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The Power of the Dog
New Zealand / Australia 2021
Whānau
Mārama
New Zealand
International
Film Festival
2021
Ōtautahi Te Tihi-o-Maru nziff.co.nz
Christchurch Timaru
5 Nov — 21 Nov 11 Nov — 21 Nov
45th
Christchurch
International
Film Festival
Presented by
New Zealand Film Festival Trust Proudly supported by
ISAAC THEATRE ROYAL
LUMIÈRE CINEMAS
MOVIE MAX DIGITAL, TIMARU
BILLSTICKERS
Whānau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festival 2021 received funding from Te Tumu Whakaata Taonga
New Zealand Film Commission’s Screen Sector Capability Fund.
Director: Marten Rabarts Square Eyes Programmer: Content Creation: Brad Pratt THE NEW ZEALAND
General Manager: Sally Woodfield Nic Marshall Guest Coordinator: Ania Upstill FILM FESTIVAL TRUST
Festival Accounts: Alan Collins Incredibly Strange Programmer: Administration Coordinator: Chair: Catherine Fitzgerald
Head of Programming: Ant Timpson Rose Jang Trustees: Adrienne Bonell,
Michael McDonnell Guest Curators: Violeta Bava, Sponsorship and Advertising James Every-Palmer, Chris Hormann,
Operations and Venues Manager: Vicci Ho, Anu Rangachar, Consultant: Heather Cornish Tearepa Kahi, Robin Laing,
Caroline Palmer Bird Runningwater, Alesia Weston Festival Interns: Tessa Bruce, Andrew Langridge
Senior Programmer: Sandra Reid Programme Consultant: Kevin Kapur Financial Controller: Chris Prowse
National Publicist: Safia van der Zwan Chris Matthews
Senior Publicist: Laurie Barrett Film Logistics Manager: Publication Design: Inhouse The New Zealand
Christchurch Publicist: Daniel Batkin-Smith Publication Production: Film Festival Trust
Tanya Jephson Film Logistics Assistant: Greg Simpson Box 9544, Marion Square
Marketing and Communications Connor Dempsey Cover Design: Inhouse Wellington 6141, New Zealand
Assistant: Sophia Romanos Publications Editor: ph: (64 4) 385 0162
Communications Coordinator: Eleonora Mignacca info@nziff.co.nz
Leila Murton Poole Publications Coordinator:
Festival Managers: Adrian Hatwell
Megan Andrews (Auckland) Online Content Coordinator:
Bethany Miller (Wellington) Louise Lever
Ticketing Managers: Rosa Strati, Audience Development Coordinator:
Luke Eisemann Cianna Canning
Animation NOW! Programmer: Social Media Coordinator:
Malcolm Turner Anna Birchall
Resene Resene
Wellywood Piha Sand
Resene Resene
Pohutukawa Gumboot
Resene Resene
Pukeko Koru
Resene Resene
Gorse Pavlova
Bringing colour to kiwi life since 1946
Resene’s big screen story began back in 1946 when Ted Nightingale started making paint from his Wellington garage. Over 70
years later and the Resene name lives on as a truly homegrown success story, known for its quality paint, colour and innovation.
Our paints are designed and made in New Zealand for our harsh weather conditions and our colours are inspired by everyday kiwi life.
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Proud supporters of the NZ films in the International Film Festival.
9
Contents Marten Rabarts
Director — Kaiwhakatere
Nau mai,
Haere Mai
Big Nights 5
Spotlight 9
Bill Gosden Tribute 14
Whānau Mārama: New Zealand Providing our festival
Aotearoa 18 International Film Festival 2021 is audiences with an opportunity to
being brought to you against all odds travel in the mind through cinema
by a festival team who have not only has been at the centre of this
Widescreen 24 mastered the ubiquitous pivot but 2021 curation. Reflecting on this
learned to duck, dive, run, vault, feint, programme, I know that goal has
leap and finally jump from a high place been met by the incredible festival
Becoming 42 with fingers crossed to deliver you the team who have worked tirelessly
best of world cinema in your favourite under the extraordinary pressures
screening venues across the country. of our time to bring you this 2021
Belonging 44 On one hand, our much- edition of the festival.
anticipated return to cinemas and live The thrill of discovery which
venues will give you, our dedicated our festival curators experience
Radical Empathy 46 audiences, what you clearly told us you when a brilliant new film unfolds
want most; an experience of films on before them has been distilled
big screens surrounded by other movie and condensed for you into a film
Visionary 48 lovers. festival experience which will take
On the other hand, we also set you around the world in 18 days and
out to give you another experience back again.
Proud 50 the global pandemic conditions which
keep us locked down in Aotearoa have Strap yourselves in and enjoy
denied you: the chance to travel the the ride.
world, to experience other cultures,
Origins 52 to live different lives than the ones we
have, isolated in the relative safety of
our Pacific Ocean bubble.
Mobilise 54 We’ve selected a world-tour
of films that will take you to unknown
places or to those you know well,
Portraits 58 revealed afresh through a new lens.
We’ve programmed films that and the entire team of Whānau
will open new windows on inner worlds; Mārama: New Zealand International
Animation NOW! 61 aspects of the human condition which Film Festival
will thrill, challenge, move and inspire.
