DEGANZ Members’ Works Screening at MIFF
Congratulations to the DEGANZ members whose films have been selected for the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF)!
Marlon Williams: Two Worlds – Ngā Ao E Rua, edited by Josh Yong (DEGANZ), is screening as part of the Music on Film programme. This collection of films showcases cinematic explorations of sound, performance, and the stories behind music.
Fellow DEGANZ members Raymond Edwards, Lucy Suess, and Ira Hetaraka have films in the Accelerator Shorts programmes. In addition to their work screening in the festival, the writer/directors will attend the corresponding Accelerator Lab. The professional development programme is aimed at nurturing the selected directors on their journeys towards their first long-form work. The four-day lab includes workshops, screenings, seminars, and networking events focusing on the business and creative aspects of the film industry.
Features
Marlon Williams: Two Worlds – Ngā Ao E Rua
Editor: Josh Yong
Feeling burnt out from the touring cycle, acclaimed New Zealand musician Marlon Williams returns to his quiet coastal hometown of Ōhinehou/Lyttelton to work on a life and career-changing undertaking: recording an album, Te Whare Tīwekaweka, in his ancestral language of te reo Māori. Using song to explore his split cultural identity – part pākehā, part Māori, from both Ngāi Tahu and Ngāi Tai iwi – the project finds Williams reconnecting with his heritage, deepening his community and reclaiming his reo.
Shorts
ACE
Writer/Director: Raymond Edwards
Riding along with his imaginary daredevil friend ACE, six-year-old Jimmy sets out on an epic quest to save his parents’ marriage. We Are Still Here cinematographer Raymond Edwards makes a vibrant directorial debut with this wonderfully bright and visually inventive adventure. The fanciful world of imagination and play doubles as a beautiful portrait of a young child connecting with his whakapapa. Featuring a soulful soundtrack in te Reo by Aotearoa musician Mara TK.
Pack Rat
Writer/Director: Lucy Suess
Baby Teeth is forever out to prove she’s one of the guys: talking shit, stealing beer, accepting dares. But will she take it too far? Lucy Suess’ depiction of a teenage girl trying to find her place among a group of male friends gets to the heart of a complex, often contradictory, adolescent desire: wanting to preserve your identity while fitting in with the crowd. An endearing slice of rural New Zealand, Pack Rat comes complete with a needle-drop of Garageland’s Flying Nun classic ‘Fingerpops.’
Womb
Writer/Director: Ira Hetaraka
A young Māori girl is caught in a racially loaded custody battle between her conservative adoptive parents and her birth mother. Born of experiences that shaped her own childhood, Ira Hetaraka’s moving debut is a tough and tender exploration of family, cultural displacement and the ways in which systemic power continues to impose Western prejudices on First Nations peoples.
Last updated on 24 July 2025