NZIFF 2023: Q&A - Director Annie Goldson, Red Mole

Tell us about your film - where did the idea come from?

Full disclosure: I was enamoured by Red Mole as a teenager from the North Shore when I saw them perform and by 1981, I left my job as a cub reporter at RNZ and tagged along to New York, which was pretty wild and seedy in those days.

When did you begin shooting and did it all go according to plan?

I began shooting late 2019 and 2020 in Mexico and NYC – then COVID broke, and I had to hotfoot it back to NZ as the borders slammed shut. Given I had no real funding (I didn’t see the funders going for an avant-garde theatre troupe beloved in the 1970s that not too many people now remember), one of the difficulties of shooting was picking up camera operators as I went, so as well as doing sound recording,
I needed to try to make the look consistent using less than top of the range gear.

We then filmed in Aotearoa which was more leisurely.

What’s the best reaction you’ve had to your film?

First off, from the remaining Moles. They seemed to really like the film which shows their exuberance but also their warts and all. Always the toughest test of the documentary maker. It is a poignant tale that needed some delicacy too. The critics seem to like it which is a bonus.

The reason I carried on with this film when it got tough is.....

When I start a film, I always finish it. Eventually.

The one moment that will resonate with an audience is.......

Maybe different audiences will have favourite bits. I’m quite fond of the origin story, although the New York section is pretty exciting too.

The hardest thing I had to cut from this film is........

There were some more poetic edgy scenes that had to give way to the demands of time, always a difficult balance.

The thing I want people to take from this film is ......

That the radical politics and op-shop style of Red Mole still resonates today. The contradictions around the environment, class issues, colonisation and so forth are amongst us still, and the very materiality of their practice – masks, hand-drawn posters, live performance, buttons – is a relief from the continuous grappling with our online worlds. I mean Red Mole weren’t perfect, to some degree of their time, but they worked hard, were open to change, and shifted with the cultural moments.

The one film I want to see most at NZIFF is.......

Ms Information

For more info on screening times, head to nziff.co.nz