We’ve brought you films
Incredibly Strange 62 which will inspire debate and
passionate discourse to arrive at a
deeper understanding of the world.
Venues 65
Buying Your Tickets 65
Your Schedule 66
Meet the Filmmakers 68
4
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BIG NIGHTS 5
The Power of the Dog Opening
Night
Director: Jane Campion
New Zealand/Australia 2021
125 mins
Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch,
Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons,
Kodi Smit-McPhee, Thomasin McKenzie
Producers: Jane Campion,
Emile Sherman, Iain Canning,
Roger Frappier, Tanya Seghatchian
Screenplay: Jane Campion
Based on the novel by Thomas Savage
Cinematography: Ari Wegner
Production Design: Grant Major
Editor: Peter Scibberas
Music: Jonny Greenwood
Festivals: Venice, Toronto, San Sebastián,
New York, Busan, London 2021
Awards: Best Director, Venice International
Film Festival 2021
Dame Jane Campion returns with her Venice Silver
Lion-Best Director winner; a rich, menacing
neo-Western tackling cowboy brothers and the
mother and son who come between them.
Working at the height of her powers, Rough-hewn, toxically- Campion is an incomparable
Campion turns her cinematic gaze on male brother Phil Burbank storyteller; it’s an honour to share
“[Campion] returns with
the complex characters inhabiting the (Benedict Cumberbatch) lashes Jane’s film, with its rich and complex a poison-tipped dagger
world of the 1967 novel by Thomas out, relentlessly tormenting both characters, embedded in the stark
Savage, an overlooked author whose mother and son as unwelcome beauty of Aotearoa and framed by
of a Western drama
masterwork The Power of the Dog interlopers. Rose is cowed and Grant Major’s brilliant production wrapped in rawhide
received its due acclaim only since
its re-publication in 2001. Clearly the
increasingly broken by Phil’s mental
and emotional assault, but the
design. The reflection of our own
history depicted in the rugged
and old rope; a brilliant,
book appeared before its time and outwardly delicate Peter reveals a brutality of American frontier life will murderous fable about
out of place, not unlike the robber- hidden core of steel. His intellectual be inescapable to our Kiwi audiences. masculine strength that’s
baronial ranch house belonging to sharpness matches the surgical skill — Marten Rabarts
the Burbank family, better suited to he practices for his medical studies, so diamond-toothed
Boston than the backblocks of 1925 deftly dissecting rabbits he traps in its victims are already
Montana. the back hills of the ranch.
We enter the lives of the Peter’s intuitive connection half dead by the time they
wealthy Burbank brothers, whose with the land is evidenced by his see the first drop of their
well-to-do parents have long since eye for the distant hills – which he
left them on the dusty high plains, tells Phil clearly take the shape of a own blood.”
retiring to the comforts and society of barking dog, an elusive characteristic — Kirsty Griffin, Indiewire
distant Colorado Springs. Their two of the landscape only Phil and his
sons, both unmarried and edging into legendary mentor Bronco Henry
their 40s, run the family’s successful have ever been able to discern. This
cattle ranch, rattling around in the shared understanding of the land
brooding mansion their mother built triggers a change in the weathered
to insulate her Eastern sensibilities cowboy, his usual brutality giving
against the wilds of the West. way to something softer, but igniting
The brothers’ long- a struggle between Rose and Phil for
established routine is disrupted when Peter’s fealty and affection.
gentlemanly brother George Burbank The remote ranch house
(Jesse Plemons) unexpectedly brings becomes a ticking bomb no amount
Screenings
home a new wife, Rose (Kirsten of blue sky above or wide-open range ITR Fri 5 Nov, 7.00 pm
Dunst), and her studious teenage can disarm.
son, Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee). Animal cruelty & content that
R13
may distub
BIG NIGHTS 6
The Hand of God Centrepiece
È stata la mano di Dio
Director/Screenplay:
Paolo Sorrentino
Italy 2021 | 130 mins
Cast: Filippo Scotti, Toni Servillo,
Teresa Saponangelo, Marlon Joubert
Producers: Lorenzo Mieli, Paolo Sorrentino
Cinematography: Daria D’Antonio
Editor: Cristiano Travaglioli
Music: Lele Marchitelli
Language: In Italian with English subtitles
Festivals: Venice, London, Busan 2021
Awards: Grand Jury Prize, Best New Young
Actor – Filippo Scotti, Venice International
Film Festival 2021
Iconic Italian filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino delivers
a majestical memoir with this beautifully shot,
ribald bout of nostalgia for growing up amid
the anarchy of 1980s Naples.
Paulo Sorrentino has never been Unfettered by the constraints “Sorrentino swirls all these “The Hand of God [is
more personal in his cinema – nor of any formal narrative, this grande experiences together – love,
arguably more powerful. memoire of a film achieves a gritty life, laughter, loss, fate, and a Sorrentino’s] most
Recently awarded the magical-lyricism from its opening sanctuary found in cinema – in a intimate and personal
Grand Jury Prize at the 2021 Venice sequence; a languid but purposeful beautifully plaintive, comical, and
International Film Festival, Sorrentino helicopter shot sweeping across the sprawling novel of a movie. It’s work, his magnum opus,
reasserts himself with The Hand of Bay of Naples, finally settling on the a lovely, charming, vibrant, sad, and sorry, The Great
God as among the most important stately progress of a vintage limousine bildungsroman tale and roman-fleuve
film directors of his time. Gorgeously carrying none other than the earthly that pays small tribute to Maradona.
