Celebrating New Zealand Film and NZIFF 2018 Live Cinema Event

Celebrating New Zealand Film and NZIFF 2018 Live Cinema Event

Something in the air: New Zealand features and documentaries at NZIFF We're just one month away from launching our 50th NZIFF Auckland programme of more than 150 wonderfully diverse local and international films. This milestone is cause for celebration, so we'll be including some films from the NZIFF archives in the full programme, along with special 50th events. We're also featuring some prominent histories from our friends and associates on the NZIFF website – if you've got stories of your own you'd like to share, be sure toget in touch. In the meantime, we're pleased to share with you a stunning selection so far of New Zealand feature films and documentaries, including five that will have their world premieres during NZIFF. From the light-hearted to heavy-hitting, the wacky and obtuse, there's films to suit all persuasions. Don't forget to keep yourself entertained inside during these cooler days by entering some of our giveaways at the bottom of the page.  Read more about NZIFF over on our website: www.nziff.co.nz

Live Cinema Returns to The Civic Mark your calendars for an unforgettable live cinema event as our annual engagement with the esteemed Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra brings Buster Keaton and Clyde Bruckman's classic silent-era comedy, The General, to life on the giant screen at The Civic. Tickets go on sale from Thursday 7 June. The General is one of the greatest films of all time. The brilliant new 4K digital restoration is definitely something to celebrate. Peter Scholes conducts Carl Davis’ classic score, and has a long association with film scoring. Scholes was composer and conductor for New Zealand feature film Desperate Remedies by Peter Wells and Stuart Main, and also conducted the soundtrack to Heavenly Creatures. He was the founder and is the current musical director of the Auckland Chamber Orchestra Tickets for our 2018 Live Cinema session of The General will be on sale online and from the Aotea and Bruce Mason Centre Box Office from Thursday 7 June. For more information on ticket prices, please visit our website.

Celebrating New Zealand Filmmakers As we prepare to undertake the scheduling of NZIFF 2018, we take a moment to celebrate our homegrown filmmakers by adding a further eight films to our Early Announcements. Featuring five world premieres and three local premieres. NZIFF has worked long and hard to provide this platform for striking work made within our own shores and we salute the filmmakers and their commitment to putting New Zealand and New Zealanders on screen.  New Zealand films at NZIFF are proudly supported by Resene.

World premiere: Angie Angie Meiklejohn, prominent and articulate Centrepoint survivor, is joined by her siblings in this lucid exploration of the legacy of sexual abuse, directed without a hint of sensationalism by Costa Botes. "Funny, smart, big hearted, unflinchingly honest, a steadfast friend – whatever her past hurts, Angie is an engaging and loveable human being." — Costa Botes Read more about Angie on our website.

World premiere: Bludgeon The armour is heavy and the stakes are high in this warm-hearted and charmingly offbeat documentary about a group of modern knights competing to represent New Zealand in the brutal sport of ‘medieval combat’. “Hitting someone with a weighted stick: we’ve been doing it since the dawn of time. Now it’s a sport.” — James Bennett, NZ captain Read more about Bludgeon on our website.

Auckland premiere and fundraiser: Paul Callaghan: Dancing With Atoms Shirley Horrocks, cine-biographer of many notable New Zealand artists, delivers an invaluable survey of the work and legacy of one of our most exceptional scientists and public figures. “It was the wonder of science that charged him. He was tremendously excited by it and he wanted to convey that excitement to other people.” — Kim Hill The Auckland premiere screening of this film will be a fundraiser in support of the Cancer Society. Ticketing details will be available in late June. Read more about Paul Callaghan: Dancing With Atoms on our website.

World premiere: The Heart Dances – the journey of The Piano: the ballet This elegant new film from the director of Crossing Rachmaninoff takes us backstage at the Royal New Zealand Ballet as a brilliantly theatrical European interpretation of a New Zealand classic re-enters the culture that inspired it. Intercutting rehearsal and performance, The Heart Dances, weaves a seductive, elegant celebration of a vital, centuries-old art that still has a squillion tiny dancers line up to audition for the Anna Paquin role. “This is the 21st century and we have to stand proud as Māori, but we also have to find ways to work together, to be together and to create together.” — Moss Te Ururangi Patterson Read more about The Heart Dances – the journey of The Piano: the ballet on our website.

World premiere: Māui's Hook The new film by Māori psychologist and filmmaker Paora Joseph(Tātarakihi: Children of Parihaka) invites open discussion of suicide through the brave testimony of five grieving families travelling to Cape Reinga. “We want our young people to be like Māui – to push through life’s challenges, using the Māui attitude.” —  Producer Karen Te O Kahurangi Waaka-Tibble Read more about Maui's Hook on our website.

A Kiwi comedy/sci-fi: Mega Time Squad Writer/director Tim van Dammen’s follow-up to the trailer trash romanceRomeo and Juliet: A Love Song is a wild smash-up of parochial Kiwi comedy and mind-bending time travel crime-thriller. “This is Parawai, Terry, not America. We’re not made-a guns.” — Shelton Read more about Mega Time Squad on our website.

World premiere: Merata: How Mum Decolonised the Screen Merata Mita, pioneering Māori filmmaker and international champion of women in indigenous film, is celebrated by her youngest son, archivist Heperi Mita, collaborating with his siblings to deliver a richly personal portrait. "The revolution isn’t just running out with a gun. If a film I make causes indigenous people to feel stronger about themselves, then I’m achieving something worthwhile for the revolution." — Merata Mita Read more about Merata: How Mum Decolonised the Screen on our website.

New Zealand premiere: Stray Two damaged strangers fall into a complex intimate relationship in Dustin Feneley’s beautiful and rigorous debut feature film, shot in Otago against the backdrop of the breathtaking Southern Alps. Within these stunning images, the Man Alone tradition is alive and well, but it’s also crisply refocused through Feneley’s commitment to stark silences and bold cinematic spaces into a kind of hard-edged New Zealand poetry Read more about Stray on our website.

Celebrating 50 years in Auckland This year marks the 50th Auckland NZIFF. To celebrate, we've invited selected Aucklanders and long-time associates of the Festival – including David Blyth, Jackie van Beek, Sir Bob Harvey and more – to relate their most vivid memories from over the years. “I’m developing a new film at the moment. Bizarrely the idea came to me ten minutes before my NZIFF premiere. Maybe a couple of champagnes and a wildly beating heart is just the thing to trigger the next idea?!” – Jackie van Beek reflects back on her debut feature premiere of The Inland Road at NZIFF Read their stories on our website, and be sure to share your own on our social media channels.

In the News: Leon Narbey to select New Zealand's Best One of country's finest cinematographers has been chosen as Guest Selector for the NZIFF New Zealand Best short film competition. Leon Narbey, famed for his work on Whale Rider, Rain of the Children, One Thousand Ropes and many other acclaimed local films and documentaries, will shortlist five to six NZ shorts that will premiere in Auckland, Wellington, Dunedin and Christchurch during this year’s NZIFF. Read more about Leon and the New Zealand Best short film competition. We'll be announcing Leon's short film selection early next week.

New additions to NZIFF On Demand Our online platform is growing! We've just welcomed five of New Zealand director Costa Botes' documentaries to NZIFF On Demand. These are: Act of Kindness; Candyman; Daytime Tiger; The Last Dogs of Winter; and Lost in Wonderland. You can rent these docos online anytime at ondemand.nziff.co.nz for only $6.99. We'll be continually adding to our collection, so keep an eye out for future additions.