Autumn Events Q and A with Bill Gosden

Autumn Events Q&A with Bill Gosden

The nights are now drawing in - and usually around this time of the year, we'd be gearing up for the World Cinema Showcase.

But no, in a new move aimed at going in a new direction, those wonderful chaps at the New Zealand International Film Festival are launching a series of Autumn Events, starting on April 18th in Auckland and Wellington.

Director Bill Gosden very kindly gave up some of his time from avoiding questions about the film festival (which starts in Auckland in July) to answer some of my questions about the upcoming Autumn Events series.

You can find all the details of the Autumn Events at the New Zealand International Film Festival site.

Where did this idea come from? Is it the definitive end for the World Cinema Showcase?
Never say never, but there’s been such a proliferation of very specific festivals since we began the more generalist Showcase 15 years ago, that it seemed a good idea to step out of the crowd and concentrate on a few clearly articulated programmes.

 The Embassy in Wellington and the Civic Theatre in Auckland seem like the perfect venues for such a programme?
That’s truer than ever at the Civic now that they have one of the country’s few 4K projection systems. It’s truly one of the world’s great 21^st-century picture palaces. And the new 4K digitisation of Lawrence of Arabia will be its perfect showpiece. 

The nights are of course growing darker, which means the desire to see sumptuous films on the big screen which are events is clearly high on the agenda….Was this due to feedback from the public?
We received a lot of enquiries about the Showcase. When is it? Where is it? And yes, we were counting on the weather to pack up – because we know we can’t count on a New Zealand audience to ever tire of the great outdoors as long as the sun keeps shining.

What are your hopes for this mini festival?

That people will not think of what we’re doing as a festival, but rather as a series of events or self-sufficient programmes. That is a little blurred perhaps in the current line-up which does carry over some great films originally taken on for a 2013 Showcase.

Does it ever surprise you that there’s a desire for the classics like Guys and Dolls and Lawrence of Arabia on a big screen?

No. These were filmmakers who really knew how to fill a giant screen. (Now it’s the soundtracks that are huge.)

 And premieres too – a Cronenberg, but not as we’d expect it?

It’s Cronenberg Jr., not a dead ringer exactly, but clearly not afraid to be compared to his old dad.

 Plus the Kon-Tiki film too…what more can you say about that?
The ocean sequences – which, as in Life of Pi, take up the greater part of the film – are spectacular, making the chance to premiere it at The Civic irresistible.

And a New Zealand premiere for a horror fest piece The ABCS of Death….how did Ant manage that?

Only one man can answer that question.....

What’s your personal favourite and why?

And I am the one man who can never answer this one.  Pierrot le fou – another fabulous digital restoration - is a Pop Art masterpiece and I wish I had the commercial confidence to programme that at the Civic and Embassy too. I love what Where the Condors Fly reveals about the moral compass of a brilliant and obsessive filmmaker. It should be shown in every film course – alongside Vivan las antipodas!, the making of which it details. I think the Fahardi films from Iran – especially About Elly and Fireworks Wednesday - confirm that A Separation was no flash in the pan. He is one of the last decade’s great filmmakers.

We can’t let you out of here without asking about the NZ International Film Festival; you’re known for being enigmatic about titles, but just this once, give us a hint or tell us a film we will see….

I’m glad to hear I am enigmatic. It’s better than appearing cagey which is how I feel when so many key films have yet to be signed on the dotted line.  We already have a great harvest of documentaries from IDFA and Sundance, and Sandra came away from Berlin with more recommendations than ever. It won’t be long now…

Click here for the Auckland programme for the Autumn Events season.

Click here for the Wellington programme for the Autumn Events season.