Beauty, easily his best
wrought by the hand of a master embodiment of San Stefano himself en But more importantly, it manages film. And if audacity of
cinematic stylist, the strength of route to perform a miracle. to both memorialize this agonizing
this film comes from his choice to Sorrentino never lets go of that turning point in his life and warmly
style and temperament
make style wholly subservient to the heightened sense of wonder until the reminisce on the bliss that came often define the Italian
characters and place he portrays.
With the sensibility of a great
films’ closing, where the great rites of
passage we’ve been invited to share hit
before it. Flecked with moments
of the absurd, it succeeds in
director’s oeuvre, then
documentarian, Sorrentino mines home as deeply as if they’d been our balancing a lighthearted tone with ‘God’ is one of his most
the rich ore of his own youth, his own tarnished, yet golden, gioventù in somber ones, somehow easing in restrained and mature
eccentric family and hometown Napoli. — Marten Rabarts and out with so much grace. It’s a
of Naples circa 1984. The barely rueful love letter to Naples, to family, movies, putting artifice
fictionalised youth of the director and the pain that shaped him, and aside and brimming with
feels initially like it could be an it’s wonderful and sentimental in
excerpt from an unknown work the very finest sense of the word. sincerity.”
by Fellini; as if crazy Volpina from — Rodrigo Perez, The Playlist
Amarcord might wander unto the
family lunch and go quite unnoticed.
Sorrentino sits his audience at that
family table, and invites you to love
them as unreservedly as he does Screenings
when seen through the eyes of his ITR Sat 13 Nov, 6.15 pm
luminous teenage avatar, Fabietto ITR Wed 17 Nov, 10.45 am
Schiso (Filippo Scotti, winner of the
Best New Actor Award for the role at Violence, domestic violence,
R16
Venice). sexual material & offensive
language
BIG NIGHTS 7
Titane Closing
Night
Director/Screenplay:
Julia Ducournau
France/Belgium 2021
108 mins
Cast: Agathe Rousselle, Vincent Lindon,
Garance Marillier, Laïs Salameh, Bertrand
Bonello, Dominique Frot
Producer: Jean-Christophe Reymond
Cinematography: Ruben Impens
Editor: Jean-Christophe Bouzy
Music: Jim Williams
Language: In French with English subtitles
Festivals: Cannes (In Competition),
Toronto, San Sebastián, Fantastic Fest,
New York, London, Busan 2021
Awards: Palme d’Or, Cannes Film Festival
2021
We are thrilled to close the Festival with the
shock 2021 Palme d’Or winner...
“Titane is coming, and it’s coming to fuck you up.”
— Jessica Kiang, The Playlist
Wild, outrageous, unruly, burgeoning, unwanted pregnancy hottest-button issues of the day, and
hallucinatory, body/machine- sired by a Cadillac, becomes an brash – and often very funny – in
modification-run-amok, masterful, improbable Adrien. — Sandra Reid its deliciously grisly and inventive
cartoonish, genre-and-gender- image-making. But underneath the
bending Titane was awarded the “Titane... is roughly seven horror broad strokes... there is deft, detailed
2021 Palme d’Or, only the second movies plus one bizarrely tender filmmaking at work too. A living-room
time in Cannes Film Festival history parent-child romance soldered dance turns into a fight and back
that a woman director has received into one machine and painted all again with every motion edged in
the accolade (28 years after Jane over with flames: it’s so replete menace. A scarcely glimpsed figure in
Campion’s The Piano). It was with startling ideas, suggestive a firefight casts doubt on a decades-
probably also the first time that a so- ellipses, transgressive reversals long tale of grief. And the faintest
called “genre” film, especially one and preposterous propositions that ghost of an incipient mustache
that ups the ante to such a degree it ought to be a godforsaken mess. growing in on an upper lip contains
in “horror” movie stakes, scooped But while God has almost certainly a multitude of knotty, transformative
the top award. Julia Ducournau forsaken this movie, He wouldn’t have implications about gender and
brazenly smashes the mould with been much needed around it anyway. physiology and new flesh living
this twisty tale about Alexia (a Ducournau’s filmmaking is as pure as anew.” — Jessica Kiang, The Playlist
thoroughly committed performance her themes are profane: to add insult
from Agathe Rousselle), an erotic to the very many injuries inflicted
dancer with a peculiar penchant for throughout, Titane is gorgeous to
muscle cars, who also happens to be look at, to listen to, to obsess over,
a serial killer when the random urge and fetishize.
