NZIFF 2023: Q&A - Director Haydn Butler, Home Kills

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

I was with my dad in my late teens driving through the backblocks in the Bay of Plenty. I’d just kind of discovered proper, more grown up movies at the video store, jaws, taxi driver etc so I was really into movies and ideas for movies at the time. Gazing out the window I saw the words ‘Home Kills' roughly painted to a board and nailed to a fence in some paddock. It was two words that you don’t really see together anywhere, so they stuck in my brain.  Dad told me what the words meant. It was an ad for butchers, usually farmers themselves who come to your farm and process your animals, a more humane way of butchery-saving the need to send them to a factory on the back of a truck.. My teenage brain ran wild with possibilities, what if these Home Kills butchers started processing people? I dusted the idea off during ‘Lockdown’ when like a lot of people I was having a ‘what’s happening with my life?’ moment.

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

6 months ago we were in a dark, cold and rainy paddock in the Waikato making the film,  it’s going to be on the cinema screen in August.  Which is insane for an independent film, usually once shot it takes years for a low budget indie film to make it to the big screen, if at all. So I’m really proud of how quickly it’s all come together. In this age of cinema there is no guarantee that your film is going to be seen by anybody, let alone make it to a cinema screen,  so the whole crew is stoked we’re premiering at the NZIFF. We shot for 21 days, and I did about a month prep before those 21 days. During the shooting the crew often referred to it as the lucky film, there was so many things that could have gone wrong, weather, covid breakouts but it all went relatively smoothly. Though for me it was a very stressful time, and I was in a constant state of wondering what have I got myself into? 

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

Someone told me, it is funny but it was not trying to be funny. Which is exactly what I was going for. An Australian who saw it said, that movie could only be made in NZ, which was also a big compliment to me.

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

Lots of reasons, You don’t want to let the cast and crew down. They’ve invested time and in some cases money. Also, I’ve left my family for two months to go and make the movie so you don’t want to let them down either.  

But above all there’s an ego thing where you want to prove to yourself that this concept could work as a movie, and you want to see it though.

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

Being frustrated with the gap between where you are in life, and where you want to be.

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

Always the lines, there are amazing performances all the way though the film and to cut any of those performances is always really tough, especially if the character says something funny- those lines are always the toughest to cut.

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

People in rural NZ are doing it tough at times, rural businesses and culture are being sucked into the gravitation pull of the city and big business.   We should do anything we can to preserve those small rural livelihoods and hold on to our  small NZ towns.

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

 Anatomy of a Fall - I hear great things!

For schedule times visit www.nziff.co.nz