- Gina, who is in her mid-40s, has been bedridden in New Zealand for years
- Extremely rare genetic disorder affects her eyes, ears, larynx and joints
- She can only communicate through the use of a touch alphabet system
- Her tragic story is the subject of a new documentary by Loadings Docs
- She is desperate to get voluntary euthanasia legalised in New Zealand
This woman has been forced to live blindfolded in her dark bedroom with headphones over her ears ever since a crippling genetic disorder took hold of her body.
Gina, who is in her mid-40s, has been bedridden in her New Zealand home for several years due to an extremely rare illness that affects her eyes, ears, larynx and joints.
Sound and light cause her body further damage and Gina is unable to talk – she can only communicate through the use of a touch alphabet system.
The condition, which she has had for a decade and doctors haven’t been able to explain, has made it impossible for her to participate in every day life.
Gina has shared her story for the first time with New Zealand documentary makers Loading Docs.
‘I live in enforced darkness and almost silence as sound and light cause further damage to my eyes and ears,’ she said.
‘My muscles have wasted away leaving me painful pressure areas from head to toe. I also have total voice loss.’
Gina says in the documentary that she loves hugs but is unable to give them because of the pain it causes in her elbows.
The cruel and debilitating condition shows no sign of improving and Gina has shared her story in a bid to get voluntary euthanasia legalised in New Zealand.
Gina tragically believes she has nothing left to live for and wants the right to choose to end her life peacefully.
‘My doctor would give me medicine that would send me to sleep and then (I would) die peacefully while I hold my sister’s hand,’ she said in the documentary.
‘I think a compassionate God would want people to have the option of a humane death.’
Documentary director Wendell Cooke said they came across Gina’s story and found she offered a compelling argument for why people should have the right to choose if they were suffering.
‘Our motivation was to make a film that opened people’s eyes to a movement in New Zealand that provides terminally ill and elderly people with information about end of life choice,’ Mr Cooke said.
‘We wanted to highlight the current gap in the law for people who may want to consider ending their lives because of illness, and the impact that this gap has on everyday people.’
If you or someone you know needs help or support you can call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or visit lifeline.org.au.
Read more:
via The Daily Mail
SHE lives in the dark with a blindfold over her eyes and headphones over her ears.
Sunlight and sound are too much for her fragile body.
A cruel genetic condition makes it impossible for her to use her voice and incredibly painful to move her limbs. She loves hugs but can’t hug back because of the agony it causes.
And her condition will only get worse.
New Zealand woman Gina, whose full name has been withheld, is in her mid 40s. She’s been suffering like this in a dark, silent room for more than a decade. The worst part: doctors don’t know exactly what’s wrong with her.
Gina has told her story for the first time to documentary makers, revealing she has nothing left to live for and just wants to die. The problem is, her government won’t let her.
‘SWAP PLACES WITH ME’
Gina has a simple message for people opposed to voluntary euthanasia: “Swap places with me.”
“I think a compassionate God would want people to have the option of a humane death,” she said.
Wendell Cooke co-directed the documentary Gina with Jeremy Macey. He said he wanted to open people’s eyes to the daily struggle for people living with terminal illnesses.
Speaking with Gina, he said he realised that she and only she should have the right to choose whether or not she goes on living.
“We didn’t go looking for the most extreme case that we could find,” Cooke told news.com.au from his home in Wellington.
“She was living with this atrocious condition. She was disempowered. It’s been really hard and continues to be. Mentally she’s all there, so basically she’s just spending a lot of time thinking.
In the documentary, Gina explains her condition. She uses a touch alphabet to communicate her message.
“I have a rare genetic disorder affected my eyes, ears, larynx and all my joints. I live in enforced darkness and almost silence as sound and light cause further damage to my eyes and ears. My muscles have wasted away. I have total voice loss.”
Cooke said he hoped the documentary would move along a debate that has stagnated in New Zealand following two failed attempts at legalisation.
“We felt that if we could just communicate this to an audience it would go right to the heart of why there needs to be a law change in New Zealand,” he said.
‘I’M NOT A HEARTLESS BASTARD’
Paul Russell is the director of HOPE, an Australian organisation against assisted suicide.
He told news.com.au he feels for Gina but worries that her case could be used to enact damaging legislation.
“It’s obviously difficult for her, she has an incredibly rare condition. I’m not a heartless bastard, I really do feel for these people (but) I can’t see a circumstance where you could enact legislation that would be free from risk for vulnerable people.”
He said the documentary was emotive but “I don’t personalise the issue at all”.
“I’ve got a son with a disability, I’ve been involved in the disability community. I question whether there’s something else that can be done for her (instead of euthanasia).”
Cooke said his film was about not simply “shrugging” and saying “the risks are too great”.
“Objections to legalising voluntary euthanasia seem to centre on the risk of the unknown, risk the that the law could be misused, or risk of the elderly feeling pressured, say by family members, to shorten their lives,” he said.
“These are absolutely valid concerns but my response to that line of argument is it’s not enough to simply shrug and say “the risks are too great” when people are already cruelly suffering under the status quo.
“We should be urging politicians to draft good laws that take these risks into account and manage them for the good of society, the same way we do with other risky endeavours such as driving a car or providing access to alcohol.”
SOME COUNTRIES MOVING, OTHERS STANDING STILL
Australia’s euthanasia laws remain the same as those in New Zealand. But this week the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into end of life choices is hearing from medical professional and palliative care providers about potential changes to Australia’s legislative framework.
Euthanasia is legal in some countries. In Germany and Switzerland it is legal for a doctor to assist in suicide in certain circumstances and in the Netherlands euthanasia was legalised in 2002.
In the US, doctors are allowed to prescribe lethal doses of medicine to terminally ill patients in five US states including Oregon, Vermont and Montana, the Guardianreports.
Gina hopes New Zealand joins that list. Asked how she wanted to die, she told Cooke her doctor would give her medicine and she would fall asleep. Then she would “die peacefully while I hold my sister’s hand”.
If you or someone you know needs help or support you can call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or visit lifeline.org.au.
via news.com.au
What kind of condition forces someone to be trapped in bed, unable to move their body while they suffer in complete darkness? Well, we can’t tell you — because doctors can’t diagnose it. For Gina, a New Zealand woman in her mid-40s, the condition is a very real, very painful situation she’s endured for more than a decade. Her illness leaves her body in an incredibly fragile state, unable to use her voice or move her limbs. She spends every day in bed, wearing a blindfold and earphones; sunlight and sound bring her too much pain. As reported by news.com.au, a new documentary called One Woman’s Fight to Die, directed by Wendell Cooke, follows Gina and her request to die from voluntary euthanasia. Using a touch alphabet to communicate, Gina explains that she wants her doctor to give her medicine that would send her to sleep and allow her to die a humane death. But New Zealand does not allow assisted suicide. In the United States, it’s legal in Montana, Oregon, Vermont, Washington and some parts of New Mexico, according to CNN. No matter your stance on assisted suicide, this short, three-minute video is a heartbreaking insight into one woman’s struggle to survive a life restricted to bed. via Van Winkle’s
LET’S GET READY TO RUMBLE!! Weighing in at 3mins & 30secs and coming straight out of the Loading Docs stable, J.Ollie Lucks’ high-tempo short Wilbur Force is a heavyweight example of just how much fun you can pack into such a tight duration. Piledriving his camera into the face of ex-pro-wrestling star and friend Wilbur Force, director Lucks has created a hilarious, yet touching short that centres around themes of friendship and fame.
“What if the man I have become gets to meet the man I could have become.”
Created as part of the Loading Docs series, an initiative that produces short (3-minute) documentaries to help promote and develop New Zealand filmmaking talent, director Lucks admits the main inspiration behind by his short, was the desire to work with his friend. “I always wanted to make films with Wilbur”, he says, “it started out as a straight-up documentary about the challenges he deals with regarding his weight etc. But then life happened. Wilbur happened… and things took a different turn….I set out for the process of creating this documentary to help Wilbur get off his ass. And it totally worked…There is a saying that I like and want to address with this film: What if the man I have become gets to meet the man I could have become. Holding on to ones best self is so important but quite hard at times. We all know what it is like. Thereby this documentary is also about the importance of friendship in reminding you of your former, best self”.
Taking around 4-months to complete – 3 months of planning (on and off), 3 days of shooting and 2 weeks in post – Lucks shot exclusively on the Sony F5, edited on Adobe Premiere CC and colour-graded with Blackmagic’s DaVinci, but the filmmaker reveals the hardest part of production was being in the film himself (along with “being on a mountain in winter, in spandex, with no undies, for 5 hours”). However, Lucks’ inclusion in-front of camera plays a vital part in the success of Wilbur Force, it’s the camaraderie and banter between the pair that makes this such a likable film and you do have to wonder if it would have had the same impact if it was made by another filmmaker – one without such a strong connection to their subject.
It appears that Lucks’ film had the desired effect on his friend, “Will loves the film”, the filmmaker admits, “the process of making it has indeed transformed his life. He now has a fulltime office job and a wrestling match (his first one in 3 years)…Ironically he only grants me 17% credit in changing his life for the better (that cunning little shit)”. The pair have had such a strong response to their documentary that they’re now working hard on a Web Series featuring Wilbur, if you like the short be sure to show the series some support over on their Facebook page.
If you enjoyed Wilbur Force, be sure to check out the rest of the Loading Docs series atwww.loadingdocs.net.
By Rob Munday
Down the end of the long polished corridor, Mary O’Hagan comes face to face with the condemning words written about her in her psychiatric files. Director: Nikki Castle Producer: Alexander Gandar
“The files were all about me, but couldn’t see ‘me’ in them.”
This is a wonderful 3-minute film that sums up the feelings of someone ‘lost’ in the mental health system. It’s also about recovery. I think the film is best summed up by someone who has been there, so I leave you words from Laura Delano from her excellent website.
‘I watched the 3-minute documentary Madness Made Me the other day, and found myself nodding in solidarity and thinking “Hear, hear!” to myself as I watched the protagonist, Mary O’Hagan, reclaim her personal narrative from psychiatry.
Afterwards, I sat with an intense mix of joy and despair as I smiled at the strength of the human spirit and shook my head at the fundamentally unjust and dehumanizing nature of the psychiatric record. It’s so big and so profound, though unless you’ve been subjected to a psychiatrist’s note-taking yourself, few ever recognize this.
As mental patients, our entire humanity is reduced to a list of symptoms, entirely subjective (i.e. “professional”) opinions on our worth and our character jotted down in sloppy handwriting.
These arbitrary, invented words are scribbled down in a matter of minutes but have the power to strip us of our identity, our right to fresh air, our bodily integrity, the sanctity of our minds, our dignity, our humanness.
And of course, though we may awaken to their absurdity and abandon them as we become ex-mental patients, these pages upon pages of invented words will forever follow us in written record, stored in hospital basements and file cabinets, ghosts of our past.
Thank you, Mary O’Hagan, for sharing your story, and thank you to Nikki Castle for directing this beautiful, thought-provoking, empowering, haunting film.’
Yes, THANK YOU Mary, Nikki and Alexander.
via Sharing Culture
Gina has an extreme genetic disorder that has caused her muscles to deteriorate. Sound and light harm her ears, so she sits in complete darkness. Gina communicates using a touch alphabet method—and in this moving short film from New Zealand’s Loading Docs initiative, she makes her case for voluntary euthanasia. “I think a compassionate god would want people to have the option of a humane death,” Gina says, her words flashing on the screen. The film is minimalistic and visual, and for a few minutes we are able to get a brief sense of what it’s like in Gina’s silent, dark world.
The Loading Docs initiative supports 10 filmmaking teams to create three-minute, creative documentaries that tell New Zealand stories. This year’s theme is connection.
Author: Nadine Ajaka
via The Atlantic
At the end of a long and sterile corridor, Mary O’Hagan feels the noose of madness begin to tighten. As a young woman in the 1970s, she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and spent several dark years in and out of psychiatric hospitals.
“I’m glad I didn’t know I was going to be the chair of an international network, have a book published in Japanese, advise the United Nations or become a New Zealand mental health commissioner. If I’d told a psychiatrist I was going to do these things they would have upped my anti-psychotics on the spot. They kept pouring accelerant onto my years of despair by telling me I had an ‘ongoing disability’ and needed to ‘lower my horizons,’ writes O Hagan.