takes her, or people pests provoke Nodding to Cronenberg
retaliation. When a murder goes (Crash) and anime and Claire
awry, Alexia must go on the run, and Denis (there’s Beau Travail (NZIFF
her path leads her to a fire station 2000, 2021) in the many men-
populated with hunky young firemen with-men dancing scenes, and Screenings
and their steroid-consuming aging there’s a little High Life (NZIFF
ITR Thu 18 Nov, 1.30 pm
chief (a stunning turn from Vincent 2019) fuckbox in the car-intercourse
ITR Sat 20 Nov, 8.45 pm
Lindon). Prone to doubts about scenes) and Holy Motors (NZIFF
his masculinity, he’s also grieving 2012) and Nicolas Winding Refn (if MM Timaru Sun 21 Nov, 7.30 pm
for Adrien, a teenage son who he had the stones), Titane is bold
disappeared years earlier. Alexia, in its reference points, no-holds- tbc NZ Classification tbc
binding down her breasts and her barred in its approach to some of the
8 Inspirational Aotearoa He mana toi, he mana tangata — our talented artists and creatives inspire, challenge and delight New Zealanders every day. That’s why we’re proud to be the Artistic Development Partner for Whānau Mārama. www.creativenz.govt.nz
SPOTLIGHT 9
Happening
L’événement
“Happening documents one woman’s Director: Audrey Diwan
efforts to arrange a termination and
thereby continue with her studies.
France 2021 | 100 mins
Adapted from Annie Ernaux’s Cast: Anamaria Vartolomei, Kacey Mottet
Klein, Luàna Bajrami, Louise Orry-Diquero,
autobiographical novel, the film plays
Louise Chevillotte, Pio Marmaï, Sandrine
its private trauma as a harrowing Bonnaire, Anna Mouglalis, Leonor Oberson,
thriller, and showcases a superb Fabrizio Rongione
performance from Anamaria Producers: Édouard Weil, Alice Girard
Vartolomei as Anne Duchesne, the Screenplay: Audrey Diwan,
agonised student in the spotlight. Marcia Romano, Anne Berest
We meet her spineless boyfriend only Based on the novel by Annie Ernaux
briefly; the man is all but incidental. Cinematography: Laurent Tangy
Editor: Géraldine Mangenot
Anne has to go through this ordeal
Music: Evgueni Galperine, Sacha Galperine
on her own. Language: In French with English subtitles
It’s April 1963. Abortion is illegal
Festivals: Venice 2021
and means a prison term if you’re
Awards: Best Film, Venice International
lucky, death if you’re not. But Anne’s
Film Festival 2021
period is now five weeks late and she’s
increasingly desperate: failing her
studies, too scared to confide in her
friends. A supposedly sympathetic
doctor prescribes a drug he assures
her will induce a miscarriage but is in
fact designed to further strengthen the
foetus. Director Audrey Diwan keeps where the trade in illegal abortion “Happening is filmed
the camera in close as Anne pinwheels has become the new army in the
between cafes and the classes; the shadows, arranged via code names and performed in such a
family home and the dorm. She’d love and whispered meetings in the park... delicate, skin-soft register…
a child at some point but she wants It’s a serious, gripping and finally
a life and career first. The picture’s honourable film.” — Xan Brooks, that the escalating terror
tight framing is like a noose around The Guardian of Anne’s situation is all Screenings
her neck...
Time is running out; Anne is the more pronounced, LUM Wed 17 Nov, 3.30 pm
nearly three months along. Outside eventually pivoting into ITR Thu 18 Nov, 8.30 pm
the halls of residence, it’s the time of LUM Sat 20 Nov, 6.30 pm
rock’n’roll and the nouvelle vague. a realm of wholly realism-
But Happening depicts a France still based body horror.” R16
Sex scenes, nudity, cruelty &
eerily coloured by Nazi occupation, content that may disturb
— Guy Lodge, Variety
Bergman Island
“Mia Hansen-Løve may not be the Director/Screenplay:
first 21st century auteur who comes
to mind when people consider
Mia Hansen-Løve
the portentous legacy of Ingmar France 2021 | 113 mins
Bergman... And yet, Bergman Island Cast: Tim Roth, Mia Wasikowska,
– a triple-layered meta-romance Vicky Krieps, Anders Danielsen Lie
about a filmmaker who flies to Producers: Charles Gillibert,
Sweden with her partner and pitches Erik Hemmendorff, Rodrigo Teixeira,
Lisa Widén
him a screenplay about her first
Cinematography: Denis Lenoir
love – is such a rare and remarkable Editor: Marion Monnier
movie for the very same reason that Music: Raphaël Hamburger
you wouldn’t expect it to exist in the Festivals: Cannes (In Competition),
first place. Set on the remote skerry in Toronto 2021
the Baltic Sea that Bergman adopted
as his home... Hansen-Løve’s zephyr-
calm story of loss, love, and artistic
reclamation... begins as such an
airy and lyrical Euro-drama that it’s
hard to fathom the meta playfulness
to come. And yet, from the moment
that married filmmakers Chris (Vicky
Krieps) and Tony (Tim Roth) arrive
in Fårö, there’s a telling uncertainty
as to what they’re supposed to be
doing there. it... Denis Lenoir’s sensitively crisp “The early scenes feel
As Chris begins to narrate cinematography helps delineate
the film within a film to her oblivious between the various layers... though like they could almost be
partner, we are spirited back and it’s hard not to get a bit drunk on the Hansen-Løve’s variation
away into... a Linklater-tinged midnight blues that locate Amy’s Fårö
