New Zealand films revealed for 2024 NZ International Film Festival
Whānau
Mārama New Zealand International Film Festival (NZIFF) has today announced the
line-up of exceptional New Zealand-made feature films, documentaries, and
shorts in the 2024 programme, showcasing the increasingly rich talent and
diverse storytelling in New Zealand filmmaking. The 2024 NZIFF opens in Te
Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington on 31 July before touring to nine other centres
across the country until 4 September.
Twelve full-length films and 19 shorts make up the ‘Māhutonga’ strand of the programme - a selection of stand-out New Zealand features and documentaries curated by 2024 Artistic Director Paolo Bertolin and Head of Programming Michael McDonnell, and shorts selected by long-time co-curators Leo Koziol and Craig Fasi, and 2024 guest selector Gerard Johnstone. The Māhutonga programme is proudly supported by Creative New Zealand.
Bertolin says, “Aotearoa cinema has reached a defining crossroad. The twelve features and four combined programmes of shorts in Māhutonga reflect the diversity and wealth of subjects and styles in local storytelling. With their films, New Zealand filmmakers provide a vibrant kaleidoscope that enables audiences to look at the past and the present through distinctive perspectives.
We Were Dangerous, directed by Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu and fresh from winning the special Jury Award for Filmmaking in the Narrative Feature Competition at SXSW, will open the festival in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington on 31 July, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland on 7 August, and all regions except Christchurch, because Head South, directed by Jonathan Ogilvie and set and filmed in Christchurch, will open the Ōtautahi Christchurch season on 15 August following sell-out screenings at Sydney Film Festival.
The other New Zealand-made feature films in the 2024 programme are A Mistake (2024), directed by Christine Jeffs; Alien Weaponry: Kua Tupu Te Ara (2024), directed by Kent Belcher; Grafted (2023), directed by Sasha Rainbow; I Am a Dark River (2024), directed by Tessa Mitchell; Marimari (2024), directed by Paul Wolffram; Night Piece (2023), directed by Bridget Sutherland; Taki Rua Theatre - Breaking Barriers (2024), directed by Whetū Fala; The Haka Party Incident (2024), directed by Katie Wolfe; and The House Within (2024), directed by Joshua Prendeville. Never Look Away (2024), directed by Lucy Lawless, also in the Māhutonga strand, has previously been announced.
The
New Zealand feature films sit alongside two regular short films sections in the
NZIFF – Ngā Whanaunga Māori and Pasifika Shorts, selected by long-time
co-curators Leo Koziol and Craig Fasi, and New Zealand's Best, selected this
year by guest selector Gerard Johnstone. The 2024 shorts programme also
includes Short Connections – five promising new Aotearoa shorts that deftly capture the bonds and binds between us. All
this year’s shorts are outlined below.
New Zealand film will be celebrated at a special Aotearoa Film Focus weekend,
presented by the University of Auckland Faculty of Arts, taking place from 15
to 18 August at Auckland’s ASB Waterfront Theatre. Across three days and four
nights, audiences can enjoy films, a new exhibition by the New Zealand
Cinematography Society – Still Stories, panel discussions, a workshop, a
masterclass, filmmaker Q&A events, and a gig! Exclusive to the weekend will
also be a tribute to iconoclast Garth Maxwell,
showcasing his recent MoMa purchase Naughty Little Peeptoe and the
remastered version of his early work Come with Us.
Bertolin says, “The aim of our Aotearoa Film Focus weekend is
to give a full spotlight on the vivid resurgence of local cinema, thanks to an
exciting new generation of filmmakers, but also through the work of more
established directors. We wish to engage audiences, especially young people,
with New Zealand cinema, creating a dialogue that goes beyond the sheer
screening of films. And we hope that this connection will last beyond the
festival, truly benefiting both filmmakers and audiences.”
