Stories Too Real for the Algorithm: DEGANZ Members at Doc Edge 2026
After unveiling a first glimpse of this year’s festival, Doc Edge has now released its full programme under the theme ‘F*&k the Algorithm: See the Stories Too Real for Social Media.’
Among the selected works are films from DEGANZ members Phillida Perry, Richard Curtis, Jonno Woodford-Robinson ANZSE, Kim Webby, and Mike Jonathan.
For the past 21 years, Doc Edge has served as Aotearoa’s national hub for documentary storytelling. As an Oscar-qualifying festival and the leading Asia-Pacific destination for documentary film, it champions the creation, support, and celebration of powerful real stories.
Explore our members’ mahi below, and support Aotearoa’s local screen industry by catching a screening or two during the festival!
Good Kunst
Short Film Category: Leaving a Mark
Director: Phillida Perry
When a group of Kiwi women bring their hard-won art collection to auction, long-held bonds are tested as the true value of friendship, ambition, and art are put under the hammer.
Phillida will be at all Auckland screenings for Q&As.
NZ Wars: Stories of Waerenga a Hika
Special Presentation Category
Co-Director: Richard Curtis
In 1865, the pā at Waerenga-a-Hika became the flashpoint for one of the most significant conflicts of the New Zealand Wars. Within its walls, hundreds of Māori—men, women, and children—endured a siege that would irrevocably alter the future of Tūranganui-a-Kiwa.
NZ Wars: Stories of Waerenga-a-Hika returns to this sacred site through the voices of descendants whose ancestors lived, fought, and survived. Blending intimate storytelling and dramatic reconstruction with the very landscapes where these events unfolded, the film brings to light a history long overlooked by many, but never forgotten by those who carry it.
More than a chronicle of battle, this film is an act of remembrance and reclamation. It reflects on the enduring legacy of war and land loss while honouring the profound resilience of the Tūranga communities.
There’s a Hole in My Bucket
Being Oneself Category
Co-Editor: Jonno Woodford-Robinson ANZSE
The best tribute isn’t a speech—it’s a bucket list.
When Royd Tolkien, great-grandson of J R R Tolkien, loses his brother, Mike, to Motor Neurone Disease (ALS), Mike leaves behind one final act of love and mischief: a bucket list of 50 challenges designed to drag his reluctant, comfort-zone-hugging brother into the land of the living. What follows is an unexpected journey across New Zealand that pushes a grieving man further than he ever imagined possible. Narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch, with Peter Jackson, Billy Boyd, John Rhys-Davies and Weta Workshop along for the ride, the film is a raucous, tender argument that the best eulogy isn’t a speech, it’s a bucket list.
Unlikely Kin
Turangawaewae Where We Stand Category
Directors: Kim Webby & Mike Jonathan
Whales, trees, and kinship beyond species.
Filmed over five years, the film follows elder Hori Parata (Ngāti Wai) and his son Te Kaurinui as they lead the sacred practice of harvesting stranded whales—not for consumption, but to honour whakapapa and revive traditional medicine used to treat kauri dieback, a disease killing New Zealand’s ancient trees. Alongside this, we follow their conservation work protecting the kiore, the Polynesian rat that arrived in Aotearoa with the great Māori migration. Interweaving themes of kinship between species, cultural survival, and Māori-led conservation, the film offers rare access to a sacred world where whales, forests, and even rats are revered as living ancestors.
Kim and Mike will be at all Auckland screenings for Q&As.
Last updated on 3 June 2026