romantic drama about a New York- in a dusky kind of dreamworld.” on Richard Linklater’s Screenings
based filmmaker named Amy (Mia — David Ehrlich, Indiewire Before trilogy: a two- ITR Thu 11 Nov, 6.15 pm
Wasikowska) who leaves her kid at
home and travels solo to Fårö for a hander that navigates ITR Mon 15 Nov, 10.30 am
friend’s wedding. It’s the last best the mysteries of love MM Timaru Thu 11 Nov, 3.45 pm
chance she’ll ever have to reconnect MM Timaru Sat 13 Nov, 8.00 pm
with the boy on whom she based and distance, connection
her popular first movie... and Amy and time.” Sex scenes, offensive
M language & nudity
fully intends on making the most of — Owen Gleiberman, VarietySPOTLIGHT 10
The Eyes of Tammy Faye
“In The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Andrew Director: Michael Showalter
Garfield and Jessica Chastain play
Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, the self-
USA 2021 | 126 mins
styled Christian TV personalities who Cast: Jessica Chastain, Andrew Garfield,
Cherry Jones, Vincent D'Onofrio
did more than anyone else to mold
Producers: Jessica Chastain,
televangelism into a game-changing, Kelly Carmichael, Rachel Shane,
culture-shaking, credit-card-maxing Gigi Pritzker
industry/cult/diversion... Chastain Screenplay: Abe Sylvia
and Garfield give performances that Cinematography: Michael Gioulakis
are brashly entertaining but also Editors: Mary Jo Markey, Andrew Weisblum
canny and layered, as the characters Music: Theodore Shapiro
get caught up in something far bigger Festivals: Toronto, San Sebastián 2021
than themselves. The Bakkers were
hucksters of a grand order, and the
film uses their spectacular greedhead Presented in association with
soap opera to tell the larger American
story of how Christianity got turned
into showbiz...
Why watch The Eyes of
Tammy Faye instead of the original
documentary, which is superb?
Because this version, in heightening
our connection to the characters,
sheds new light on who they were
and why they did what they did. It’s lived beyond them, all built around the “[The Eyes of Tammy
Tammy Faye who comes to occupy question: If the least Christian thing
the spiritual center of the movie, you can do is to sell your soul, is it any Faye] presents a…
and Chastain, tapping a bombs- more Christian to save one because largely empathetic
away flamboyance she has never it belongs to the highest bidder?”
before approached, makes her a — Owen Gleiberman, Variety [portrait], thanks to a
mesmerizing diva-victim who keeps wonderfully authentic
evolving... Garfield makes Jim a
postmodern con artist who looks and rich performance
ahead to our own era, and Chastain from Chastain, who Screenings
finds the complex heart of a woman ITR Sat 20 Nov, 5.45 pm
who had a genuine love inside her, grabs on to those lashes
but loved fame too much. In their and never lets go.” M Drug use & sex scenes
way, they created a pathology that
— Pete Hammond, Deadline
Flee
When Flee was selected for Cannes Director: Jonas Poher
2020 and won the Grand Jury Prize
for World Cinema Documentary at
Rasmussen
Sundance 2021, director Jonas Poher Denmark 2020 | 90 mins
Rasmussen couldn’t have known With: Rashid Aitouganov
how urgent and current Amin’s story Producers: Signe Byrge Sørensen,
would prove to be. Michelle Hellerström
As a child, Amin Nawabi and Screenplay: Jonas Poher Rasmussen,
Amin
his family are forced to abandon
Animation: Michael Helmuth Hansen
their home in Afghanistan while the Editor: Jonus Billeskov Jonsen
Soviet-Afghan War rages through the Music: Uno Helmersso
mid-80s. Decades later, he is settled Languages: In Danish, English, Farsi,
in Copenhagen, living openly as a gay Russian and Swedish, with English subtitles
man and on the verge of wedding his Festivals: Cannes (Official Selection) 2020;
partner. Just as he readies himself Sundance, Toronto 2021
for marital bliss, Amin must, for the Awards: Grand Jury Prize (World Cinema
first time, confront the truth about his Documentary), Sundance Film Festival 2021
escape from Afghanistan and the loss
of his family. Presented in association with
Structured around a series
of interviews, Flee blurs the line
between documentary and narrative
filmmaking, presenting Amin’s
traumatic recollections in animated
form, supplemented with historical Flee rings both personal “It’s impossible to recall
news footage. and universal, a reminder that
Amin recalls his past in halting storytelling itself is the original a refugee story told with
spurts, stopping whenever memories form of therapy – the shards and such devastating efficacy
threaten to overwhelm him. Wherever fragments of shattered lives become
the boy found himself in the world, bricks and mortar in resilient hands. as well as such specific
from Afghanistan to Denmark, Russia — Marten Rabarts, Adrian Hatwell nuance, showing us the Screenings
to Sweden, his refugee experience
was a nightmarish combination of horrors Amin experienced ITR Tue 16 Nov, 1.45 pm
ITR Fri 19 Nov, 6.15 pm
exploitation, harassment and loss. but also, importantly, how
But, nestled within the chaos and MM Timaru Sat 13 Nov, 6.00 pm
horror, is a sweetly human tale of they stuck to him in the
a young man’s coming of age and years after and still do.” M Offensive language
queer awakening.
