to become a powerful advocate for mental health.

The feature documentary is set to have its world premiere at NZIFF on July 25, 4pm at ASB Waterfront Theatre, then available online and in select venues.

 

The Girl on the Bridge

New Zealand’s Best 2020

This year, director Tusi Tamasese was the guest curator for this competitive short film programme, selecting the top six finalists. Four of the six feature the talents of DEGNZ members.

Set in 1973, Oranges & Lemons tells a bullied girl’s story to find her voice in the strangest place, directed by Robyn Grace and edited by Kerri Roggio.

Anna Duckworth‘s Pain, Claire van Beek‘s Daniel and Cian Elyse White‘s debut short Daddy’s Girl (Kōtiro) were made through the NZ Film Commission’s Fresh Shorts initiative. Pain explores a young girl’s earth-shattering realisation that her father is not invincible and is edited by member Brendon Chan.

Daniel will have its NZ premiere at Whānau Mārama after its world premiere at MIFF and in competition selection for Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival. The film was edited by John Gilbert and member Conan Mornard-Stott.

Cut by Annie Collins, Daddy’s Girl (Kōtiro) is a story about the powerful love between a father and his daughter in the face of a painful truth.

The programme will be in cinema at select venues or online from July 26 – August 1. If you watch NZ’s Best, make sure you vote for the Audience Choice Award.

 

Oranges and Lemons, Pain, Daniel, Daddy's Girl (Kōtiro)

Ngā Whanaunga Māori Pasifika Shorts 2020

For the first time, Ngā Whanaunga will be a competitive programme. Purea is written and directed by Kath Akuhata-Brown. Māori elder Hamo must bear the burden of carrying the spirits of her ancestors to their sacred mountain.

Ngā Whanaunga will premiere in cinema on July 26 and is available to watch online from July 27 – 2 August.

 

Purea

Kiwi Shorts

Kiwi Shorts is a curation of six New Zealand shorts that the Festival promises will put a smile on your face. Garage Stories: A Strange Collective Experience of Isolation, directed by Catherine Bisley, captures our nation’s recent experience under Level 4 lockdown.

Two nine-year-old girls find an enterprising way to satisfy their craving for ice cream in Ruby Abbott Harris‘ Triple Scoop. The programme also features Missy Fishy from director Erin Murphy – a whimsical tale about Miss Fish, a super mum, who struggles to tame her otherworldly urges.

Available to rent from August 1 – 7.

 

Garage Stories, Triple Scoop, Missy Fishy

Rūrangi

Premiering at the Festival and directed by DEGNZ member Max Currie, Rūrangi is New Zealand’s first transgender drama series. Made by gender-diverse talent, the drama is about a burnt-out trans activist returning to the rural dairy community from which he fled ten years ago. All five episodes have been programmed together as a special festival presentation, which will have its world premiere in cinema at ASB Waterfront Theatre in Auckland, on July 26, 7pm. You can also rent it online between July 26 – August 1.

 

 

Tickets for the Festival’s premiere screenings go on sale from July 10 and rental options can be purchased from the first available screening date, starting July 25. If you’re planning to watch at home, NZIFF suggests you start getting ready: set up your account, test, browse and start planning.

Tema Pua
Events & Marketing Manager

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Screenlink: Making the Hit Claymation Kiri and Lou

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Screenlink: Making the Hit Claymation Kiri and Lou

Join us for insights on international hit children’s show Kiri and Lou, directed by LA-based Kiwi director Harry Sinclair, and produced by New Zealander Fiona Copland‘s Filmwork.

A creative team who forged their relationship on iconic Kiwi feature film Topless Women Talk About Their Lives, Harry and Fiona will talk about their long-running and successful director-producer partnership. They’ll also reveal the trials, tribulations and fun that has made this claymation series No. 1 in children’s content on the BBC, achieved sales all around the world and has led to the development of a feature film and merchandising deals.

WHEN:  Mon 3 August, 7pm. Talk starts 7:15pm
WHERE:  Horse & Trap – Loft, 3 Enfield St, Mount Eden, Auckland

Cash bar

Parking: Horse & Trap customer carpark and free on-street parking nearby.

This event is proudly presented by the Directors & Editors Guild of NZ as part of the Screenlink series.


Registration

DEGNZ members – Free
Non-members – $5 (door entry, cash only)

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DEGNZ’s Written and Oral Submissions to the Screen Industry Workers Bill

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On June 24th, Executive Director Tui Ruwhiu made an oral submission to the Select Committee in support of DEGNZ’s written submission on the Screen Industry Workers Bill. If you would like to watch the live Facebook recording, you can view it here. DEGNZ’s oral submission plays from 28:54 to 40:15.

 

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Round 2 Table Reads Draw Now Open

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Calling writer-director teams and solo writer/directors from around New Zealand!

Enter the draw with your feature film script and you could win a free online table read to help you with your next rewrite.

Learn more
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Time for a Reset

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Globalisation has been both beneficial and detrimental to the New Zealand screen industry. Beneficial in that we have been the recipient of international productions coming here and spending many millions of dollars on goods, services and wages with a net benefit to the New Zealand economy.

When American producer Rob Tapert really kicked it off with Hercules in the 90’s, he also trained up many of the crew who went on to work on his other shows and later Peter Jackson’s and Andrew Adamson’s films, amongst other big budget projects. Now our crew have a reputation second to none.

But we really screwed up when we signed up for the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and failed to get an exemption as Australia did for audiovisual services.

This exemption allows Australia to impose broadcast quotas for local content. It also creates the possibility for Australia to apply quotas to digital services, including streamers as is now being actively discussed there. Meanwhile, in New Zealand when we talk about quotas on broadcast and levies on streamers, the first thing that springs from peoples’ mouths is, “We can’t because of GATT.”

Well maybe it’s time to drive significant change here as is currently being proposed in many other sectors. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought with it great opportunity to make change that before would never have been imaginable.

We are seeing examples of it every day in the news. The proposed merger of TVNZ and RNZ, the setting aside of the Resource Management Act, the drive to grow the New Zealand manufacturing sector, and the selling of CBD head offices because working from home has become a reality for many. We are now having to reconfigure the rules to adapt to the new normal we find ourselves in.

With America turning in on itself, the idea of unchecked globilisation being reconsidered, and trade deals being mooted for restructuring and renegotiation, now is an ideal time for cultural considerations for local content to be reinstated. We should be looking to ensure that New Zealand content on NZ screens is a requirement, not just a nice to have, whether it’s on local broadcasters and platforms or international streamers swamping us with international content.

In the meantime, we just have to figure out a way to swamp the world with New Zealand content. Some more funding for NZ On Air and the NZ Film Commission would be a good start.

 

Tui Ruwhiu
Executive Director

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