She seldom felt helped or understood in the mental health system she was being shuffled within. Many people with mental anguish self-discriminate, absorbing the idea that they are incompatible with the community around them. The grand theories imposed on her by mental health professionals seemed to only push her further over the edge. What she couldn’t wrap her head around was how they often viewed psychosis as purely negative.
“Unless people see madness as a full human experience, such as a crisis of being that value and meaning can be derived from, their responses to it will continue to marginalize and do harm,” writes O’ Hagan.
Discrimination only pushes the alienated into darker places. For psychiatrists, madness is just a collection of disturbing symptoms. For the mad, however, existential struggle can be a powerful experience that the tools of creativity and intuition can be applied to, forging the deepest meaning out of the experience. Just look at Vincent Van Gogh, James Taylor, or Sylvia Plath. As Albert Einstein put it: “great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.”
In search to make sense of her madness, O’Hagan revisits the mental institution to come face to face with the condemning words written about her in her psychiatric files, and compares this to her own lived experience.
“They told me I should think twice about having children because of my genes. It was a delight to prove them wrong,” writes O’ Hagan.
Like the famous Rosenhan experiments of the 1970s, this 3 minute documentary will make you question if “insanity” is a relative term, and perhaps if it can be only considered an objective term within the realm of one’s own experience.
via The Plaid Zebra
After years of neglecting his passion, a Dunedin wrestler is back in the ring.
Producer Veronica Harwood-Stevenson said the three-minute wrestling documentary Wilbur Force was filmed in Dunedin and Central Otago over three cold June days.
”We had weather was that was not conducive to wearing Lycra,” Ms Harwood-Stevenson said.
”It was freezing,” actor and wrestler Wilbur McDougall said.
The documentary premiered at the International Film Festival in Auckland last month and can be watched online.
The film had been well received, Ms Harwood-Stevenson said.
”People love it.”
The only complaints were from people wanting more, she said.
The good news was that the larger-than-life character played by McDougall could be returning to screens soon, if her application to NZ On Air was successful.
”Watch this space; come October there might be a web series happening,” McDougall said the documentary was about being your best self.
He moved to Wellington in 2009, and found his calling in professional wrestling, becoming the character Wilbur Force, strutting around the ring and insulting the audience.
But to be close to his sick father, three years later he returned to Dunedin – a city without a wrestling federation.
”I didn’t really have my mojo and [director and friend J. Ollie Lucks] saw and recognised that and wanted to put the boot up my bum and get my mojo back.”
The mojo had returned and McDougall was set to wrestle in Invercargill on Saturday.
The exposure he got from the documentary led to the invitation to fight.
On Saturday, he would wrestle as King Wilbur and hoped to unleash a new body slam signature move – the royal flush.
The documentary was selected for Loading Docs 2015, a New Zealand Film Commission and NZ On Air’s Digital Media Fund initiative designed to promote New Zealand film-making talent.
I watched the 3-minute documentary Madness Made Me the other day, and found myself nodding in solidarity and thinking “Hear, hear!” to myself as I watched the protagonist, Mary O’Hagan, reclaim her personal narrative from psychiatry. Afterwards, I sat with an intense mix of joy and despair as I smiled at the strength of the human spirit and shook my head at the fundamentally unjust and dehumanizing nature of the psychiatric record. It’s so big and so profound, though unless you’ve been subjected to a psychiatrist’s note-taking yourself, few ever recognize this.
As mental patients, our entire humanity is reduced to a list of symptoms, entirely subjective (i.e. “professional”) opinions on our worth and our character jotted down in sloppy handwriting. These arbitrary, invented words are scribbled down in a matter of minutes but have the power to strip us of our identity, our right to fresh air, our bodily integrity, the sanctity of our minds, our dignity, our humanness. And of course, though we may awaken to their absurdity and abandon them as we become ex-mental patients, these pages upon pages of invented words will forever follow us in written record, stored in hospital basements and file cabinets, ghosts of our past.
Thank you, Mary O’Hagan, for sharing your story, and thank you to Nikki Castle for directing this beautiful, thought-provoking, empowering, haunting film.
The magical kingdom that is Dannevirke’s Fantasy Cave and the 100 volunteers who keep the fairy dust flying star in a new documentary.
Film-makers Matt Henley and Michelle Savill have released the documentary in conjunction with the Loading Docs Project and the short video has run as a prelude to the International Film Festival at Auckland’s Civic Theatre this week.
With its theme of “why do people create?”, the documentary is one of 10 short New Zealand films and for Henley returning to the Fantasy Cave was something he had wanted to do since his first visit when he was 9.
“I’ve a lot of friends in Dannevirke and the cave has always intrigued me,” Henley told the Dannevirke News. “The enthusiasm of the people who run it is great to see.”
However, Henley admitted he and Savill had not spent too much time with people of the older generation who volunteer at the cave.
“We’ve only ever spent time with our grandparents and the amount of life in those at the Fantasy Cave …,” he said.
“It was great hanging out with them.
“It’s wonderful to experience the sense of community which exists in Dannevirke, but we don’t see it so much here in Wellington.”
Henley said his favourite Fantasy Cave experience was the giant mushrooms, but he appreciated all the work and creativity which has gone into the displays to make the cave our top tourist attraction for 25 years.
“It’s a very special place,” he said.
For the Cave Dweller volunteers, working with the two documentary makers was unique.
“They were great,” Liz Edwards said. “It certainly has been an experience.”
The documentary was also released on Tuesday on the Loading Docs website and although Mrs Edwards and her husband, Ces, the president of the Fantasy Cave, have viewed it, other volunteers haven’t been so lucky.
“A lot of our Cave Dwellers don’t have computers,” Mrs Edwards said.
However, Henley has said he and Savill are intending to bring the film to Dannevirke in August, to show on a large screen to the volunteers.
For the volunteers who appear on the short film, happiness is in making stuff and the quirky documentary shares their joy in creating.
However, the name Fantasy Cave did lead to an interesting experience for one male visitor, who arrived thinking it was a brothel.
Meanwhile, the popularity of the Fantasy Cave is increasing with the last school holidays, the best in four years Mrs Edwards said.
“We averaged 100 visitors on each of the days we opened and on the last Saturday we had 174 visitors,” she said. “We also had school holiday programme visitors through which seems to be a trend now, but unfortunately we missed out on 40 young visitors from the Manawatu when their bus driver turned around at Ashhurst, not prepared to risk young lives going through the gorge with its slips and at the time there was snow up on the Saddle Rd.”
Loading Docs is a launching pad for New Zealand short documentaries which has just released 10 new films. We’ll be featuring each of the films and profiling the directors behind them.
DIRECTOR PROFILE: HAMISH BENNETT
Tihei Harawera has a way with words. Weaving meanings and style into stream of consciousness lyrics, he stands at the Otara markets once a week with a sign and a stereo, offering to rap about a topic of the passers-bys choosing.
Director Hamish Bennett (Te Arawa, Ngāpuhi, Kāi Tahu), who grew up in the same town as Harawera, had been intrigued by his unique talent ever since seeing a video of his performance.
“A few years ago, a mate sent through a video of Tihei busking up at Waitangi. He’d asked Tihei to rap about Hora Hora, our local rugby club. Tihei pressed play on his backing cd and started to freestyle. I was blown away. The lyrics, the rhymes, the way he tied everything together – it was so hard to believe he’d made it all up on the spot.”
Both growing up in Whangarei, Harawera was a familiar face to Bennett, but not someone who he really knew.
“I remember seeing him a fair bit on the sidelines at club rugby games. Other than that I didn’t know a lot about him – he was a friendly but unassuming guy.”
But seeing Harawera’s skill and character-filled music for the first time made Bennett eager to collaborate on a filmmaking project with him.
“It was just unreal, trying to align what I thought of him with his ability was pretty cool. As soon as I saw that [performance] I thought, when I get the chance, I’d love to have a crack at doing something to promote him, to show him to as many people as possible,” says Bennett.
For his Loading Docs film, Bennett wanted to capture Hawawera in action, so the crew made their way down to his stage and waited to capture the perfect moment.
“It was like we were sitting there waiting for lightning to strike,” says Bennett.
Making a short film with Loading Docs gave Bennett the perfect opportunity to get to know Harawera better, and understand the man who is able to juggle words and dodge silences so proficiently.
“When I learnt a bit more about the challenges that Tihei has faced in his life, and the values that he promotes, it further reinforced my keenness to make something with him. He’s had his struggles, he’s struggled as a young fella to connect with people, he’s had learning difficulties… [but] he’s found his own unique way of connecting with people, that’s through freestyle rap.
“It’s quite an unusual way to connect with people, and it works for him, he’s found his medium.
“More than anything we’re just happy that T’s story is getting out there,” says Bennett.
Story by Elizabeth Beattie.
via The Wireless
City links: Growing the green stuff in Arcata, bike-friendly Jakarta and Auckland’s ancient underground waterway feature in this week’s best city stories – 27 July, 2015
Lost city waterways
This week we came across Waihorotiu, a beautiful short documentary by Loading Docs about an ancient waterway under the streets of Auckland. The film uses the history of the Waihorotiu stream to explore the relationship between urbanisation and waterways: as the city of Auckland grew, Waihorotiu was turned into a sewer and made invisible, cut off from its spring and the sea.
via The Guardian
Gina can’t see, is bedbound and has to avoid light and sound as they are painful to her eyes and ears.
She has to eat quietly, avoiding noisy foods such as potato chips or apples, eating only pureed food. Gina is pro-euthanasia.
She did not want to share her last name for fear of repercussions but we can say she is in her 50s and lives in darkness with the walls of her room in a Wellington rest home dotted with notes reminding people of what she can and can’t tolerate. Her muscles have wasted away, causing painful pressure areas from head to toe, and although she can roll her frail body over by herself, it’s a struggle.
There is no name for Gina’s condition, but it’s suspected it is hereditary as her brother and sister have it, although not as severely.
Gina’s name is the title of one of the 10 three-minute documentaries produced by Loading Docs, an annual initiative promoting filmmaking talent, launched by production company Notable Pictures, and funded by the New Zealand Film Commission and NZ On Air.
This year’s theme was “connection”.
Gina was created by Wellington filmmakers Wendell Cooke and Jeremy Macey and focuses on voluntary euthanasia, which was brought to the Government’s attention this year by lawyer Lecretia Seales, who failed in her High Court bid to allow her doctor to help her die without criminal prosecution.
The pair planned to use interviews from euthanasia advocacy organisation Exit International when inquiries led them to Gina. Macey said learning Gina’s story had been a humbling experience.
“When I realised the enormity of what she’s living with, it just made me even more respectful and awed by what she puts up with and just so grateful to walk outside under my own steam into the daylight, look around and hear the sounds and all that’s not available to her … it’s only when I visited her and felt the reality of being in her room that it struck home and that’s something that I’ll never ever forget as long as I live.”
He hoped Gina’s story would open people’s minds about voluntary euthanasia.
Gina’s sister, Roslyn, portrays her sister in the movie.
Gina, who has had the condition for 10 years and been severely disabled since 2006, said “it would be a dream come true to finally be released from this”.
“It would give me great peace of mind knowing I have a choice. I can decide when the time is right for me to end my suffering in a dignified way.”
She missed her independence and privacy, but also her life. “[This] is an existence, not a life,” Gina said.
Roslyn said there was still no name for the condition that plagues them, but it continued to worsen.
“We’re not aware of anyone in New Zealand [with the same condition], but through the internet have found someone overseas with the same symptoms,” Roslyn said, adding that specialists believed it was some kind of genetic collagen defect.
“It’s a connective tissue disorder, the body doesn’t regenerate successfully or recover. Gina is physically frail but mentally strong.”
A GP visits Gina regularly but can only look after general wellbeing as there is no effective treatment.
Roslyn is wheelchair-bound and cannot talk so the sisters communicate via a touch alphabet method through a friend – a slow process.