— Benjamin Lee, The GuardianSPOTLIGHT 11
One Second
Yi miao zhong
The most internationally-acclaimed of Director/Screenplay:
China’s ‘fifth generation’ of filmmakers,
Zhang Yimou is known globally for
Zhang Yimou
provocative melodramas like Raise the China 2020 | 104 mins
Red Lantern and wuxia spectacles like Cast: Zhang Yi, Fan Wei, Liu Haocun
Hero. His latest picture represents a Producers: Ping Dong, William Kong,
step in a gentler, surprisingly personal Pang Liwei, Xiang Shaokun
direction. Cinematography: Zhao Xiaoding
Editor: Yuan Du
Set during the Cultural
Music: Loudboy
Revolution of Zhang’s youth, One Language: In Mandarin with English
Second tells the story of an escaped subtitles
convict hell-bent on seeing a particular Festivals: Toronto, San Sebastián,
newsreel and the orphan girl he catches Vancouver, Busan 2021
trying to steal the print. Their dynamic is
amusingly antagonistic, complemented
by a dash of Chaplin’s The Kid and by
Fan Wei’s standout performance as a
supercilious projectionist. Each actor
wrings humour from their character’s
quixotic idiosyncrasies while honouring
the desperate conditions driving them.
Every great director eventually
makes their ode to cinema, though
thankfully Zhang’s shuns inspirational
clichés and self-congratulation. Instead, over “technical issues”, allegedly “One Second allows
he seems nostalgic for the tactile details a mask for state censorship (a
of film itself: celluloid’s reflective sheen; recurring antagonist in Zhang’s cinema to represent
the white gloves and chopsticks used career) on account of its controversial the corrosive vision of a
to handle an exposed print; an old setting. Despite the compromises
projector’s whir as it blasts tiny cells necessary to secure the film’s release, fading regime, but also to Screenings
onto a massive screen. And this is a Zhang’s unique eye glints through, reflect dreams of a better ITR Wed 17 Nov, 1.30 pm
big-screen movie, boasting lovingly weighing film’s escapist pleasures
rendering desert vistas, detailed sets against its propagandistic function, tomorrow for so many of ITR Fri 19 Nov, 3.45 pm
and cinema’s most potent special effect: simultaneously offering his characters the people suffering under MM Timaru Wed 10 Nov, 5.45 pm
crowds of extras vibrating with common escape from and justification for the MM Timaru Fri 12 Nov, 2.00 pm
purpose. constraints imposed upon them. its rule.”
One Second was abruptly — Christopher Smol — David Ehrlich, Indiewire
M Violence & offensive language
withdrawn from its planned 2019 debut
Paris, 13th District
Les Olympiades
The latest from French auteur Director: Jacques Audiard
Jacques Audiard (A Prophet NZIFF
2010, 2015 Cannes Palme d’Or winner
France 2021 | 104 mins
Dheepan) is a breezy adaptation of Cast: Lucie Zhang, Makita Samba,
Jehnny Beth, Noémie Merlant
a series of graphic novels by New
Producers: Jacques Audiard,
Yorker cartoonist Adrian Tomine. Valérie Schermann
The lives of three bright young Screenplay: Jacques Audiard,
Parisians intersect in a variety of Céline Sciamma, Léa Mysius
ways as they negotiate the modern Cinematography: Paul Guilhaume
challenges of work, sex and real Editors: Juliette Welfling, Paul Machliss,
estate. Émilie (firecracker newcomer Jonathan Amos
Lucie Zhang) works in a call centre Music: Rone
Languages: In French and Mandarin,
and tries to avoid visiting her ailing
with English subtitles
grandmother. Her flatmate, and
Festivals: Cannes (In Competition),
sometime lover Camille (Makita
Vancouver, London 2021
Samba, Angelo NZIFF 2019), is giving
up his teaching job to try and finally
nail down that elusive doctorate.
Nora (Noémie Merlant, Portrait of
a Lady on Fire NZIFF 2019), freshly
arrived from Bordeaux to study law
at the Sorbonne, has to deal with the
complications of having a porn star
doppelgänger.
Audiard has always been narrative plates spinning while “Paris, 13th District plays
something of a cinematic chameleon, deftly navigating a range of emotional
and this film is his brisk, lively tribute tones, all without missing a beat. like a spiritual sequel to
to the French New Wave, shot in This is joyful, accomplished [La Haine]... All it would
immaculate black and white and filmmaking that makes for a funny,
updated with ever-present internet smart and satisfying night out. take would be to make all Screenings
and social media access. A rich — Andrew Langridge the right decisions, have ITR Fri 12 Nov, 8.30 pm
and welcome female perspective,
brought to the story by co-writers a little luck and believe in ITR Tue 16 Nov, 3.45 pm
Céline Sciamma and Léa Mysius, also the magic of cinema.” MM Timaru Fri 19 Nov, 3.45 pm
adds a modern cultural diversity and MM Timaru Sat 20 Nov, 8.00 pm
— Boyd van Hoeij, Hollywood Reporter
raunch. The young ensemble cast
give performances of charm, nuance Sex scenes, nudity, drug use
R16
and depth, and Audiard keeps his & offensive languageSPOTLIGHT 12
The French Dispatch
“It’s hard to imagine another living Director/Screenplay:
filmmaker with a style as instantly
recognizable as Wes Anderson...