NZIFF 2024 will screen at The Embassy, Roxy Cinema and Light House Cinema Cuba
in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington (31 July – 11 August), The Civic, Hollywood
Avondale and ASB Auckland Waterfront Theatre in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland (7 –
18 August), The Regent Theatre in Ōtepoti Dunedin (14 – 25 August), State
Cinemas in Whakatū Nelson (14 – 25 August), Lumière Cinemas in Ōtautahi
Christchurch (15 August – 1 September), Luxe Cinemas in Tauranga Moana (15 – 28
August), MTG Century Theatre in Ahuriri Napier (21 August – 1 September), LIDO
Cinema in Kirikiriroa Hamilton (21 August – 4 September), Len Lye Cinema in
Ngāmotu New Plymouth (21 August – 4 September), and Regent 3 in Whakaoriori Masterton (21 August – 4 September).
Tickets for Wellington will be on sale from 10am
Friday 12 July and tickets for Auckland will be on sale from 10am Friday 19
July, with tickets for all other centres going on sale in late July. Tickets
can be booked online at www.nziff.co.nz or in-person at the NZIFF Box Office on Allen Street, Wellington, and
at The Civic on Wellesley Street West, Auckland. Keen festival-goers can get
advanced booking access and discounts by purchasing multi-passes now from www.shop.nziff.co.nz.
Never
Look Away
Aotearoa
New Zealand, 2024
Director:
Lucy Lawless
New
Zealand-born CNN camerawoman Margaret Moth walks on the razor’s edge between
sanity and death. Her first assignment with CNN is to cover the riots that
followed Indira Gandhi's assassination in India. She goes on to cover conflicts
in Africa, the Middle East and the Bosnian war. In vivid, emotional detail, we
see what Moth saw and how she, in turn, changed what we, the television viewer,
saw. A rollicking ride through sex, drugs and war, Never Look Away is
war as you’ve never seen it before, from a woman’s perspective.
Presented
in association with NewstalkZB.
Grafted
Aotearoa New Zealand, 2024
Director:
Sasha Rainbow
A
shy, socially awkward young woman from China with a facial disfigurement moves
to New Zealand. Craving acceptance but facing rejection and cruelty at every
turn, she wreaks revenge on her bullies in a very unique way – using her own
scientific formula, she figures out to create masks out of human skin that
graft onto her own face. The catch? She hasn’t figured out how to make them
last longer than a few days, resulting in a gruesome murder spree. Sasha
Rainbow’s brilliant directorial debut injects new life into Aotearoa New
Zealand’s horror film canon.
I Am a Dark River
Aotearoa New Zealand, 2024
Director: Tess Mitchell
Dubbed “the kumara god” by James K. Baxter, Bob Lowry was, famously, a lot of
things. Printmaker, writer, activist, publisher, raconteur – but to Tess
Mitchell, he is the mysterious grandfather she grew up hearing so much about
but never knew. Does the dark river that ran through him also run through her?
Mitchell, herself as unconventional and creative as her grandfather, uses the medium
of performance documentary to explore this question, and in doing so reveals
the fascinating history of her family.
The House Within
Aotearoa New Zealand, 2024
Director: Joshua Prendeville
At 84, Dame Fiona Kidman has published more than 30 books of fiction, poetry,
and memoir, and received a raft of the highest accolades here and abroad. As
the New Zealand Listener put it, “in her craft and storytelling and in her
compassionate, gutsy, tough expression of female experience, she is the best we
have.” Filmmaker Joshua Prendeville’s sterling documentary holds a delicate
lens to the fascinating life and work of one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s literary
treasures.
Head South
Aotearoa New Zealand, 2024
Director: Jonathan Ogilvie
Christchurch-born
filmmaker Jonathan Ogilvie returns home for this evocative coming-of-age story
that brilliantly captures the feeling of growing up weird in the Garden City.
It’s 1979 and teenage Angus gets his mind blown when he first listens to Public
Image Limited at the local record shop. Before long he is drawn into the
burgeoning underground post-punk music scene of the city and is forced to back
up his fabricated claims of musical ability. Starring Ed Oxenbould, Márton
Csókás and featuring Stella Bennett, aka Benee, in her acting debut, Head
South will be our opening night film for the Christchurch leg of the
Festival.