To watch the documentaries visit: loadingdocs.net
About Gina
•Light and sound cause pain
•Condition has not been diagnosed
•Aged in her 50s and already in a rest home
•Is pro-euthanasia
•Her life is the subject of a new documentary
via The NZ Herald
Loading Docs is a launching pad for New Zealand short documentaries which has just released 10 new films. We’ll be featuring each of the films and profiling the directors behind them.
DIRECTOR PROFILE: LOUIS OLDEN AND FRANCES HASZARD
In their new Loading Docs film, Louis Olsen and Frances Haszard are uncovering the Waihorutiu Stream or the Queen Street River, names of the river remnant that flows unseen under Queen Street in Auckland.
The river, which was covered up in the 1800s due to urban expansion, has attracted ongoing interest from archaeologists to artists, and now filmmakers, who hope to bring attention to the loss of waterways.
“Our waterways are still being covered over at a really alarming rate,” says Haszard, who along with Olsen, first became interested in learning more after hearing about this practice as an international phenomenon.
“We heard about similar stories happening internationally and we just started wondering about Auckland,” Olsen says.
“I [then heard] that Auckland loses [approximately] 10 km of waterways each year due to culverting. I’ve also always found it quite intriguing thinking about what [the] city used to be like, so I guess these two things led us to Waihorotiu.”
After examining the issue, a motivator for the filmmakers was to share the river with those who didn’t know about it.
“A lot of it’s to do with the reaction when we would tell people about it. A lot of people had no idea that it existed,” says Olsen.
For Olsen and Haszard, the Loading Docs call for submissions came at just the right time, giving them a push to start filming.
Haszard and Olsen, who had watched all the 2014 Loading Docs films, felt that this would be the perfect format to explore the stories that have flowed out from the river.
After their concept was accepted, the next step for the directing duo was to start the research process, exploring the different stories and history of the Waihorotiu.
“It’s just such a broad subject, and we were interested in a few different angles in it – one of those, we ended up having to take out of the film, [was] the sheer variety of people who had stories to tell about it.
“During the crowdfunding phase we had people approach us with some really great [stories], even urban legends,” says Haszard.
For Olsen, integral to their filmmaking was telling the river’s story and respecting its history, as much as it is about exploring the state of the river today. The filmmakers also hope to bring to attention the loss of waterways nationally.
“It’s an ongoing issue that our waterways are still being covered over at a really alarming rate,” says Haszard.
With the film continuing to stimulate interest and stories, the next step for the filmmakers is to create an online resource.
“At this stage we’re creating a website so we can put up interviews with people who we met during our research process, so we’re just curating the information we have – and taking time to look at that.”
The website serves as an information portal hosting images and documents from the documentary, and the Waihorotiu itself. Haszard and Olsen plan to keep adding to the website as their information grows.
Story by Elizabeth Beattie.
via The Wireless
New Zealand filmmaker Michelle Savill has been writing, directing, and producing films, music videos, and animations for years. At GGG, we’ve been a fans for a while. Her works are dreamy and surreal peeks into a world that’s similar to ours, but a little more magical.
We’re not the only ones digging her dreamy style, as her films have been screened around the world, and her last short film Ellen Is Leaving won the Best Narrative Short Film Award at SXSW Film Festival and the Golden Gate Award for Best Narrative Short Film at San Francisco International Film Festival.
Her latest project Fantasy Cave is based on, and named after, a real place in Dannevirke, NZ. Fully devoted to dioramas of fairy tales, it’s been a strange but beloved children’s favourite for decades. Michelle’s produces Matthew Henley spent time there as a child, and introduced her to it as a possible documentary subject.
GGG: Hey Mich. So tell us about Fantasy Cave the place?
Michelle Savill: Fantasy Cave is a DIY fantasy land in small town called Dannevirke here in the North Island of New Zealand. It’s about a three hour drive from Wellington. A group of Cave Dwellers keep the Cave running and build the dioramas, they are all volunteers. It’s been around for 25 years since it started out as a Christmas Cave, then the Cave Dwellers started adding in more dioramas of fairy tales, fables, and magical worlds. One room is completely devoted to Hans Christian Anderson stories, another room is a space theme, another room is under the sea, and so on. It has a multitude of corridors and staircases that make you feel like you are actually descending deep into the ground. I got lost the first time I went there.
Why were you drawn to it?
Matt went to it when he was a kid and it made a big impression on him. He’s brought it up when we were brainstorming doco ideas. When he was explaining it to me I couldn’t quite comprehend it but it sounded weird and amazing. We couldn’t find any footage of it online and there were hardly any photos which added to the intrigue.
We went out there to meet the Cave Dwellers and walking in it was better then what I had hoped for. It was amazing and so completely visual there was nothing else it was more perfect for then a doc.
How long have you been working on this project?
We started in January so six months.
What was the biggest surprise?
The biggest surprise was probably how much fun the Cave Dwellers have together. They are this energetic lively collective of artists who have this huge workspace and studio to create whatever they want. They all have different skills and work together pooling their resources just to create. It’s rad to see older people goofing around, creating and running this fantasy world. I hope my retirement is like this.
Is the final product similar to what you imagined when you set out?
We always knew we wanted to explore the creative behind the cave but we didn’t know how it was going to come together. We couldn’t have imagined the horses having a cup of tea or hooning around in the supermarket trolley. That was all their idea. The horse costumes are from a float they made for a Christmas parade and they suggested getting into those. Being visual artists themselves they had an innate sense of what the film would need so they were often throwing ideas our way for what we should film and checking if we had shot this or that yet. It was great.
Sounds like you really look up to them, who are your personal heroes?
My friends who are proactive about making change and doing what they can to help make a difference are my personal heroes. For example a friend started an Ethical Fashion Fight Club with proactive strategies to question clothing chains on the ethics behind their clothes. Another friend runs a prison book club and another volunteers at Time Bank. They take the initiative to do what is in their power to make a small difference and they are my heroes because of that.
What’s next?
Some friends and I are developing a web series called Open Home and I’m also developing a feature called Millie Lies Low.
‘Fantasy Cave’ is out this week. Check out more of Michelle’s films here
via Good Good Girl
Loading Docs is a launching pad for New Zealand short documentaries which has just released 10 new films. We’ll be featuring each of the films and profiling the directors behind them.
DIRECTOR PROFILE: J.Ollie Lucks
Larger than life former pro-wrestler Wilbur Force (William McDougall) commands the screen in a new Loading Docs film, battling his ‘worst self’ alongside director and friend J.Ollie Lucks.
Lucks first became aware of McDougall when he was a student taking theatre 101 classes in Dunedin.
“I was the German sitting in the front row taking notes, paying attention, being there on time, and he would usually get in late, sit in the back and yell inappropriate remarks and annoy me,” says Lucks.
Despite a mediocre introduction, Lucks eventually got to know McDougall better at a party, and came to appreciate his unique sense of humour and talent.
“We got talking and I realised he’s actually super smart, he’s just a very good improvisational comedian, that needs an audience,” says Lucks.
“I just fell in love with his humour, the way he makes fun of you but you never feel offended, you just laugh about yourself with him, he’s so spot on with the punches he pulls. He’s quite a talent.”
Since cementing their friendship, Lucks had always wanted to undertake a creative project with McDougall, but after McDougall started wrestling in Wellington, it seemed unlikely.
When McDougall eventually returned to Dunedin to be closer to friends and family, it was Lucks turn to move up north. Feeling isolated, McDougall became depressed, started gaining weight, and withdrew.
“[That’s] thing that he was missing when he was in Dunedin stuck in his room, he didn’t have an audience, he didn’t have someone to rip into, that’s his forte,” says Lucks.
Upon returning to Dunedin and seeing his friend slipping in a rut, Lucks was eager to see his McDougall’s talents on the big screen, and have his confidence reinstalled.
“The film was designed to get him off his lazy ass and remind him of his best self,” says Lucks.
Wilbur Force producer and friend Veronica Stevenson felt the same way.
“I was very keen to see something change for Wilbur, he really did need a shake up,” says Stevenson.
“He went from being this performer who has larger than life, doing what he loved, to literally living in a one room apartment with no job, and health issues. That contrast is really striking.”
Through their film Stevenson and Lucks artfully explore McDougall’s vulnerabilities, and his triumphant personality, imbibing the fighting spirit of his wrestling days.
“The film is a personification of his worst attributes – his laziness and obesity, so we’ve got a cape made of chocolate wrappers, a big tv as a shield, a sleep apnea mask as a device for my face,” says Lucks.
Producer Stevenson enjoyed the chance to work with her friends on a project that was personal, and unique.
“It was a cool mix of creative stretch and working with friends, but also working on a kind of film I hadn’t worked on before, so it created a really great dynamic.”
Working on film appears to have reawakened McDougall’s creativity, something his friends have been proud to see.
“Wilbur is auditioning again, he is set to go down and compete in wrestling again, he’s got a new outfit we made for the film specifically, he has lost 20 kilograms over the last 6 months, and blood pressures in a healthy range for the first time in ages, it’s made a massive difference,” says Stevenson.
And importantly, the film received McDougall’s seal of approval.
“His reaction was that he loved it, and that he’s proud of me, in a very Wilbur way, of being half serious, but I was happy that he liked it,” says Lucks.
Story by Elizabeth Beattie.
via The Wireless
Yes, pro wrestling does exist in New Zealand – and one of its stars is poised to make a comeback.
Not many people can say they’ve made a career out of an obsession, but this Otago lad isn’t your average person.
Wilbur McDougall, 28, is an actor, comedian and wrestler who came to prominence in the New Zealand wrestling scene in the late ‘00s with his alter-ego “Wilbur Force”.
Before Wilbur became the “Force”, the self-confessed beach boy grew up in the coastal-suburb of Broad Bay, Dunedin. “I was obsessed with wrestling from the age of 9, it’s a bit embarrassing but I have about 50 toys that I’ve kept.”
As a young boy his wrestling heroes were Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock, but his parents – a playwright and a painter – were more refined influences.
“They were quite new age liberal parents and having my parents writing and painting around the house definitely moulded me into someone who was going to get into the creative industry.”
He decided to take up acting at Bayfield High School before going to study theatre at Otago University.
Wilbur was always the character of the classroom. “I was very loud and a bit of a pain in the ass. I didn’t pass, but I went! I got a lot of experience out of it.”
In 2009, Wilbur was living in Wellington, pursuing a career in theatre and television, when he was given the chance to become a Kiwi Pro Wrestling commentator. “They wanted someone with colour and character who could play the bad-cop commentator.”
After becoming heavily involved in the wrestling scene, attending Sunday practices and learning tricks of the trade from other performers, it wasn’t long until he swapped his microphone for spandex and elaborate coats. “I was going along to these wrestling sessions, but we didn’t have any big men and most organisations do have a big fat guy.”
Wilbur got his break when fellow wrestlers Jade Diamond and Whetu the Maori Warrior told the boss he was better than some of the men already there.
“I became Wilbur Force – he’s loud, mean and aggressive. He’s a brutal force of nature.”
Wilbur’s career took off. he was wrestling with some of the greatest in New Zealand and became a strong character in the KPW scene. “There’s nothing greater than walking out of the arena with all of the children screaming at you, hating you.”
But due to money issues and a training facility being pulled, the number of shows dwindled from once every three months, to once every six months until only one show was produced a year.
“I was always a big guy, but when I stopped training I put on more weight and got lazy. I was unmotivated and I went downhill. I didn’t like my job, I pulled out of plays in Wellington and without those awesome things I got sick of Wellington.”
After three years in the business, he returned home to Dunedin.
Back home Wilbur remained unmotivated with no job or wrestling federation to be a part of when former uni mate J. Ollie Lucks pitched a short film to him and about him called Wilbur Force.
“I wasn’t a fan, but then he put wrestling into it. The film is about being the best version of myself. In the film he’s trying to get me off my ass, out of my room and to start using my talent.
“It felt pretty honest and true to me watching it. This film captures me.”
WATCH: Director J.Ollie Lucks talks to Wilbur McDougall about wrestling:
Three years since leaving his creative outlet, Wilbur is following the film’s character and is getting back into the ring.