Wes Anderson
So much has been made about USA 2021 | 103 mins
the precise frames, the vibrant Cast: Benicio Del Toro, Adrien Brody,
colors, and the deadpan delivery of Tilda Swinton, Léa Seydoux,
Anderson’s work, but less about the Frances McDormand, Timothée Chalamet,
substance beneath it. Anderson’s Lyna Khoudri, Jeffrey Wright,
Mathieu Amalric, Stephen Park,
movies may be pretty, whimsical
Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Liev Schreiber,
flights of fancy, but they also express Elisabeth Moss, Edward Norton,
genuine curiosity about the strange Willem Dafoe, Lois Smith, Saoirse Ronan,
nature of human relations. Christoph Waltz, Cécile de France,
...This charming sketchbook Guillaume Gallienne, Jason Schwartzman
of stories about American expatriates Producers: Wes Anderson, Steven Rales,
in France [is a] freewheeling three- Jeremy Dawson
part salute to old-school journalism Cinematography: Robert Yeoman
Editor: Andrew Weisblum
in general and The New Yorker in
Music: Alexandre Desplat
particular, [which] works in fits and
Festivals: Cannes (In Competition),
starts, swapping narrative cohesion
San Sebastián, New York, London,
for charming small doses of wit and Busan 2021
wonder about odd people and places
worth your time...
The French Dispatch closes
with a dedication to everyone from
William Shawn to James Baldwin and in question, overwhelmed by the “No one is more spoofed
Lillian Ross, all treasured writers... details streaming in.” — Eric Kohn,
whose work inspired the eccentric Indiewire than Wes Anderson…
tales within. Molding elements of To which I can only say…
their work into his standard ironic “... packed with inside jokes for
cadences, Anderson explores topics audiences hip to the arts and culture sure, yes, more fun, more
as far-reaching as an imprisoned scene of 1950s and ’60s New York buoyancy, more elegance,
painter subjected to the absurdity of and Paris... The French Dispatch is
the art world, student revolutionaries Anderson’s arms-wide-open tribute to more marvellously
in the sixties, and a convoluted a generation of complicated geniuses, eccentric invention, Screenings
kidnapping plot that involves both so the winks come as dense and IITR Sat 20 Nov, 3.15 pm
food porn and animation. The dizzying as guilty-pleasure movie more originality.”
experience is akin to flipping through references do in a Quentin Tarantino — Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian Offensive language, nudity,
M drug use & sexual references
the eccentric pages of the publication picture...” — Peter Debruge, Variety
CINEMATIC STAYS
Heritage Hotels are delighted to support the
Whānau Mārama New Zealand International
Film Festival for over 20 years.
Heritage Hotels are in 14 locations across
the country and situated from waterfronts,
to city CBDs through to stunning alpine and
lake resorts.
WWW.HERITAGEHOTELS.CO.NZSPOTLIGHT 13
Undine
German auteur Christian Petzold is Director/Screenplay:
a master in the art of tightening an
invisible grip on his characters; they
Christian Petzold
can appear as though becalmed, Germany 2020 | 90 mins
between worlds, stranded and hovering Cast: Paula Beer, Franz Rogowski
in a transitory state due Producers: Florian Koerner von Gustorf,
to circumstance, fate or personality Michael Weber
– and not always aware of the fact. Cinematography: Hans Fromm
Editor: Bettina Böhler
Undine is no exception, and his latest
Language: In German with English subtitles
heroine is perhaps his most slippery
Festivals: Berlin 2020
and elusive yet. But then, her name
belongs to a mythical creature, a female Awards: Best Actress & FIPRESCI Prize
(Competition), Berlin International Film
water nymph whose lack of a soul, not
Festival 2020
to mention her aquatic environment,
can complicate interaction with
humans.