A
Mistake
Aotearoa
New Zealand, 2024
Director: Christine Jeffs
Informed
consent. Transparency. Evidence-based care. When sickness or injury strikes, we
all want to understand the what, why, and how of our maladies and their
proposed treatments. But how do physicians communicate nuance and probabilities
when patients and their loved ones crave certainty? Adapted from Carl
Shuker’s Ockham shortlisted novel of the same name, Christine Jeffs’s A
Mistake delves into the complexity of our healthcare system, through the
lens of an error – at once minor yet with far-reaching implications – in the
workday of gifted surgeon Liz Taylor (a finely-tuned performance from Elizabeth
Banks). It is difficult to remain detached when consequences become personal.
As her steely veneer crumples, we are faced with the question: where does responsibility
start and where does it end?
Taki Rua Theatre - Breaking Barriers
Aotearoa New Zealand, 2024
Director: Whetū Fala
After the 1981 Springbok tour, as New Zealanders were embracing a new maturity
of valuing their own identity, a group of theatre practitioners took over a
space in downtown Wellington. They grew to understand that to truly represent
our stories, they needed to be in partnership with Māori, and the New Depot
evolved into Taki Rua Depot Theatre, now Taki Rua Productions – a kaupapa Māori
theatre company. Director Whetū Fala draws on her personal connection with Taki
Rua to both learn from and pay tribute to actors, writers, producers,
directors, staff, governors, and te reo Māori advocates who have helped shape
Taki Rua over the last 40 years.
The Haka Party Incident
Aotearoa New Zealand, 2024
Director: Katie Wolfe
In 1979, a group of young Māori activists sought to stop Pākehā students at the
University of Auckland performing a parody of haka each capping week. Headlines
described it as a “gang rampage” with “students bashed”, and several activists
were convicted of crimes. But the Haka Party has not been held since. The
Haka Party Incident was rescued from historical oblivion by writer and
filmmaker Katie Wolfe – originally as a play commissioned by Auckland Theatre
Company, first staged in 2021. The film cleverly intertwines interviews from
both sides, both recent and from around the time of the incident. Wolfe’s play
toured the country last year to great acclaim.
We Were Dangerous
Aotearoa New Zealand, 2024
Director: Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu
After
winning a Special Jury Prize at SXSW 2024, Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu’s electric
full-length debut launches our festival with a fiery trio of delinquent
schoolgirls railing against the system in 1950s New Zealand. After a failed
escape attempt from their strict boarding school, the girls and their cohort of
renegades are shipped off to an isolated island. Doom sets in when they catch a
glimpse of the dead-of-night discipline being performed against those who act
out. We Were Dangerous is a riotous middle finger to colonial tyranny, a
fierce feminist anthem with a wicked sense of humour, and a potent portrait of
friendship and solidarity.
MariMari
Aotearoa New Zealand, 2024
Director: Paul Wolffram
The observational lens of Kiwi documentary filmmaker Paul Wolffram takes
audiences deep into the lushly forested landscapes of Papua New Guinea to hear
harrowing first-hand accounts from survivors and perpetrators of accusations of
black magic. The beating heart of this hard-nosed investigation is Evelyn
Kunda, a human rights worker who has devoted herself entirely to rescuing and
protecting those fleeing accusations – cooking for kids living rough, opening
her home, and establishing safehouses. The natural beauty of Papua New Guinea
is gracefully shot, providing a stunning contrast to the adversity faced by
the accused, just as Evelyn’s unflagging compassion (“Marimari” in Tok Pisin)
shines brightly through difficult circumstances.
Alien Weaponry: Kua Tupu Te Ara
Aotearoa New Zealand, 2024
Director: Kent Belcher
Even
if you’re not a fan of heavy metal, you can’t help but admire Alien Weaponry –
if not for their international acclaim, then for being the first band of the
genre to sing in te reo Māori. Director Kent Belcher follows Alien Weaponry’s
rise to international acclaim, from their first performance at Smokefree
Rockquest, to European metal festivals, through to their international
headlining concerts, jam-packed with metalheads. Although Alien Weaponry’s
success is clearly huge, perhaps what is truly most impressive about them is
their commitment to keeping te ao Māori culture alive.