“I never thought it would happen while I was living in Dunedin. Just as I was getting off my backside and into performing again, I got a call from my mate T-Rex saying he wants to put on a wrestling show in Invercargill.
“I’m a good mixture of creative and lazy. I never really gave it a proper go so now maybe this is the chance to go out there and be brave.”
* Wilbur Force premieres at Queen St Cinema in Auckland tonight before the screening of I Am Thor as part of the NZ International Film Festival. You can also watch it on The Wireless tomorrow.
via The Wireless
Loading Docs is a launching pad for New Zealand short documentaries which has just released 10 new films. We’ll be featuring each of the films and profiling the directors behind them.
DIRECTOR PROFILE: HENRY OLIVER AND AMBER EASBY
First-time film directors Henry Oliver and Amber Easby explore award-winning winemaker Hiro Kusuda’s philosophical and unique process with their new Loading Docs film.
Arriving in Martinborough with visions of filming idyllic sunny landscapes, the filmmakers were instead hit by an unexpected cyclone.
It threatened to destroy not only Kusuda’s whole crop for the year, but also the film.
“We’ve booked tickets, flights, gear, and crew, and there’s this cyclone coming, and we’re stressing out. But really we’re talking about [losing] a few thousand dollars and Hiro is super calm, and he’s talking about his whole years livelihood,” Oliver says.
“There’s the threat of destruction, yet he’s still got this philosophical approach to finding value in the labour. Therefore he can look into the possible destruction of his crop for the year and remain calm.”
The threat of a cyclone gave the filmmakers a chance to see Kusuda’s personality shine.
“The cyclone was the catalyst for him to reflect on a lot of different things – nature, the fragility of life, not having control over everything – but that’s not necessarily being a bad thing. The cyclone really changed the story,” Easby says.
Hiro Kusuda is not your average winemaker. A graduate of Tokyo’s ivy league Keio University, Kasuda worked for Fujitsu before taking on a diplomatic position in Australia.
It was when he was in his forties that Kusuda decided he wanted a change of pace. He moved to Germany, where he studied winemaking, before settling in New Zealand.
Kusuda’s meticulous processes have earned him international recognition for his wine, yet Kusuda remains modest – often dodging media requests.
When directors Oliver and Easby heard about Kusuda through a friend, they were instantly intrigued.
“We heard there was this Japanese guy living in Martinborough doing things a little differently, doing everything by hand, and [he] had a really rigorous picking and sorting process,” Easby says.
Oliver and Easby had been interested in Kusuda for a number of years before meeting him. They were drawn to not only his story, but also his unique character.
“What drew us to him was his backstory, and even though that’s not in the film, his backstory translates into a guy who gave up a prestigious, corporate career to find his own way and follow his own path, and that’s reflected in his approach to work and labour,” says Oliver.
After tracking Kusuda down, Easby and Oliver met him to talk about their interests in making a documentary.
“He turned up out of politeness to tell us no, but during the hour we had coffee with him, we won him over. We became more interested in him, not just for his story, but also for his personality, magnetism and attitude,” Oliver says.
“His personality and philosophy really shone through when we were spending time with him, and that’s what the film ended up focusing on. Not his backstory and not his process.”
The next step for Easby and Oliver is to create a full-length documentary about Kusuda.
“The three minute thing really challenges you and allows you to focus on the story you want to tell and what you want people to walk away thinking.
“We’re going to keep filming with him because we think there’s a larger more complex story we can tell,” Easby says.
Story by Elizabeth Beattie.
via The Wireless
Loading Docs is a launching pad for New Zealand short documentaries which has just released 10 new films. We’ll be featuring each of the films and profiling the directors behind them.
DIRECTOR PROFILE: NIKKI CASTLE
Screening as part of the New Zealand International Film Festival, Madness Made Me meets prominent mental health care activist Mary O’Hagan as she contrasts her personal diary entries against rigid medical records of her time spent in mental health care facilities.
Running her finger under passages which dismiss her feelings, and compartmentalise her behaviours, O’Hagan humanises behaviours, and shares a moment when she struggled with her mental illness.
Director Nikki Castle long been interested in O’Hagan’s work and story before she started her Loading Docs film.
“I just came across a blog post from Mary that I found really interesting, comparing two accounts of one experience,” Castle says.
The blog post Castle refers to was O’Hagan’s response to having tracked down her medical records, laying them side by side with her diary entries of the same time.
“She was stunned by how different they were, and how belittling they were,” Castle says.
“The expert take on someone else’s experiences are at odds with how most people would define their experiences. It medicalises feelings, emotions, and thought process, [and] reduces someone’s experience of a very distressing time to labels, which for some people can help, but for a lot of people doesn’t. For Mary O’Hagan it definitely did not.”
O’Hagan was in her twenties when she first came into contact with mental health services. For her, the experience highlighted systemic weaknesses in mental healthcare and concerning attitudes towards mental illness.
She has since become a world-leading voice for patient rights and mental health services, often drawing on her personal experiences as a patient.
Loading Docs gave Castle an opportunity to share O’Hagan’s story and to an audience who might not usually be familiar with her work.
“She’s completely comfortable with telling this story. She’s told it a lot, but in the world of mental health, so this is taking it to a new audience.”
Madness Made Me, which takes its title from O’Hagan’s autobiography, was an opportunity for Castle to explore and share a story about the mental health system with a positive outcome.
“It’s to really give a different view and hope to people who might have experienced something similar to Mary. We often don’t hear the story about people having really traumatic experiences then coming out on top. We often hear about people that have chronic, ongoing problems,” Castle says.
“We wanted to show something that talks about some of the problems that exist in mental health services but mostly talk about this amazing woman.”
Story by Elizabeth Beattie.
via The Wireless
BY: MELISSA GONZALEZ
“What would you say to people who are opposed to voluntary euthanasia?”
“Swap places with me.”
Gina, a woman painfully suffering from a rare genetic disorder, is one among thousands of people in New Zealand fighting for the legalization of physician-assisted suicide.
In New Zealand there have been two prior decriminalization attempts, one in 1995 and another in 2003, both failing to pass. While Prime Minister John Key has stated he supports legalising euthanasia under some circumstances, it could take ages for a bill to hurdle the stonewall of Parliament.
As of 2015, there is a short list of countries that have legalized physician-assisted suicide: Belgium, Colombia, India, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico (with limitations) and most recently, Canada.
Former lawyer Lecretia Seales was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour, and until her death in June, Lecretia fought for the right to die with dignity. She died just hours after the High Court refused Lecretia and her family the right to access physician-assisted suicide. Now her husband Matt Vickers is finishing her uphill battle by calling an inquiry to change the law that barred his wife from dying on her own terms. With the support of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society of New Zealand, they have created a petition that has since garnered 9,000 signatures.
The major arguments against the legalization of voluntary euthanasia or physician assisted suicide are either grounded in dystopian assumption or religious sentiment; the fear that euthanasia could become involuntary for economic efficiency or that it will weaken the sanctity of a life bestowed by a higher power.
Those suffering make it clear: “death is a private matter and if there is no harm to others, the state and other people have no right to interfere.”
Filmmakers Wendell Cooke and Jeremy Macey decided to capture Gina’s story to incite a broader dialogue. Although Gina is unable to physically speak, her argument is piercing. “People should be allowed the choice of assisted dying if their everyday circumstances constitute cruel and unusual suffering”.
via The Plaid Zebra
Loading Docs is a launching pad for New Zealand short documentaries which has just released 10 new films. We’ll be featuring each of the films and profiling the directors behind them.
DIRECTOR PROFILE: ROWENA BAINES
Dancing in the Dark follows dancer Peter Vosper as he prepares to make his way to No Lights No Lycra on a Monday night.
Vosper slips into his self-designed glowing neon suit, and illuminating the dark streets with playful wiggles, he prances gleefully forward, towards a night of dancing.
The film is one of the five short documentaries that have been selected to premiere at the New Zealand International Film Festival.
Director Rowena Baines was inspired to make her short film after seeing last year’s Loading Docs. She found the perfect story to explore when she attempted to go to a session of No Lights No Lycra herself.
The events, which are held around the world, invite people to dance with the lights switched off. The aim has been to create a unique environment where people can enjoy music and movement in a way they can feel comfortable.
“Friends dragged me along and it was so packed [the organisers] closed the doors and said ‘sorry there’s no room’. They closed the door and we heard the music go off … we thought, ‘we’re not going home’ so we just stayed and danced from the music coming through the door,” Baines says.
“When I saw everyone come out, they were so sweaty and elated, looked like they had lost a weight off their shoulders. It was at that moment I thought – something magical happens in there”.
For her film, Baines had a unique challenge of documenting dancing that takes place in a pitch black room.
“I didn’t want to actually film what was happening inside, the idea is to try to create a sensation of the energy that’s in there rather than just turning the lights on and showing it, so that was my challenge.
“I’ll have to leave it up to the public to see if they come out with that feeling of a little bit of sensation of what it’s like in there,” she says.
Baines had been familiar, Vosper the main character in her doco, for a number of years before she approached him to be in her film.
“We’d often be at the same places but never had a proper conversation until I decided to make this film. It’s quite nice because it gives us a chance to meet properly, and get a window into his world, which is a really interesting world,” she says.
Vosper is a regular at No Lights No Lycra. In the video he shows off his unique neon dance costume in the film, something Baines felt helped him let loose.
“I think he felt really comfortable performing in his suit – [it] gives him an excuse to behave the way he want to behave that society doesn’t allow him too,” she says.
“Once he saw [the rough cut] he got really excited that there would be some really beautiful footage of him and his art.”
Baines, who previously worked as a dance photographer, is passionate about making documentaries that captures the art of dance.
“It’s a natural part of self-expression. I’ve made a series of really different films, but they’re all promoting the positive effects of dance that it has on communities and people,” she says.
“I really like creative filmmaking – bringing that element of dance choreography into documentary is a beautiful mix.”
Story by Elizabeth Beattie.
via The Wireless
Being based in Auckland, the minions of Flicks.co.nz are no strangers to the concrete jungle of Queen Street. But that ground we traverse daily once had a vastly different identity…
In their short documentary Waihorotiu, made as part of the Loading Docs initiative, directors Frances Haszard and Louis Olsen gorgeously visualise the history of the natural waterway that once flowed through Auckland and excellently capture the moodiness of its current state – an ugly consequence of contemporary urbanisation.
via Flicks
In three minutes you could make yourself a bowl of two minute noodles (prep time + meditation included), look through someone’s ‘Bali 2009′ album on Facebook, or watch some incredible short kiwi documentaries on TVNZ Ondemand.
Part of the Loading Docs initiative, filmmakers are given the opportunity to produce three-minute documentaries across a wide range of subjects and styles. This year, ten films were selected to be made under the overarching theme of connection, with funding from NZFC and NZ On Air.
Five of the Loading Docs films are available to view on TVNZ Ondemand now, here’s a brief breakdown of the incredible stories that you could experience in only 15 minutes. Come on, you’re not that busy:
Conversations With Pets (Dir. Justin Hawkes and Ian Hart)
Faye Rogers is a modern Doctor Doolittle of sorts, communicating with animals from all walks of life. For example, Thistle the donkey likes to talk about crime shows, but laments the lack of strongly-drawn characters. A whimsical, wonderful doco featuring possibly the coolest ever Skype session ever recorded.
Kusuda (Dir. Amber Easby and Henry Oliver)
What happens when nature takes the lead? Hiro Kusuda is a reclusive winemaker in Martinborough, battling the elements as a cyclone looms over his vineyard. A hauntingly shot meditation on the fragility of nature, and just bloody life.
Please Open (Dir. Karl Sheridan and Robin Gee)
A beaming nostalgic trip to the hey-day of the Crystal Palace, Mt Eden’s almost-delapidated relic of hey-day cinema. Think rolling jaffas, ruched silk curtains and the incessant whir of 35mm film. It’s a treat to hear from patrons and staff alike, recalling the past and looking forward to the uncertain future of this iconic Auckland building.
Gina (Dir. Wendell Cooke)
A achingly human exploration into person’s right to end their own life. Told beautifully from the point of view of a sufferer of a rare genetic disorder, Gina provides an unyielding, heartbreaking, and absolutely essential insight into the euthanasia debate.
