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D I R E C T O R ’ S N O T E S - Roseanne Liang “Take 3 is a satirical comedy. Loosely based on my own experiences as a wannabe actor, Take 3 addresses the oft-seen, rarely questioned stereotypes surrounding Asian women in Western media...

DIRECTOR’S NOTES “What motivates me is the idea that nothing is too ordinary or mundane. It's right under our very noses, in our own back yards, where this amazing stuff is happening. Also, I think that the more personal you get, the...

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT – JUSTINE SIMEI-BARTON “The film is a study of the immigrant Samoan community I grew up in and it shows aspects of that community that are seldom given a voice. The community and family life is seen through the...

Shot on location in a wrecking yard in the middle of the New Zealand rainforest, a young boy spends his days destroying priceless antique cars and smelting metal with his grandather in this dark fairytale. The old man has carved out a dirty and decaying...

Second Hand Wedding is an intimate, endearing look at the relationships within and around a middle New Zealand family. The film was independently produced and shot mainly on the idyllically beautiful Kapiti Coast of New Zealand. The story...

Vincent Ward weaves drama with documentary to unravel the extraordinary story of Puhi, the Tuhoe woman who welcomed the young filmmaker into her home in 1978. Ward made the observational film In Spring One Plants Alone about Puhi’s day-to...

DIRECTORS NOTES - Michelle Savill “The idea for a mother and son film popped into my head after reading a newspaper article about an Indian boy who married a hill at his mother’s request. The boy claimed that he had no regrets about...

A Song Of Good tells the story of Gary Cradle, who, after committing a shocking crime, decides to change his life and become a good person. Making such a decision is one thing, but actually following through becomes a completely different battle. It is...

DIRECTOR’S NOTES - Quentin Parr “The Word is a coming of age story for this generation. The feeling I wanted to evoke with The Word… is one of confusion. My aim was to represent a world that I believe the youth of today have to...

Just in time for the holidays comes a timely take on a cult horror classic as a campus killer comes to face a formidable group of friends in sisterhood. Hawthorne College is quieting down for the holidays. But as Riley Stone (Imogen Poots, Green Room)...

DIRECTOR’S NOTES - Jonathan Brough “No Ordinary Sun is a film about loss and longing, set within the framework of an extreme event in an extreme landscape. Making the film was a long process, in many ways. First of all, I read a short...

Fleeting Beauty is a lyrical film that provokes us to reconsider the lessons handed down in history textbooks. While it recounts the travel and enterprise of ancient voyagers in search of spices, it describes how these journeys are benchmarks of...

Director’s Notes - Gabriel Reid We are such stuff, as dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep. -The Tempest (Act IV, Scene I), William Shakespeare “How should we spend our little lives? It is a big question to...

DIRECTOR’S NOTES - Barry Prescott “This is a story about one man’s crazy scheme to achieve his dreams.  The Man Who Couldn’t Dance is an irreverent fusion of black comedy with the more slapstick elements of visual...

Christmas was shot and edited for $39,000, with King using his parent‘s home in Whangarei as the principal location. In keeping with the low budget ethos, the cast of nine and crew of ten stayed at a local holiday camp during filming and had a...

Director’s Notes - Popo Lilo "I originally wrote this film as a feature, but after receiving funding from the New Zealand Film Commission, I re-wrote the central ideas to fit a short format. I felt particularly close to the themes of...

Director's Notes - Welby Ings Boy deals with a subject filmmakers tend to avoid. While young, heterosexual men’s emerging sexuality is commonly explored in film and television, their gay equivalent is generally avoided or portrayed as...

Director’s Notes - Miles Murphy “The Knock is the sort of tale that can be appreciated on many different levels. From a light hearted comedy to a more sinister look into Peter’s psyche. My main aim is to entertain the audience and...

Director’s Notes – Helena Brooks “The story of Nothing Special appealed to me because it’s funny and has such a unique premise. I like films that are strong on ideas and offer different ways of looking at the world. Forefront in...

From the director (George Port) of Valley of The Stereos.

Callum insists that James should stay the night and even offers some fine clothes to wear. James enjoys the party but is reminded of some curious stories about the house and its guests. He is surprised and seduced by Isabelle whilst alone in the wine...

50 Ways of Saying Fabulous is the beguiling second feature film from internationally acclaimed New Zealand director Stewart Main (Desperate Remedies). The film was adapted by Main from Graeme Aitken’s novel of the same name. 50 Ways of Saying...

Burt Munro was the quintessential New Zealander. Born and raised in Invercargill, New Zealand, he dreamed of making his 1920 Indian Twin Scout the fastest bike on earth. Roger Donaldson (whose credits include The Recruit, Thirteen Days, Dante’s...

DIRECTOR’S NOTES - Roseanne Liang “Rest Stop is a comedy of accidents that pays homage to a classic era of goodies and baddies, emulating a killer style that is thrilling to watch and even better to laugh at. Its sheer surreal craziness...

Tom Reilly taught himself filmmaking and animation while studying English at Auckland University, New Zealand.  He worked for a year as a film extra before making his first Claymation in 2001.  In 2003 he was named New Zealand New Filmmaker of...

Director’s Notes - Shona McCullagh "The film originated with the choreographic idea of a suspension of the natural laws of gravity. It occurred to me that yearning was the emotional equivalent of a suspension of a body in time and space...

Driector's Notes Ninety Percent was conceived as a narratively innovative short film which reveals the small yet meaningful details in the lives of three separate groups of characters. While the significance of the events portrayed are...

Director's Notes ‘The Underwatermelon Man and Other Unreasonable Rhymes’ has had a long and interesting metamorphosis. It began as drawing of a surreal character ‘The Underwatermelon Man’, that I made in the mid seventies...

SIONE’S WEDDING is a comedy about four best friends, Michael, Albert, Stanley and Sefa; the ladies’ man, the good boy, the party guy and the weird one – the Boys. They’re first generation Samoan New Zealanders living out their...

DIRECTOR’S NOTES - Rebecca Hobbs “I started out as an actor, and then became fascinated by the whole process of film making. I was aware, that as an actor you come in very late in the piece. Then I started writing and I caught the bug:...

Director, Jason Stutter, has always loved movies, especially comedy and action pictures. While making one of his early short films, Gun Lovers he needed a clip of an action film to play in the background of one of the scenes. The intention being that the...

Director’s Notes - Shona McCullagh “As a choreographer, the medium of camera has always held a fascination for me, especially where the laws of gravity could be played with. The Greek myth of Daedelus, who created wings made of wax and...

DIRECTOR’S NOTES - Michael Reihana “Since Little Gold Cowboy was my first film to direct I wanted it to be a fun experience for all involved. I made it with a group of ten people, friends that I had worked with previously, who all did...