Night
Piece
Aotearoa
New Zealand, 2023
Director: Bridget Sutherland
Night
Piece documents the confronting career of Peter
Roche, one of Aotearoa’s most electrifying conceptual artists. From early
performances spiked with danger, pushing audience and artist to their limits,
to immense neon sculptures that would become permanent parts of Auckland's
landscape, the documentary offers intimate insight into the mind and process of
an artist who truly lived his art. Affectionately assembled with archive photos
and video stretching from the mid-1980s to Peter’s untimely death at 63 in
2020, along with insightful interviews with the artist’s critics, peers, and
friends, Night Piece is a warm tribute to the man and an accessible
overview of the art – provocative work that demands to live on.
New
Zealand’s Best Shorts 2024
The year’s
best New Zealand short films as chosen by guest selector, Gerard Johnstone.
After twice winning the 48Hours film competition, director Gerard Johnstone
used some of his prize money to create a comedy TV pilot. Although the project
went nowhere, TV3 went on to screen two seasons of his award-winning comedy The
Jaquie Brown Diaries. Johnstone made his feature-length directorial debut
in 2014 with haunted house horror-comedy Housebound and went on to
reboot the 1980s series Terry and the Gunrunners as Terry Teo in 2016.
Johnstone's second feature, killer robot horror M3gan, was released with
Blumhouse in 2022.
The New
Zealand’s Best programme in the NZIFF 2024 is:
I See You
Aotearoa New Zealand, 2022
Director, Screenplay: Briar March
A young mother struggles with her toddler’s delayed development until a chance
encounter with a charismatic young man changes her mind.
First Horse
Aotearoa New Zealand, 2024
Director: Awanui Simich-Pene
In pre-colonial Aotearoa a young Māori girl witnesses the best and worst of a
rapidly changing world when she encounters a dying man and his horse.
Grateful
Grapefruit
Aotearoa New Zealand, 2023
Director, Screenplay, Producer, Editor: Sam Handley
A frustrated wife at her wits’ end finds a message in a bottle which leads her
into the mysterious world of The Hypnotist, and before long she’s on track to
put the glitter back in her grapefruit.
Rochelle
Aotearoa New Zealand, 2024
Director, Screenplay, Editor: Tom Furniss
A brazen young man takes it upon himself to send his friend’s busted up car,
Rochelle, out in style by entering it in a local demolition derby, but to get
there he needs help from an unexpected source.
Lea
Tupu’anga/Mother Tongue
Aotearoa New Zealand, 2023
Director: Vea Mafile’o
A young speech therapist who has lied about her language skills must find a new
way to communicate when she is assigned to an elderly Tongan patient with
aphasia who can no longer speak English.
Ngā Whanaunga Māori Pasifika Shorts 2024
This
collection of seven Māori and Pasifika short films has been selected by
co-curators Leo Koziol (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Rakaipaaka), Director of the
Wairoa Film Festival, and Craig Fasi (Niue), Director of Pollywood Film
Festival.
Support
these homegrown films and vote for your favourites at screenings all across the
motu.
My Brother
USA, 2023
Director, Screenplay: Misa Tupou
Health of
mind and especially body is often overlooked – Pasifika people are proud,
towers of strength, in denial of the unwilling host to illness that they are.
Change is choice – quality of life the decision.
Butterfly/Bataplai
USA, 2023
Director, Producer, Screenplay, Editor: Veialu Aila-Unsworth
Unique,
distinct, bold and proud – understanding and acknowledgement to own who you are
despite the generic prejudice you will encounter. Embrace, enhance, expose – be
Butterfly/Bataplai.
The Great
South
Aotearoa New Zealand, 2023
Director, Screenplay: Taniora Ormsby
Sometimes
life isn't as black and white as we think it is, sometimes it’s red and blue –
the hope in hopeless times is to somehow stay true.
The Red
Room
Aotearoa New Zealand, 2023
Director, Screenplay: Alex Liu
Therapy in the form of fantasy located in tomorrow here for you today.
Suffering to heal via an “institution” that thrives with failure of the human
condition. Stay calm – be prepared – know your enemy.