Waihorotiu (Dir. Frances Haszard and Louis Olsen)
Featuring one of the most awe-inspiring opening shots I’ve seen in a while (above) Waihorotiu tells the story of Queen Street’s forgotten stream. Poetic and poignant in its journey through an untapped facet (or faucet ha ha) of our natural history, you’ll think twice the next time you walk over a man hole.
Click here to watch the Loading Docs documentaries on TVNZ Ondemand
via The Spinoff
Loading Docs is a launching pad for New Zealand short documentaries which has just released 10 new films. We’ll be featuring each of the films and profiling the directors behind them.
DIRECTOR PROFILE: WENDELL COOKE AND JEREMY MACEY
Filmmakers Wendell Cooke and Jeremy Macey get to know Gina, a woman with a rare genetic disorder, as they explore the issue of voluntary euthanasia for their Loading Docs film.
Gina, who has an unnamed connective tissue disorder, is in her mid-40s. Her condition affects her eyes, ears, and larynx, making it hard for her to see, hear, or talk.
“You can’t talk a lot to Gina because it damages her tissues, you can only whisper a little bit, so most [communication] is through letter charting,” says Jeremy Macey.
The letter charting process makes it possible for Gina to form together words and sentences.
“If you think of the alphabet being arranged into four or five rows, then a finger touch will say which row, and she’ll nod then you’ll say, ok, second row, then you’ll touch her again and she’ll [communicate] 3rd letter second row, and you’ll write that down, then you’ll start again; touch, touch, nod,” says Wendell Cooke.
“When you stroke you need to check you’ve got the right thing. Gina can only outwardly communicate by moving her head, like nodding,” he says.
Because Gina’s sister cannot talk, they rely on another friend to read out the words to help double check with Gina that they’ve understood what she’s saying accurately. Gina communicates to her sister and their friend confirms the communication is correct.
Through this letter by letter, touch by touch chain of communication, the directors got to know Gina, and learn about her quality of life and her feelings about it.
“We didn’t want to make it all about Gina’s condition, because you could spend quite a bit of time covering what it is, how she communicates… that information is there, but that’s a lot of info,” says Macey.
By focusing on the subject of voluntary euthanasia, the directors are both aware of the controversy their film could cause, and they hope to get people thinking.
“We feel strongly about the issue, we’d rather that it caused some stir and bring attention and get people talking, rather than glide by politely,” says Cooke.
“We could be open to the accusation that we’ve picked a really extreme case, that maybe skews the argument of euthanasia in our favour.
“If you’re prepared to put forward those arguments – slippery slope, sanctity of life, or older people being coerced by family members, so they can get their hands on property – these are all legitimate concerns. But if you’re prepared to talk about these things, then you’ve got to reconcile yourself with the fact you’re consigning someone in Gina’s situation, or worse, not having the choice.
“So I think you have to be comfortable with that, don’t be intellectually dishonest, there are risks with anything in life – alcohol, guns, cars – but we mitigate those risks as best we can with regulations and law.”
Most importantly for the filmmakers have been to create a film that stimulates interest, and humanises the issue.
“I feel really proud… this is something that came together, and hopefully will move people when they watch it,” says Cooke.
Story by Elizabeth Beattie.
via The Wireless
A few months back we asked our folk to help Amber and Oliver raise funds for their short film, Kusuda. From their crowdfunding campaign they were able to raise over $7,000 (359% of their initial $2000 target) and produce this amazing three-minue documentary about legendary Japanese winemaker, Hiroyuki ‘Hiro’ Kusuda.
Based in Martinborough (NZ), Kusuda follows Hiro during a particularly challenging harvest, when Cyclone Pam threatens the loss of his entire crop.
Knowing his grapes aren’t ready for picking, Hiro can only hope his vines survive the stress and be ready to pick at a moment’s notice. Hiro reflects on the uncontrollable forces of nature, his winemaking process, and the fragility of life itself.
Amber and Henry continue to film with Hiro in hopes of developing a feature.
via Winefolk
Loading Docs is a launching pad for New Zealand short documentaries which has just released 10 new films. We’ll be featuring each of the films and profiling the directors behind them.
DIRECTOR PROFILE: ROBIN GEE AND KARL SHERIDAN
Please Open invites the viewer to step over the worn threshold and into a visual exploration of Auckland’s Crystal Palace cinema. Directors Robin Gee and Karl Sheridan celebrate the cinema’s life and character for their Loading Docs short film.
The title “Please Open” is taken from the words written in flakey gold paint on the front door of the Crystal Palace, and the film plays with the concept of inviting the viewer to take a closer look into the cinema, rather than just a hurried glance at an old exterior.
“It’s a sneak peak or insight into what the theatre was, and is, and could be. It explores a little bit of the architecture and the people that surround it,” says Sheridan.
Capturing the vivid stories and memories that make up the history of the Crystal Palace was essential to telling the story.
“People would come and tell great stories about how couples met there and got married, lots of people did. We had people that played there, people that used to go dancing, people who had their first kiss in the back row,” says Gee.
He also set up an impromptu “listening booth” to learn more about the theatre. “Lots of people came in wanting to tell stories.”
Gee spent six weeks in the cinema, getting to know its history, in preparation for making the documentary.
“For us, we really wanted to have the connection with community, that was really important for us. It’s really about the people and the magical aspects of it,” he says.
“Being in an empty theatre is quite a unique experience, it’s not spooky at all. It’s got ghosts, but ghosts of good times and memories.”
During the filmmaking process Sheridan dubbed Gee the “unofficial historian of the theatre”, a title that the filmmaker is at home with.
Sheridan, who runs production company Monster Valley, used to have a studio near Crystal Palace and was drawn to capturing its unique charms on film.
“Robin and I talked about it one day and thought that would be an awesome thing to share with everyone. It’s a bit of a gem that’s sitting there … so we wanted people to see it and experience it, maybe start some more interest in it.”
For Sheridan, the pleasure has come in igniting interest in the cinema.
“Everyone’s been so supportive of the project, it’s been really great. We held a fundraising screening, and over 500 people showed up,” says Sheridan.
“It was great to be able to introduce it to people for the first time, or reintroduce it to people who used to go there, and thought that it was all locked up.”
As well as their Loading Docs film, Sheridan and Gee are also working to collate the information they’ve collected about the Crystal Palace into an online resource.
“I like the idea of questioning what’s next for the theatre, rather than just saying what it was,” says Sheridan.
“Getting the theatre out there, getting people to submit their own stories, hopefully that’ll spark interest around other places around the country.”
Story by Elizabeth Beattie.
via The Wireless
The Crystal Palace, located on Auckland’s Mt Eden Road, is a national cinema treasure that has stood the test of time. This micro-documentary from Karl Sheridan and Robin Gee gives a great insight to the Palace’s history and importance to the community it grew, as well as the bleakness of its future…
Check out the video below, and visit Loading Docs for more.
via Flicks.co.nz
Gina tells the story of a woman’s journey with a cruel genetic illness and provides a compelling argument for why people should be allowed the choice of assisted dying if their everyday circumstances constitute cruel and unusual suffering.
“A cruel genetic illness has left Gina bed-bound for years; sound and light cause her body further damage, and she is unable to talk. Through the film, Gina expresses her belief that she should have the right to choose if, and when, and how she might die.”
Wellington-based Director, Wendell Cooke, explained more about the documentary:
“Our motivation was to make a film that opened people’s eyes to a movement in New Zealand that provides terminally ill and elderly people with information about end-of-life choice. We wanted to highlight the current gap in the law for people who may want to consider ending their lives because of illness, and the impact that this gap has on everyday people.”
Wendell continues, “We built up a picture of Gina’s situation and position that she, and only she, should have the right to choose whether or not she goes on living. We felt that if we could just communicate this to an audience it would go right to the heart of why there needs to be a law change in New Zealand.”
Yours TV is a youth focused web series which TVNZ says will feature the best content from yours.nz alongside youth-oriented reports, interviews, performances, ‘word on the street’, reviews and competitions.
The show is produced by Damian Christie and the fortnightly 20-minute episodes will help launch the careers of future “YouTube stars, filmmakers, actors, musicians and journalists,” a TVNZ issued release says.
“TVNZ is pleased to support a new generation of talent alongside Yours TVwith presenters, reporters and crew selected from creative high school and tertiary students from around New Zealand,” says TVNZ general manager programming John Kelly.
TVNZ’s second new offering Loading Docs, is a launchpad for documentary shorts supported by New Zealand On Air and the New Zealand Film Commission, a release says. “Each year Executive Producers Julia Parnell and Anna Jackson select a group of filmmakers, offering them a unique professional development opportunity. From development through to distribution, the filmmakers are challenged to expand their skills and knowledge through the Loading Docs initiative.”
The release says the range of films selected is diverse, but each explores aspects of connection which is the theme for Loading Docs 2015.
The five three-minute documentary shorts were launched yesterday on TVNZ OnDemand, with an added five premiering as part of the New Zealand Film Festival programme in Auckland, the release says.
“TVNZ is pleased to promote an initiative that gives development opportunities to new NZ documentary makers and provides new talent into the industry,” says Kelly.
Last year Loading Docs was hosted by NZ Heraldafter APN’s online publishing team penned a one-off partnership to host a series of ten three-minute documentaries on the NZ Herald website.
StopPress asked TVNZ how Loading Docs ended up on its platform and if it had to pitch for exclusive rights. TVNZ publicist Josephine O’Sullivan says the broadcaster doesn’t disclose commercial details pertaining to content but says TVNZ is happy to have shared rights to Loading Docs “who have an ethos of making their content widely available”.
O’Sullivan also says TVNZ will soon be running standard pre-roll advertising across both of the new short-form shows.
Kelly says: “TVNZ is pleased to support new talent coming through the industry. We already have several episodes of Yours TV on OnDemand and we look forward to hosting Loading Docs, which showcases some of New Zealand up-and-coming filmmakers from July,” he says. “It is a fantastic opportunity that has allowed us to give new talent a place to showcase their work through short-form content on OnDemand and at the same give viewers the opportunity to engage with local content in bite-sized amounts at home or on the go.”
via StopPress
Loading Docs is a launching pad for New Zealand short documentaries which has just released 10 new films. We’ll be featuring each of the films and profiling the directors behind them.
DIRECTOR PROFILE: JUSTIN HAWKES AND IAN HART
Have you ever wondered what your pets think of you? Or which animals are the funniest?
Faye Rogers can answer those questions for you.
The animal communicator from Christchurch is the subject of Conversations With Pets, a three-minute Loading Docs documentary directed by Justin Hawkes and Ian Hart.
Soon after the filmmakers arrived in Christchurch, Roger’s skills were put to the test when she was contacted via Skype by an American client concerned about her lost kitten.
“She started communicating with this lost kitten in America, she was really nervous, we could hear through the microphone her heart beat start racing, like she was so involved in the moment – [historically] she didn’t want to be filmed before [now] so it was really quite exciting,” Hawkes says.
“She starts channelling the kitten, she put herself inside the kitten and was telling the client ‘I see this, and I see that,’ it was a great bit of drama that we weren’t expecting. I loved that moment because I felt like it wasn’t something I’ve seen before.”
Hawkes, who works as a story producer for Dancing with the Stars, and comes from a travel documentary background, has always enjoyed seeking out the unusual.
“I’d always wanted to do something with a pet communicator, so we started looking for someone in New Zealand and she was one of the leading lights – in the pet communicating world she’s quite big.”
“On face she just seems like this nice, suburban Christchurch woman, [and] then she’s got this amazing ability.”
In the course of their filming, Rogers talked to a variety of different animals from dogs to spiders.
“There was an overweight cat that was really embarrassed about being fat, talking about its diet, because it was there during the Christchurch earthquake, and to comfort itself, it had eaten a lot of food, to get away from the shock.
“We met a spider that was just annoyed she’d taken down its cobwebs… [and] apparently guinea pigs are really funny … It was good to know, from her perspective, that animals have characters,” Hawkes says.
Hawkes enjoys watching and creating documentaries, and had been interested in making a Loading Docs production for a while. “It’s great, even though it’s quite small, somewhere where people can have a go at making documentaries in New Zealand.”
