The film looks at the community response to the 2011 cargo vessel Rena grounding on Ōtāiti (Astrolabe Reef) and the subsequent environmental disasters. The tonnes of heavy oil and diesel fuel split into the ocean devastated wildlife and washed up onto nearby beaches, making it Aotearoa’s worst maritime environmental disaster.
Anton tells the story through the eyes of the community affected, with a collection of interviews, archival footage, photos, re-enactments, and computer-generated imagery. The film focuses on the ongoing impact the grounding had on the Bay of Plenty community, and how the community has rallied despite it.
The 90-minute film premiered in this year’s DocEdge festival in the Making an Impact category. Now, it’ll be available to the wider public, with screenings throughout the Bay of Plenty, Auckland, the Coromandel, Christchurch, Northland, and Wellington, amongst others.
The film’s theatrical 5 October premiere marks the 12th anniversary of the grounding, making the release extra special for Anton and the team.
https://www.deganz.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Taking-Back-our-Beach.jpg4561200admin/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/DEGANZ_logo_home.pngadmin2023-09-14 14:17:302023-09-14 17:54:49‘Taking Back Our Beach’ Takes to Cinema Screens
This year’s Show Me Shorts, Aotearoa’s leading international short film festival, is chock full of DEGANZ members’ mahi!
Check this complete list to see which programmes their films are screening in and make sure to book your seats for your local screenings from 6-29 October.
The Sampler Programme
Described as some of the top short films from this year’s festival selection. This collection is designed to entertain, delight, and show off rising filmmaking talent in Aotearoa and abroad.
This collection aims to ignite a love of cinema in our tamariki. Best suited for ages 7-12 years old, these shorts are fun for children and their families to enjoy together.
After a run-in with his slimy deputy, the Prime Minister’s young daughter is shocked to find a magical creature living in Parliament under her Dad’s desk!
Writer/Director/Producer/Editor: Celia Jaspers
Crime Spree Programme
The festival brings you to the edge of your seat with this collection of criminal acts caught on screen.
This collection of shorts hones into out of this world characters, searching for the answers that will inspire them to improve their lives and reconcile their losses.
17-year-old Mako has the mental age of a small child; when he realises his father is ashamed of him he goes all out to make him proud, succeeding in the most unexpected way.
Producer: April Phillips
Aotearoa Te Ōhākī Programme
Themed around Te Ao Māori concept of Te Ōhākī (meaning cultural and identity reclamation), these shorts tell the stories of people from many different cultures who are feeling displaced or disconnected and seeking their place in the world.
When a recent widow moves to New Zealand from India, she’s forced to confront her grief by completing an ordinary ritual in an extraordinary circumstance: quarantine.
Drag icon Misty Frequency’s kaupapa is to celebrate autistic and takatāpui excellence. They are looking to storm the stage at the Drag Wars competition with a cash prize up for grabs.
Editor: Brendon Chan
Producer: Robyn Paterson
Women Rock the World Programme
Show Me Shorts invites audiences to step into the world of queens, dreamers, and vengeful angels. Wherever these women are stifled they will find a way to realise their goals.
This music video for Tami Neilson’s Kingmaker features a group of women, alive and powerful, rising from the ashes of the old colonial institutions that once oppressed them.
Director: Alyx Duncan
* Nominated for NZ on Air Best Music Video Award
Love Unconditional Programme
The bonds the characters in these stories share run deep, despite some testing times. This programme leaves audiences with some no-nonsense life advice and a renewed sense of appreciation for their parents.
A single Chinese woman struggles to bridge the cultural and societal expectations of motherhood in a Western setting until she finds release in the most unlikely way.
DEGANZ member Rebecca Tansley‘s feature film TheStrangest of Angels is heading overseas for the 60th Golden Prague International Television Festival. The film is in competition with other works centered around music, dance, and theatre as part of the festival’s annual showcase.
TheStrangest of Angels is a chamber opera inspired by the life of Kiwi writer Janet Frame. While inpatient Janet waits for a lobotomy in a 1940s mental hospital, the film entangles viewers in the relationship between Janet and her fictional nurse, Katherine. While the women grapple with inner torment, duty, and empathy, the film explores preconceptions of mental health.
The film, which recently screened in Whānau Marama NZIFF, was directed and produced by Rebecca for the New Zealand Opera.
Best of luck to The Strangest of Angels team for the festival!
https://www.deganz.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Strangest-of-Angels.jpg4561200admin/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/DEGANZ_logo_home.pngadmin2023-09-14 14:15:472023-09-14 14:15:47‘The Strangest of Angels’ Flies to Prague
DEGANZ member Kate McGill is seeking support for her short film’s Boosted campaign.
Inspired by a dream Kate had nearly ten years ago, FARM is about Jeanie, an elderly woman who believes her late husband has been reincarnated as a cow on her farm. While Jeanie is deeply connected to her farm, her family thinks it’s time she moves into an aged care facility. But she isn’t ready to let go of her home, life, or husband.
The film grapples with love, loss, and slipping memories. Kate delves into the bonds we form with a place, loved one, home, and everything we do to stay connected when we are being left behind. The film will be slow, cheeky, and dark, but finds gentle comedic moments.
This will be Kate’s first short film, which she shares feels deeply personal as the project’s writer and director. She has recently stepped into directing after working primarily as a professional actor and casting director. In 2022, she made her TV directing debut with Raised by Refugees, an award-winning comedy series available to watch on Neon.
Funds from the Boosted campaign will help cover insurance, onset catering, paying cast and crew, locations, and post-production costs.
You can help bring Kate’s (literal) dream to life by supporting the Boosted campaign. You can donate here or support Kate and the team by spreading the word to your friends and whānau!
https://www.deganz.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/FARM-Boosted.jpg4561200admin/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/DEGANZ_logo_home.pngadmin2023-09-13 14:06:022023-09-13 14:06:02McGill Seeking Support for ‘FARM’ on Boosted
DEGANZ member and advocate for comprehensive consent education, Liv McClymont‘s short documentary I Stand For Consent premieres on World Sexual Health Day. Perfectly enough, this year’s theme is consent.
Motivated by a survey exposing the extent of sexual harassment and harm at her former high school, Liv returns to amplify the students’ call for change. Through interviews with students, principals, experts, and even Liv’s own mother, the doc exemplifies the urgent need for compulsory consent education in schools.
Despite the heavy topic, Olivia aims to discuss sexual harm with a sense of hope and empowerment. In her director’s statement, she says,
As someone who lives with the trauma of sexual harm, it was important to me that this flm focussed on the way forward, rather than dwelling on the disheartening reality of the issue. I wanted to create a film that survivors could watch with pride and that would inspire change in our communities. And, rather than just spreading awareness – I wanted to take action.
The creators behind I Stand For Consent present the film as a rallying cry for change. They provoke viewers to think about how sexual harm is normalised in society and show the steps forward. It calls upon us all to support the quest for better sexual violence prevention, inspiring a safer future for generations to come.
The doc was commissioned through Series 7 of Someday Stories, an annual collection of social and sustainability-focused short films made by emerging creatives in Aotearoa.
Watch the doc on socials and RNZ from 4 September.
https://www.deganz.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/I-Stand-for-Consent.jpg4561200admin/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/DEGANZ_logo_home.pngadmin2023-08-31 10:28:292023-08-31 11:20:06‘I Stand For Consent’ – McClymont’s Catalyst for Change