Show Home
Aotearoa New Zealand, 2023
Director: Jane Shearer
The universe can teach if you are willing to learn. Desperation and lack of any
contingency creates delusion and false hope. Sacrifice deserves certainty –
words like hope and potential are fairytales.
Hands of
Fate
Aotearoa New Zealand, 2023
Director: Sima Urale
Not just another night in the city, a tale untold revealed; perhaps
helplessness is a disguise.
Chatterbox
Aotearoa New Zealand, 2023
Director: Tainui Tukiwaho
The new Aotearoa Rocky Horror we didn't know we needed explodes on screen.
Enjoy the ride, for this story will surely leave you wanting more, more, more!
Short
Connections 2024
Five new
Aotearoa shorts examine the ways we connect with each other. From strangers
uniting to stand up for what is right to fleeting moments of understanding
between loved ones, these films deftly capture the bonds - and binds - between
us.
Payback
Aotearoa New Zealand, 2023
Director, Screenplay: Mia Blake
When a
welfare department’s insidious prejudice can no longer be tolerated, a group of
unlikely heroes band together against a narrow-minded case worker. Made in
collaboration with Toi Whakaari, Mia Blake cleverly reflects the state of the
nation in this punchy black comedy.
The Sea
Inside Her
Aotearoa New Zealand, 2024
Director: Alyx Duncan
Award-winning
filmmaker and choreographer Alyx Duncan (The Tide Keeper NZIFF 2015)
builds on her unique movement-led films depicting an anxious grandmother
desperate to protect her grandchild from the dangers of the world. Using
performance, puppetry and visual effects, Alyx Duncan paints a fantastical
picture of fear and frustration for these fragile times.
Earthlings
Aotearoa New Zealand, 2023
Director, Screenplay: Jamie Lawrence
A lonely
teenager shares a moment of intimacy with a mysterious stranger in this
surprising and sensitive film. Jamie Lawrence (Darryl Exists NZIFF 2011)
evokes a surreal world that tenderly explores identity, belonging and the
desire for connection.
Lost at Sea
Aotearoa New Zealand, 2024
Director, Screenplay: Asuka Sylvie
A young
woman and her friends gather at a beach house one evening to honour the memory
of a loved one. Made in collaboration with Toi Whakaari, Asuka Sylvie (Kainga
NZIFF 2022) conjures an evocative atmosphere in this poignant and lyrical
portrait of grief.
The Lascar
Aotearoa New Zealand, 2023
Director, Screenplay: Adi Parige
At the end
of the eighteenth century, hundreds of Indian sailors, known as lascars, worked
in brutal working conditions amongst European seal hunting gangs in Aotearoa.
In Adi Parige’s striking coastal epic, one such crew is shaken when a lascar is
caught trading with two Māori siblings behind the back of the gang’s tyrannical
British leader.
Notes on Garth Maxwell Shorts
Best known
for his cultish debut feature, Jack Be Nimble, as well as prolific work
in television across both sides of the Tasman, Garth Maxwell here offers a
deeply personal film, co-directed by the late Peter Wells, in Naughty Little
Peeptoe.
An ode to
friend, fashionista and foot-fetishist Doug George, Maxwell along with
collaborator Debra Daley recorded the caustic, chaotic narration from George,
retelling the story of how high heels saved his life. The featurette was
recently picked up by MoMA as part of its permanent film collection, with film
curator Ron Magliozzi dubbing it a “witty testimony to the durable, liberating
spirit of a queer perspective.”
Peeptoe
will be preceded by a screening of Maxwell’s first ever film Come With Us,
a culmination of a creative childhood friendship between Garth Maxwell and
Simon Marler, who grew up in the North Shore suburbs of Auckland, New Zealand, in
the 1960s and 70s. A reading from queer erotic fiction writer, Samuel Te Kani,
will follow.
Naughty
Little Peeptoe
Aotearoa New Zealand, 2000
Co-Directors: Garth Maxwell and Peter Wells
Presented in association with Gus Fisher Gallery
Come with
Us
Aotearoa New Zealand, 1981
Co-Directors: Garth Maxwell and Simon Marler
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