Filming for two days meant there was footage that didn’t make the final cut, but for Hawkes, who produces short bites for TV, three minutes offered him a lot of creative freedom.
“I work on Dancing with the Stars, where every week I make a 1:15 story on celebrities and their story for that week, so three minutes is like a lifetime for me. But it is challenging, because we filmed for two days and wanted to do so many cool things,” he says.
With platforms such as Loading Docs available, and filmmaking equipment becoming more readily available and user-friendly, Hawkes urges those interesting in filmmaking to start creating stories.
“Everyone has a story it’s just finding that story you want to tell and going out and filming it, even if it is three minutes. I had such a good experience doing this.”
With the film completed, the next step for Hawkes and Hart is to send their documentary over to the States.
“There’s a film festival in America called PetDance, and our little dream is to see if we can get it into that. Everyone can get into Sundance, but [not] PetDance!”
Story by Elizabeth Beattie.
via The Wireless
Thursday night saw this year’s crop of Loading Docs titles launched at an event at Auckland’s Academy Cinemas. Five of the three-minute titles are now available for viewing by online audiences, while the five titles playing the NZIFF ahead of features will be go online later on.
Introducing the films, Loading Docs creators Anna Jackson and Julia Parnell noted that last year’s crop of titles had racked up over 400,000 views, and that they hoped this year’s selection woud double that total.
Filmmakers took the stage in between screenings for brief Q&A sessions, offering some insight into the wide range of production paths taken – from a single half-day shoot in Otara Market for Hamish Bennett’s Tihei, the cyclone-threatened couple of days shooting Kusada to the six days over six weeks to explore Fantasy Cave.
Half of the 10 titles are now available to view on the Loading Docs vimeo channel, which also hosts the nine titles from last year. Last year vimeo’s Jason Sondhi helped launch Loading Docs, with some titles selected as vimeo staff picks. This year Wendell Cooke and Jeremy Macey’s Gina, originally pitched as Killer App, is out of the blocks as a vimeo staff pick.
Loading Docs opened its submission call last October, naming its 2015 teams in late January. The Boosted fundraising campaign in March left Amber Easby & Henry Oliver’s Kusada the best-supported title, with all 10 passing the $2000 target.
Kusuda is another of the five titles immediately available, along with Justin Hawkes & Ian Hart’s Conversations with Pets (pitched as The Pet Whisperer), Karl Sheridan and Robin Gee’sPlease Open (originally The Crystal Palace) and Louis Olsen and Frances Haszard’s Waihorotiu(fka H20 Below).
Rowena Baines’ Dancing in the Dark (fka Dance Like Nobody’s Watching), Michelle Savill and Matt Henley’s Fantasy Cave, Nikki Castle’s Madness Made Me, Hamish Bennett’s Tihei and J.Ollie Lucks’ Wilbur Force will be available after their NZIFF debuts.
Loading Docs is supported by the NZFC and NZ On Air. The titles are also available to view onTVNZ Ondemand.
via Screenz
Today’s documentarians may dream of making epic Frederick Wiseman-style films, but online audiences aren’t usually so patient. Three hours? You’ll be lucky to hold someone’s attention for three minutes.
That’s the time limit for the documentaries featured in Loading Docs, an annual project that provides funding and support to New Zealand filmmakers. The project offers a cash injection of 4,000 New Zealand dollars plus post-production support to budding documentary makers, on the condition that they raise NZ$2,000 first via the crowdfunding website Boosted. One of the 10 films selected this year managed to exceed this goal by a significant margin. Amber Easby and Henry Oliver raised more than NZ$7,000 to support “Kusuda,” their documentary about a Japanese winemaker who runs a vineyard in New Zealand.
Former lawyer and diplomat Hiro Kusuda ditched a lucrative career in 1996 to study viticulture at the Geisenheim Grape Breeding Institute in Germany, before moving to New Zealand in 2001. Since then, he has steadily cultivated a reputation as one of the country’s most fastidious winemakers, earning the praise of influential critics including Jancis Robinson and Matt Kramer. Kusuda has experienced numerous setbacks in the course of his career, and the documentary finds him facing another: a cyclone that threatens to devastate his entire crop, just before it’s due to be harvested. “Everything is so fragile,” he observes, with the serenity of a Buddhist sage.
Easby and Oliver have plans to produce a feature-length film about Kusuda, and this thoughtful, elegant short acts as a tantalizing taster. View it online from July 9 at loadingdocs.net.
via The Japan Times
A mystery in the Mt Eden landscape for locals and visitors alike, the Crystal Palace on its face appears a dilapidated cinema. The only thing I personally had been able to discern from walking past it everyday over the last three years was that it seemed to be used as a clubhouse for cult followers of ‘The Room’.
Three guys are looking to unveil the mystery. Karl Sheridan, Robin Gee, and Taylor MacGregor are each part of Monster Valley, a production company that works on all things creative (seriously, all things – their website shows they work across film, events, photography and community arts projects). The method is the doco Please Open, a title gleaned from the small flaking gold lettering on the front door, doubling as an imperative to bring the space back to life.
The madness is that Please Open will be only 3 minutes long, a hallmark guideline for films provided with Loading Docs funding. Telling 87 years in 180 seconds doesn’t seem to intimidate the Monster Valley guys, but excite them. They told me of hopes to use the esteemed Loading Docs platform as a springboard into a plethora of other potential projects surrounding the cinema’s aging beauty.
Built in the 1920s to entertain a growing Mount Eden populus, Crystal Palace came with the pizzazz of a ballroom downstairs (which in modernity has found its place as a recording studio). As a kid, Robin was a regular at the theatre, making it a tradition to roll Jaffas down the aisle whilst films screened. As adults, he and Karl had their 48 Hours team’s film screen (although unfortunately not on the twin carbon arc projectors, a delicate relic placed in the theatre when it opened in 1928). Taylor found his connection when first rocking up to join that The Room cult, later investigating and finding that it was his Great Uncle Phil Warren who re-opened the ballroom in 1958, running it for a further two decades.
Finding deserved notoriety in the early 1900s as the first suburban cinema to screen ‘talkies’, the Palace found its own schtick in the 1970s, showcasing surf films. The Astor of Dominion Road was all about the horror, while The Royal in Kingsland made its keep with Kung Fu.
People have actually died here, meaning I came with an expectation for a few ghost stories. Turns out, it’s on the opposite end of the scale. Beyond the opulent ceiling, the fading wallpaper and lack of lighting hold pedestrian charm; there’s no chills up the spine, no indescribable splotches in the photos I took, no Moaning Myrtle. Taylor reported that the spookiest it gets is the bad cell reception inside the theatre.
All that said, when I first set eyes on the grand scale of the interior, I fell a little bit in love.
There’s something rather sad about having this place vacant more often than not. And that’s exactly a piece of the premise ofMonster Valley’s Loading Docs short.
I hear people lamenting frequently about cultural appreciation in New Zealand going to the dogs. What if all it took was a little bit of community engagement to spark a fire?
This Friday (24th April) evening, Monster Valley are polishing the Crystal up, and opening it to the public. Following in the step of tradition, the old projectors will be fired up to screen Children of the Sun, a 1968 film celebrating surfing in New Zealand – all of which coincides perfectly with this year marking a centenary of surfing in our wee country.
In an age of mass internet piracy, social disconnection, and general apathy, I feel maybe it’s about time we got excited to go to the cinema again.
via What’s Good Blog
A film-maker is returning to make a documentary on Dannevirke’s Fantasy Cave, more than 20 years after he first visited.
Matt Henley first came across the cave as a 10-year-old and has returned with co-producer Michelle Savill to create the short documentary.
The documentary on “New Zealand’s answer to Disneyland” is one of 10 short documentaries created through Loading Docs, an initiative aimed at collating a range of diverse film styles and subjects.
Henley said the cave was not only one of a kind because of its location, but also because of the attractions.
“It’s rural New Zealand, rather than urban. It’s more personal,” Henley said.
The cave is different to attractions like Rainbow’s End as it was built over time, he said.
Started as a Santa Cave, the Fantasy Cave grew and about 100 volunteers have kept it alive for over 25 years.
“People just keep joining and keeping it alive. We were attracted to the community aspect of this place and the artworks,” co-producer Savill said.
Savill toured the cave for the first time late last year and said the crafts and DIY aspects of the cave were attractive to her. The documentary would show why the volunteers, or Cave Dwellers, kept the place running, she said.
Savill has written, directed and produced short films, one of which won an award at the South By Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas.
Henley is traditionally a cinematographer and has worked on television advertisements for NZTA and music videos.
The duo are co-producing and co-directing the three-minute documentary this weekend. “This is sort of new for us,” Savill said.
“[We will] make it a little more cinematic. It’s such a visual place.”
Savill said her favourite part of the cave was the space area, while Henley liked the giant mushrooms.
Ten-year volunteer John Hart said almost everything in the cave was custom-made, from the ocean scene to the space exhibit.
He said he had not been volunteering long, and some had been part of the attraction since it started.
The volunteers came up with all the ideas in the kitchen, he said.
“[We] sit around the table and magic happens.”
The cave faced closure in 2011 when its host ANZ decided not to renew its lease on the company that owns the building. There was no written agreements between ANZ and the Fantasy Cave. For more than 20 years the Fantasy Cave operated free of charge.
NZCU Baywide sponsored the cave in 2012, keeping it open and expanding it further.
Hart said thousands experienced the cave last year and 172 people had already visited this month.
– Manawatu Standard
via Stuff
A woman who feels she received the wrong treatment in a Dunedin psychiatric unit in the 1980s is to be the subject of a new documentary.
Former Dunedin resident Mary O’Hagan, speaking to the Otago Daily Times from New York recently before she appeared at a mental health conference, will appear in the three-minute documentary Madness Made Me.
Ms O’Hagan (56), now of Wellington, was born and raised in Winton and moved to Dunedin in 1976, aged 17, to study at the University of Otago.
In Dunedin, she experienced ‘‘extreme mental distress” and was in and out of ward 10 at Wakari Hospital’s psychiatric unit.
She lost count of the number of times she was admitted between 1979 and 1984.
The distress was a ‘‘fairly extreme response” to the problems of a teenager finding a place in the world, she said.
The medical staff treated her the best they could, but lacked the tools needed to help.
‘‘There is a lot of emphasis on diagnosis and medication, getting people on the right drugs . . . it wasn’t geared towards helping me cope with life in a way that I needed. Most of what I got was a pills and pillow service.”
More was needed than antipsychotic medication and a bed.
In hospital, she kept a journal and after becoming mentally stable lodged an Official Information Act request for her psychiatric files.
‘‘I was shocked the way I was written about.”
The hospital files detailed ‘‘deficits and problems” and differed dramatically from her journal’s entries.
The juxtaposition revealed how dominant language could affect the potential for recovery from mental distress, she said.
More practical assistance was needed to ensure patients could maintain work, study and personal relationships.
Overall, she was disappointed with a lack of change in the system since her first admission.
She used her ‘‘lived experiences” to develop workshops and create an ‘‘online toolkit” to make a difference to the way society and services responded to people with major mental distress.
Film-maker Nikki Castle (30) said she quickly raised $2000 from public donations to make the documentary. Once the amount was reached, the Government initiative Loading Docs would provide another $4000 for the documentary.
Ms Castle, of Auckland, said filming would begin on April 11 and 12 on the set of a Dunedin psychiatric ward created in Auckland.
She wanted to include archive footage of Dunedin in the 1980s in the production but it was too expensive, she said.
Dunedin would only appear in a ‘‘thought track” of Ms O’Hagan, she said.
She believed the project appealed to the public because mental health was a taboo subject.
‘‘The subjects we don’t want to talk about are the ones we are most curious about.”
The idea for the documentary was born from the experiences of her husband, Graham Panther, who co-wrote the documentary.
He also worked in the mental health industry which was how he met Ms O’Hagan.
The rundown yet beloved Crystal Palace Theatre will take centre-stage in a new documentary.
And the filmmakers hope their work will inspire someone to restore the 86-year-old cinema in the Auckland suburb of Mt Eden.
