Ready Pilot One

The Asian 8 and BoomShankar Title Images with the Episode One logo on the right

Two of the pilots from PASC’s Episode One initiative are now available to watch online after a successful screening a few weeks ago.

Fans of the teen genre can watch Asian 8, directed by 2021 Incubator alum Nahyeon Lee (DEGANZ) and edited by fellow member Jack Woon. It follows the ambitious Ming Zhao, who is determined to become Head Girl at her posh girls’ school. But in order to defeat the wildly popular Pākehā heir apparent Zoe Belshaw, Ming will have to persuade a group of overlooked Asian students to help her win. Victory has a steep price. Will Ming pay it?

In an Instagram post, Nahyeon shares:

When making Asian 8, I thought a lot about leaning into the poppy and fizzy. The unassumingly radical act of using a crowd-pleasing genre to inject politics and disruption […] and use these conventions in the teen genre […] but usurp the Western paradigm.

Comedy fans who also aren’t afraid to consider their mortality and morality should tune in for Boom Shankar, directed by DEGANZ member Bala Murali Shingade. When an overconfident bomb defusal officer and an anxious dairy owner end up dead after a failed bomb defusal, they must work together to navigate the bureaucratic Afterlife for one last chance at redemption. 

You can also find the trailers for Pincher, edited by 2022 Incubator alum Jolin Lee (DEGANZ), and THAW, directed by Asuka Sylvia (Incubator 2018), on the PASC website.

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DEGANZ members at Doc Edge Festival

This year’s Doc Edge Festival will feature projects by DEGANZ members Katherine McRae, Anton Steel and Blandine Massiet du Biest. The Oscar-qualifying festival will run in Auckland and Wellington in May-June and virtually in June-July.

Having previously worked on Power Rangers Dino Fury and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny as an assistant editor, Blandine made her directorial debut with her documentary Frances Hodgkins, Anything but a Still Life which follows the life and career of the Kiwi still-life artist. Art experts Mary Kisler and Linda Tyler discuss Frances’ challenges and her undeniable power to create in the feature, which will appear in the festival’s ‘The Art of Storytelling’ category.

Anton’s new documentary Taking Back Our Beach examines Aotearoa’s worst maritime environmental disaster and will feature in the ‘Making an Impact’ category. When the Cargo Vessel Rena struck the Astrolabe Reef in 2011, it carried and split tonnes of heavy oil and diesel fuel. The aftermath is still fresh in the memories of everyone in the area due to the devastating and long-lasting impact on wildlife. Anton focuses on the power of a united community and its experience of the shocking grief that later becomes a driving force in saving the environment. He talks about the project more in a podcast with RNZ.

Under the category Being Oneself,  Pacific Mother follows free divers Sachiko Fukumoto and William Trubridge looking into maternity systems for their first child. Through the film, a sequel to Water Baby, Katherine attempts to reconnect families with the global environment. The film examines women’s maternity experiences from the Pacific, Hawai’i, Tahiti, the Cook Islands, and Aotearoa. Within their stories, Pacific Mother discusses the community, gaining back its traditional birthing knowledge, and the importance of nurturing both children and parents.

Don’t miss the chance to see them at Doc Edge!

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Gone To Screens

The long-awaited crime drama The Gone, co-directed by DEGANZ member Peter Meteherangi Tikao Burger, hits the screens this Sunday on TVNZ 1 and TVNZ+. The six-episode series is an Irish-New Zealand co-production, with Peter directing the first block and Irish director Hannah Quinn the second. 

Filmed in Te Aroha, the town of love transforms into the distressed Mt Affinity when a young Irish couple disappears. Detective Sergeant Diana Huia, played by Acushla-Tara Kupe (Under the Vines, Creeped Out), pairs with Irish colleague Theo Richter, played by Richard Flood (Grey’s Anatomy, Shameless), to investigate. Together, they must face the series of grim, unexplained murders and dig deeper into the past to solve this dark mystery. As Acushla-Tara Kupe said in her interview for Stuff,

It’s a detective mystery between two cultures that have a lot in common. It’s incredibly gripping up until the very last second.

The Gone had Maori as 40% of the crew and 5% of the series’ dialogue in Te Reo. Likewise, the series is also one of the biggest productions filmed in the Waikato region since The Hobbit and brought about $1 million into the town’s economy. The show has 200 local extras and features familiar faces of Manu Bennett, Vanessa Rare, and Scott Wills.

To see how Te Aroha became the gloomy, mysterious Mt Affinity, tune into TVNZ1 at 8.30 pm on Sunday, May 7 or enjoy the suspense on TVNZ+.

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DEGANZ Members Make the Cut for Shorts Cuts

PASC has selected DEGANZ member Rafa Yam for this year’s Short Cuts lab. The programme is designed to support Pan-Asian creatives in crafting scripted shorts, with advice and guidance from industry practitioners.
Participants are selected in teams with a director, writer, and producer attached to carry the projects through the programme. Rafa’s team’s project is titled Malayo, with Rafa as the director.
Along with his fellow participants, Rafa will undergo a 2.5-day intensive lab in May to develop their projects. They’ll attend in-person sessions on story, writing, directing, producing, marketing, and proposal writing. After the two days, participants continue to receive mentorship to refine their funding applicants. Dr Shuchi Kothari leads the team of mentors and instructors, including Roseanne Liang (DEGANZ).
This year marks the return of Short Cuts, as the programme took a hiatus in 2022.
Best of luck to Rafa for the workshops in May!
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Liang Thrills with ‘Maude v Maude’

Roseanne's headshot with the Warner Bros. logo in to top right corner

Over the weekend, Warner Bros. announced that Roseanne Liang (DEGANZ) will direct Maude v Maude, starring Oscar winners Angelina Jolie and Halle Berry. Not much is known about the project, but according to Deadline, the feature will be a “Bond vs. Bourne type of global action thriller.”

Roseanne will direct from Scott Mosier’s script, with both set to executive produce. Along with Jolie, Berry and creative partner, Holly Jeter will produce the project. In early 2022, Berry and Jeter joined forces to create their banner HalleHolly to yield more projects that give voice to complex and strong women and women of colour on screen and behind the camera.

This female-led project follows these goals and contributes to the progression of women coming to the forefront of the action genre. Both Jolie and Berry have many credits in the genre, including iconic characters Lara Croft (Jolie) and Catwoman (Berry).

Roseanne also has made a name for herself in the genre. Her action-horror feature Shadow in the Cloud, starring Chloë Grace Moretz, won the People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award at the 2020 Toronto Film Festival. She is also one of the directors of Netflix’s live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender, an action-adventure fantasy series.

In an Instagram post, Roseanne shares her excitement about working on ‘this dream team’ and her lifelong passion for action films.

Congratulations, Roseanne, on the thrilling news!

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