The theatre, decorated with large 1920s-era shells and faded gold trim, has been mostly closed since 1995, apart from the odd monthly film screening.
A three-minute documentary called Please Open will be co-directed by Aucklanders Karl Sheridan, Robin Gee and produced by Taylor MacGregor.
They’re fundraising online to cover production of the film, which starts next month.
The theatre was sold only once, in 1977, and has been owned by the same family since then.
Gee says the documentary could kickstart its revival.
“The family is supportive of the theatre and is looking for a champion – someone in the community maybe – to come lead the way,” he said.
The Crystal Palace became the home of surf movies in the 1970s and was later popular for screening Hindi films.
The documentary is a project close to home for both Gee and MacGregor.
MacGregor’s grandmother worked as an usher at the theatre.
His uncle, former Auckland Regional Council chairman Phil Warren, ran weekly dance events downstairs from 1958 to 1973.
“Robin’s been interviewing these old guys who come in and tell us about going down the stairs, fighting through all the smoke, trying to find their favourite girls to dance with through the haze.
“There have been some pretty amazing stories from down there. It didn’t occur to me until halfway through researching the film that Uncle Phil was down here, so that was really nice.”
Gee grew up watching films at the Palace, including a live recording of a Rolling Stones gig around 1980.
“They had huge speaker stacks in each of the corners and they had painted the Rolling Stones mouth and lips on them . . . it was so loud, the hum was deafening,” he said. “I can remember coming here in winter and huddling around these gas heaters – hilarious.
“I don’t remember what the double feature was but it was so cold we could see our breath.”
Please Open was chosen as part of the NZ On Air-backed Loading Docs series, which matches the crew’s fundraising efforts dollar for dollar.
Nine other documentaries are being made around New Zealand as part of the series which this year follows the theme of connections.
All 10 films will be free to watch and Sheridan and Gee are hopeful they’ll be able to screen the documentary at the Crystal Palace in August.
The crew is also creating an archive which the public is welcome to contribute to.
Donations to the film’s production can be made at boosted.org.nz by searching The Crystal Palace.
Email pleaseopen@monstervalley.co.nz to take part in interviews for the archive project.
Go to their facebook page to follow the documentary’s progress.
via Stuff
We’re very excited to announce a partnership with Loading Docs 2015, a platform that works to promote documentary film making in New Zealand.
Trilogy is sponsoring one of the ten short documentaries, Waihorotiu, matching each dollar the filmmakers raise through crowd-funding, up to a maximum of $2000.
Waihorotiu, named after the river that once ran through the heart of Auckland City, aims to reconnect people with their environment through looking at the vast network of waterways that our growing cities have buried and piped.
Directed by Frances Haszard and Louis Olsen, the goal is to venture beneath Queen Street to film the forgotten river as it is today – bringing life to our history, mystery to our present and a sense of custodianship to the future of our environment. The film itself will use animation to give the cityscapes and footage from under Queen Street an alternative life, reconnecting New Zealanders to their environment.
We are proud to sponsor Waihorotiu, which relates to themes of sustainable development, management of waste and conscious living. With our commitment to sustainability, giving back and passion for the environment, the partnership makes perfect sense.
“We believe that caring for and being aware of our environmental surroundings, even where they seem absent, is something that matters. Of course this is not a story about loss, it is a story of discovery,” Frances explains.
“Trilogy is helping make this documentary possible. When we think about what is separating us from this buried landscape we think of 200 year old bricks and mortar; but it is also traffic, safety regulations, access to information and the necessary financial backing. It’s amazing to see that what we are aiming for, to reconnect people with their environment in our CBD, has already started to happen.”
The Waihorotiu team has already reached 90% of its Boosted.org.nz campaign fundraising goal in just a week.
via Trilogy
Dunedin film-makers are raising funds to make a short documentary about a man wrestling to hold on to the best of himself.
Director J. Ollie Lucks said he would act in the three minute short documentary Wilbur Force with his friend Wilbur McDougall.
The two men met in a Theatre Studies class at the University of Otago in Dunedin more than a decade ago.
Mr McDougall was in the back of the lecture theatre yelling inappropriate remarks, disrupting the class and annoying Mr Lucks, who was in the front row.
Later, the men became friends before Mr McDougall moved to Wellington in 2009 and became a professional wrestler.
He had found his calling, strutting around the ring, insulting the audience.
”They didn’t have a big man on the roster, so I became Wilbur Force – a big, angry monster who used to flatten opponents.”
To be close to his sick father, three years later he returned to Dunedin – a city without a wrestling federation.
Without wrestling, he had lost a creative outlet.
”It was better than any theatre. A play is fun but with wrestling you get to tear a child’s sign in half and scream in their face.”
In the documentary, Mr Lucks plays a wannabe wrestler and Mr McDougall has the mission to teach him his signature finishing move – the big man body slam.
Mr Lucks said the men had been practising wrestling moves and he was training to lift Mr McDougall and slam him.
”I’ve got to months to train. I’ll drink my protein shakes,” he said, laughing.
Mr Lucks said the documentary was a chance to show off Mr McDougall’s talents and remind audiences of the importance to hold on to the best version of themselves.
Producer Veronica Stevenson said the Wilbur Force documentary would be shot in Dunedin and Central Otago and filming would start in May.
The documentary had been selected for Loading Docs 2015, a New Zealand Film Commission and NZ On Air’s Digital Media Fund initiative designed to promote New Zealand filmmaking talent.
This year, 10 documentaries would be made, including Wilbur Force, with the theme ”connect”.
Loading Docs funding would pay for most of the production costs but the crew were attempting to raise the $2000 shortfall by accepting donations at www.boosted.org.nz/projects/wilbur-force.
The crew had 21 days left to raise the funds.
Ten film projects are promising to tell great stories, but they need a little help first.
Tucked away in a small rural town in the North Island is an unlikely tourist attraction known as Fantasy Cave. Full of odd objects and handmade crafts, the Dannevirke wonderland is the topic of a three-minute documentary two filmmakers are hoping to create.
The doco is the brainchild of Wellington’s Michelle Savill and Matt Henley who say Fantasy Cave is “New Zealand’s answer to Disneyland”, but before they can make it, they need your money.
The project is one of ten selected to be part of this year’s Loading Docs, an initiative that funds, promotes, and supports locally-made documentary shorts.
By most standards, three minutes isn’t a very long time – enough to toast some bread or maybe iron a shirt – but the organisers of Loading Docs says it’s an online sweet spot, the right amount of time to watch and share short films.
Last year when the project launched, ten films were successfully funded and made. All together they clocked about 300,000 views from around the globe.
This year Loading Docs who will contribute $4000 towards the production of the docos, with support from the New Zealand Film Commission and NZ On Air. However, before the documentary-markers can get their hands on the money, they’ll need to raise $2000 for their films through crowdfunding.
Loading Docs executive producer Anna Jackson says the $2000 is very reachable and enough to make the meaningful difference to the films.
“It’s also an exercise in audience-building,” she says. “Part of the professional development process is getting the filmmakers to start thinking about their film’s audience long before the documentary is actually made.”
The finished films, due July, will be freely available to view and share online. “We really want to whet audience’s appetite for documentaries and give people a chance to see films they might not usually see,” says Anna.
“Last year we found people sat down to watch one doco, but before they knew it they’d watched all ten.”
Fantasy Cave has already raised over $500 since launching the crowdfunding campaign yesterday.
Co-director Michelle Savill is confident they can raise the $2000 needed. “It’s totally achievable and I think people will want to see our idea made into a film.”
She says it’s not just getting funds that pose a challenge; it’s getting people to watch the film once it’s made.
“It’s all very well to make something and put it up on your YouTube channel but unless you’re already famous, it’s not going to get many views,” she says.
“It’s so great to be part of Loading Docs because the really push the films which is ultimately want you want as a filmmaker. They’ve created this platform so that our movies are seen and we’re supported in making them.”
All ten films are up on Boosted, an arts funding website where anyone can read about the films and contribute towards their favourites. The fundraising campaigns will run for a month, closing April 1st.
via The Wireless
Crowdfunding Underway for Loading Docs 2015
March marks the beginning of a nail-biting time for 10 short documentary making teams selected to participate in Loading Docs 2015. Ten separate crowdfunding campaigns from Auckland to Dunedin, have launched, embarking on a mission to raise a set amount of cash and, in doing so, the profiles of Kiwi documentary makers.
This is the second year that the Loading Docs initiative will fund, create and distribute ten local 3 minute documentaries online, with support from the New Zealand Film Commission and NZ On Air. The documentary makers each need to raise $2000 via crowd funding. Once that target is met the Loading Docs fund contributes $4000 worth of production funds plus a post-production package at Toybox and Sale St Audio. Each Loading Docs project also receives ongoing mentoring and support throughout production.
This year Loading Docs has partnered with arts funding website Boosted.org.nz and the ten campaigns will run for one month, ending on April 1st. The documentaries are then created and released in July of this year. Boosted General Manager Simone Hunter is excited to be partnering with the project this year: “The Loading Docs initiative is a fantastic programme that works with New Zealand’s most promising documentary filmmakers. We are delighted to provide the platform that removes every possible barrier between these emerging artists and their backers.”
The documentary makers hope to find an audience through their campaigns who will have a vested interest in their project. Last year’s ten docos, based around a theme of ‘home’ reached audiences all over the world (with over 300,000 views in total). This year’s theme is ‘connect’ which is exactly what the filmmakers aim to do during the fundraising phase.
“Crowd funding is a great opportunity to put you in touch with those that care most about your doco’s progression and completion. We hope that people who help fund the project will be invested in the outcome, will share the work with others, and be interested in what we do next” says Henry Oliver, the co-director of Loading Docs 2015 short documentary Kusuda. The initiative’s executive producers Julia Parnell and Anna Jackson are both passionate about supporting and promoting New Zealand documentaries and hope this new batch of Loading Docs docos will excite the New Zealand public to get behind our local stories and give them the boost they need to get made.
“Now that online marketing and distribution is king, Loading Docs aims to foster this approach with New Zealand’s documentary makers so they have the skills and experience to take their work to the world. All these filmmakers need New Zealanders to get behind them, ‘like’ and ‘share’ their campaigns and help support high quality locally made documentaries. If we’re not telling our stories in New Zealand, no one else is going to,” says Executive Producer Julia Parnell.
via Viewfinder
WIFT Members Among The Loading Docs 2015 Filmmakers, Looking to Get Boosted – 2 March, 2015
This year we have four talented WIFT members, across three different projects, successful in landing themselves a Loading Docs slot.
If you feel at all inclined to support these filmmakers here is your chance to help get these projects off the ground!!
10 short documentary teams have been selected to participate in Loading Docs 2015. Each project has to raise $2000 from crowd funding, and once this target is met, Loading Docs will contribute another $4000 worth of production funds, plus a post production package at Toybox and Sale St Audio. Each project will also receive ongoing mentoring and support through the production process.
These crowd funding campaigns are run through the arts funding website Boosted.org.nz, and will run for one month, ending on April 1st. The documentaries will be completed in the first half of the year, and released in July.
via WIFT NZ
Loading Docs 2015 Filmmakers Set to Get Boosted – 2 March, 2015
Monday 2 March marks the beginning of a nail-biting time for 10 short documentary making teams selected to participate in Loading Docs 2015. Today ten separate crowdfunding campaigns from Auckland to Dunedin, will launch, embarking on a mission to raise a set amount of cash and, in doing so, the profiles of Kiwi documentary makers.
This is the second year that the Loading Docs initiative will fund, create and distribute ten local 3 minute documentaries online, with support from the New Zealand Film Commission and NZ On Air. The documentary makers each need to raise $2000 via crowd funding. Once that target is met the Loading Docs fund contributes $4000 worth of production funds plus a post-production package at Toybox and Sale St Audio. Each Loading Docs project also receives ongoing mentoring and support throughout production.
This year Loading Docs has partnered with arts funding website Boosted.org.nz and the ten campaigns will run for one month, ending on April 1st. The documentaries are then created and released in July of this year.
Boosted General Manager Simone Hunter is excited to be partnering with the project this year: “The Loading Docs initiative is a fantastic programme that works with New Zealand’s most promising documentary filmmakers. We are delighted to provide the platform that removes every possible barrier between these emerging artists and their backers.”
The documentary makers hope to find an audience through their campaigns who will have a vested interest in their project. Last year’s ten docos, based around a theme of ‘home’ reached audiences all over the world (with over 300,000 views in total). This year’s theme is ‘connect’ which is exactly what the filmmakers aim to do during the fundraising phase.
“Crowd funding is a great opportunity to put you in touch with those that care most about your doco’s progression and completion. We hope that people who help fund the project will be invested in the outcome, will share the work with others, and be interested in what we do next” says Henry Oliver, the co-director of Loading Docs 2015 short documentary Kusuda.
The initiative’s executive producers Julia Parnell and Anna Jackson are both passionate about supporting and promoting New Zealand documentaries and hope this new batch of Loading Docs docos will excite the New Zealand public to get behind our local stories and give them the boost they need to get made.
“Now that online marketing and distribution is king, Loading Docs aims to foster this approach with New Zealand’s documentary makers so they have the skills and experience to take their work to the world. All these filmmakers need New Zealanders to get behind them, ‘like’ and ‘share’ their campaigns and help support high quality locally made documentaries. If we’re not telling our stories in New Zealand, no one else is going to,” says Executive Producer Julia Parnell.
Loading Docs documentaries to be made in 2015
Boosted profile: http://www.boosted.org.nz/artist-profile?id=20638
via The Scoop
From poverty to the penthouse: Homeless who are living like kings in mansions and hotels abandoned since Christchurch earthquake – 7 June, 2014
A group of homeless people are living like kings after taking up residency in abandoned mansions and luxury hotels in the wake of the Christchurch earthquake three years ago.
The earthquake killed 185 people and severely damaged the New Zealand city in February 2011.
But the homeless population who previously slept on the banks of rivers and on the streets say the devastating natural disaster was the best thing that could have happened to them.
‘After living on the street for 20 years, we’re now tasting what it’s like to live like kings. We’re sleeping in fancy sheets, drinking champagne and living in mansions… and we’re f****** loving it,’ one the men said.
‘We felt like the poor have come rich overnight.’
Their new and luxurious living opportunities are the subject of a three-minute Loading Docs documentary titled Living Like Kings.
The men were filmed proudly showing the abandoned houses where they now squat and taking advantage of the ‘posh’ facilities.
One of the men took great delight in using exercise equipment while another popped a bottle of champagne.
Many of the houses still have furniture from previous tenants who were forced to flee the earthquake and failed to return because of structural damage.
Filmmaker Zoe McIntosh was motivated to make Living like Kings after hearing about the group of men squatting in mansions post earthquake.
‘I loved the immediate contrast within that scenario and was curious to know whether in fact there were any other positive stories that came out of the devastating disaster of the Christchurch Earthquake,’ she said.
‘The biggest pleasure was meeting the characters in Living like Kings. They’re such a kind-hearted and generous group of people.
‘They had so many more interesting stories and facets to their personalities that I couldn’t include within the three minutes.’
via The Daily Mail
The horrific Christchurch earthquake in New Zealand came with mass destruction for a majority of the population, but ironically brought luxury to a small group of homeless people.
With many destroyed buildings and torn down houses, people were distraught with the scene. Only the homeless were actually happier than ever that abandoned homes and luxurious hotels were so vacant.
Those originally living in cardboard boxes in grass fields or any open space they could find outside were finally living like kings.
Flocks of homeless people began entering and taking over abandoned buildings everywhere, some of which were even five star hotels. They couldn’t be happier with their new lifestyles or even just the fact that they’re finally sleeping on a bed, under a roof, after so many years.
Although the earthquake might have damaged the lives of many, it fulfilled the dreams of so many homeless people.
via Elite Daily
“Baba” is an animated short by music video director Joel Kefali based on interviews with his grandfather, Sol, who immigrated to New Zealand from Turkey in 1951. The film features snippets of conversations to paint a picture of what the country was like when the 84-year-old first moved there.
The story of Loading Docs began in 2010. Julia Parnell was a documentary producer striking out on her own with a new company called Notable Pictures, seeking new opportunities to make creative documentaries, inspired by the possibilities online.
I had just started my PhD in Melbourne, where I was exploring multi-platform and trans-media documentary production. Here in New Zealand we seemed very far behind, slow to embrace the opportunities of online content.
Julia and I were introduced, and together found a shared vision for a platform for New Zealand documentaries that would give film-makers an opportunity to take creative risks, to push beyond the boundaries of TV formats and to explore the possibilities of online distribution.
Fast forward to 2014 and we’re finally launching 10 three-minute documentaries made by a group of incredibly talented and passionate film-makers.
Four years seems like a long time to take to make three-minute films. Three minutes is not long by most people’s standards. It’s long enough to make a cup of coffee or soft-boil an egg.
But online, three minutes can seem like forever; enough time to scroll through Facebook updates, scan tweets or flip through Instagram and overload on information. Online, three minutes is a long time to spend on a website without scrolling or clicking.
That’s why we decided that three minutes is the perfect length for an online documentary that viewers would stop, watch and share.
It was important to us that as many people as possible see the films, not just in New Zealand, but all over the world.
Every minute of these films represents not just hours of work by the film-makers, but weeks and months. Some films have been sitting on the ideas shelf for years, waiting for the time and opportunity to be made. The reward for this effort will not be monetary, but will benefit film-makers in other ways, by building their audiences and enhancing their reputations.
Our hope is that each film sends a little message into the world that conveys the talent of the film-makers and speaks of their skill in crafting a story within a challenging medium.
In a world that increasingly demands short-form content and is hungry for stories, we believe this skill will prove to be highly valuable.
More broadly, and perhaps even more importantly, each film says something unique and wonderful about who we are as people and as a place. And yet these are universal stories that will touch even those who have never heard of New Zealand.
Three minutes is not a long time, but we believe these films show that it is just long enough to show a moment of human truth, to offer perspectives that may be different to our own, and to make us feel and think. This is the work of good documentary, regardless of length. We hope every viewer who takes a few minutes to watch these films will wholeheartedly agree, and want to share them with the world as much as we do.
via The NZ Herald
Following the premiere screening at Auckland’s Academy Cinemas of 10 new documentary films this week, the films will be available to view and share on the Loading Docs website.
Representing a diverse range of subjects and filmmaking styles, the films explore unique aspects of “home” and showcase the filmmaking talents of some of New Zealand’s finest filmmakers: Aidee Walker and Alexander Gandar (Catkiller); Joel Kefali and Amber Easby (Dans); Andrew Scott (Homing); Zoe McIntosh (Living Like Kings); Robyn Paterson and Paula Boock (Queer Selfies); Greg Jennings and Jack Nicol (Stop/Go); Alex Sutherland and Rebekah Kelly (The Jump); Tim Worrall and Aaron Smart (The Road to Whakarae); Prisca Bouchet and Nick Mayow (Today); Kirsty Griffin and Vivienne Kernick (Wayne).
Loading Docs producers Anna Jackson and Julia Parnell chose a three-minute format for the documentaries because they wanted the films to be easily viewed and shared online and on mobile devices where viewers favour short-form content.
“The three-minute format presented our filmmakers with a really tough challenge but it also pushed them to be creative and original in their approach to documentary storytelling,” producer Julia Parnell says.
“The result is 10 remarkable short films that will capture viewers’ attention and imagination. Even though the films are very short, they still have the power to move, entertain, challenge and inspire.”
From funding to production and distribution, Loading Docs is an initiative that aims to take risks, encourage innovation and boldly pursue new opportunities for filmmakers in a rapidly changing media landscape. Loading Docs is funded by the NZ Film Commission and NZ On Air’s Ignite Digital Media Fund.
“In the process of making their Loading Docs films, our filmmakers have successfully explored crowdfunding through PledgeMe, increased their awareness of tools for outreach and promotion and honed their filmmaking skills in a new short format,” Loading Docs producer Anna Jackson says.
The films will be freely available at www.loadingdocs.net and the producers of Loading Docs would like to see the films shared widely, both locally and internationally. “We hope all New Zealanders will show their support for our talented local filmmakers by sharing their favourite Loading Docs films with the world.”
via NBR
Confession: I’ve never been bungee-jumping — not from atop a bridge or even one of the more amateur heights you’d find at an amusement park — but I have often wondered who first conjured the idea, who the crazy loon was who first dared to tie a rope around their legs and leap from a deathly height, willing the cord to break his or her fall before smashing into the ground below. If, like me, you’ve ever pondered who was crazy enough to invent such a thing, then allow me to introduce you to Chris Sigglekow. This “Kiwi bloke” who started the worldwide phenomenon of bungee-jumping is the subject of Alex Sutherland’s documentary, The Jump, created for New Zealand’s Loading Docs, an initiative posed to filmmakers to present a documentary subject in under three minutes. That’s no small task, but Sutherland was up for the challenge.
In the 1980s, hair was big, metal was loud, and Chris Sigglekow was laboriously stripping shock cord of its covering. “We had this old potato sack,” Sigglekow recollects. “I filled it up with rocks and dropped it over the side [of the bridge]. It just hit the water and split, dropping all the stones…and that was our test.”
Blending 5D interview clips with archival footage from 1986 — where Sigglekow, resembles a young Phil Collins — Sutherland crafts a raucous and rousing (if, albeit, slightly brief) tale of daredevils and lawbreakers. But while this story may be new to the general public, it’s one that’s very familiar to Sutherland; you see, Sigglekow is Sutherland’s father-in-law. “I’ve known the family since I was eight years old,” Sutherland said. “I can remember coils of bungee cord lying around their house growing up, so the story and film have been in my head for a long time. The interview took place over a single afternoon, but it was based on many conversations that I’ve had with Chris over the years.”
Given the time limit, it’s no surprise that editing became the most difficult part of the process. “Although it was hard to leave so much out,” Sutherland said, “distilling it all down was an important process; it forces you to think about what is really driving the story and what is absolutely necessary in order to tell it.” He hopes to explore a longer version in the near future, but in the meantime, you can keep up with Alex on his website. Make sure to check out the rest of the Loading Docs series, as well, to see how other filmmakers make the most of such a limited amount of screen time.
Loading Docs producers Anna Jackson and Julia Parnell chose a three-minute format for the documentaries because they wanted the films to be easily viewed and shared online and on mobile devices where viewers favour short form content.
“The three-minute format presented our filmmakers with a really tough challenge, but it also pushed them to be creative and original in their approach to documentary storytelling”, says Loading Docs producer Julia Parnell.
“The result is ten remarkable short films that will capture viewers’ attention and imagination. Even though the films are very short they still have the power to move, entertain, challenge and inspire”.
From funding to production and distribution, Loading Docs is an initiative that aims to take risks, encourage innovation and boldly pursue new opportunities for filmmakers in a rapidly changing media landscape.
“In the process of making their Loading Docs films, our filmmakers have successfully explored crowdfunding through PledgeMe, increased their awareness of tools for outreach and promotion and honed their filmmaking skills in a new short format” saysLoading Docs producer Anna Jackson.
The films will be freely available from 27 May at www.loadingdocs.net and the producers of Loading Docs would like to see the films shared widely, both locally and internationally.
“We hope all New Zealanders will show their support for our talented local filmmakers by sharing their favourite Loading Docs films with the world”.
via WIFT NZ
Filmmakers Robyn Paterson & Paula Boock have been together for sixteen years, but are working together for the very first time on this amazing project – Queer Selfies.
“In this piece we really wanted to experiment with the idea of an unguided interview,” Robyn writes, “allowing people the opportunity to speak directly to an unmanned camera, at their own pace and in their own words. I’m interested in how candid and how diverse the responses are when people get to control their own interviews like this, in a ‘selfie’ type setting.”
The idea of home can sometimes be painful to think about it – especially for the queer and trans* community, who so often struggle to find a place where they fit easily. To see the ways in which different concepts of ‘home’ are formed in this short clip is both moving and thought-provoking.
In the space of three minutes, Queer Selfies delivers a window into the ways that people cope and the things they hold close to them. It’s worth a watch, and leaves you thinking about your own definitions.
What does ‘home’ mean to you?
via Curious