A historian, Undine’s subject
is Berlin: its many strata, both
geographical and architectural; she
delves deep into what lies below and
in the past. Christophe, a diver tasked
with assessing the underwater
foundations of the city’s constructions,
witnesses one of Undine’s presentations
at her workplace, the Senate “With its haunting indifference to “Undine is a poker-faced
Department for Urban Development logic, Undine only makes sense as a
and Housing. A restaurant aquarium demonstration of the ways in which fairy tale, a fantasy
brings them together in one of the most men and women fail to understand wrought by a committed
startling first encounters viewers are one another. [An] occult love story,
likely to see at this festival. They are drawing on a classic of German cinematic realist. It’s Screenings
instantly transfixed and launch into a Romanticism... Undine plunges an example of how a ITR Sat 6 Nov, 6.00 pm
passionate affair. decisively into the supernatural,
The chemistry between Paula with accidents, acts of vengeance, filmmaker can take an ITR Mon 8 Nov, 11.15 am
Beer and Franz Rogowski, stars of vanishings, and intimations of outlandish central idea MM Timaru Fri 12 Nov, 6.00 pm
Petzold’s Transit (NZIFF 2018), powers Wuthering Heights.” — J. Hoberman, MM Timaru Tue 16 Nov, 1.45 pm
this film of strangeness and wonders, The New York Review of Books and play it beautifully
plunging viewers into an intoxicating straight.” M Violence & sex scenes
waking dream. — Sandra Reid
— Justin Chang, LA Times
Zola
Based on the infamous 2015 Twitter Director: Janicza Bravo
thread by A’Ziah ‘Zola’ King, Janicza
Bravo’s Zola chronicles a 72-hour
USA 2020 | 87 mins
fever dream of a road trip in search Cast: Taylour Paige, Riley Keough,
Nicholas Braun, Ari'el Stachel,
of a quick fortune in Florida. After
Colman Domingo
meeting Stefani (Riley Keough) Producers: Christine Vachon, David
during a waitressing shift, Zola (an Hinojosa, Gia Walsh, Kara Baker, Vince
inimitable Taylour Paige) and Stefani Jolivette, Elizabeth Haggard, Dave Franco
become fast friends. So fast that Zola Screenplay: Janicza Bravo, Jeremy O.
agrees to join Stefani, her milquetoast Harris. Based on the Tweets by A’Ziah ‘Zola’
boyfriend and their ‘roommate’ on King and the article by David Kushner
an impromptu trip to Tampa the very Cinematography: Ari Wegner
Editor: Joi McMillon
next day to turn a quick buck in the
Music: Mica Levi
local strip clubs. What’s the worst
Festivals: Sundance 2020
that could happen?
In David Kushner’s viral
Rolling Stone article, “Zola Tells All: Presented in association with
The Real Story Behind the Greatest
Stripper Saga Ever Tweeted”, Zola
admitted to embellishing the more
sensational details for entertainment
value, but the core of this sordid tale
remains true – though the parties
involved have spun their side of the
story in other corners of the internet, Zola is a compelling, wild, “A gonzo road trip movie
which the film nods to in a hilarious outrageous and, at times, upsetting
and bizarre cut-away moment. For work of comedy that is well worth the that plays like a fever
Bravo, A’Ziah’s story provided “an ride. — Kailey Carruthers dream had by a sentient
entry point into something that
maybe is too intimidating or too scary social media platform.”
to even touch... She had us all having —Chris Evangelista, Slashfilm
a conversation about something that
we don't usually talk about because Screenings
it’s pretty easy to look away from”. ITR Sat 6 Nov, 8.15 pm
A love letter to modern tech ITR Fri 12 Nov, 4.00 pm
and retro cinema, it’s Spring Breakers
meets Tangerine (NZIFF 2015) with a Violence, nudity, sex scenes
R16
dash of 70s Blaxploitation. & offensive language14
Bill
Gosden
Tribute
Image: Michael Jeong
This very special retrospective pays tribute to the THE GOSDEN YEARS
non-fiction
late Bill Gosden, ONZM (1953–2020), NZIFF’s $50.00
director and public face for nearly 40 years. While it Edited by
Gaylene Preston
can in no way do justice to the breadth and diversity & Tim Wong
of his vision and personal film taste, we hope Foreword by Tim Wong
this modest collection of past Festival highlights Available to order at
nziff.co.nz
captures a morsel of what he loved about movies, the
filmmakers he held in highest esteem and what he
looked for – and stood for – as a curator of cinema.
Not every film we wanted to show in Bill’s memory was available to The tribute to Bill Gosden during NZIFF 2021 also includes
us – such is the nature of programming, which we know Bill of all people the launch of the new book The Gosden Years, published by
would’ve understood. Where possible, we’ve selected films he wrote Victoria University Press.
original programme notes for (and these are included) or was openly The Gosden Years is a record of Bill Gosden’s
passionate about. enormous legacy as director of NZIFF. Conceived by Gosden
Most of these films and their directors also appear in The Gosden during the last months of his life, the book comprises his
Years, a book conceived by Bill during the last months of his life on the curated film notes, with praise for vital and overlooked New
Festival’s storied history, its major role in Aotearoa film culture and the Zealand feature films included; programme introductions
artists and personnel who were a part of his remarkable run at the helm. that illuminate the changing technologies and politics of film
Our screenings coincide with the book’s release and the one-year exhibition through the decades; and striking original poster
anniversary of Bill’s death in November. art from every year of his tenure.
If you’d like to leave your own tribute to Bill, visit: The Gosden Years will be launched at the screening of
rememberingbillgosden.nz Beau Travail on Sat 6 Nov.BILL GOSDEN TRIBUTE 15
Beau Travail
We open the Bill Gosden Tribute Director: Claire Denis
programme with one of Bill’s favourite
films. A fan of Claire Denis since
France 1999 | 93 mins
her feature debut, Chocolat, Bill Cast: Denis Lavant, Michel Subor,
Grégoire Colin, Richard Courcet
programmed nearly every one of the
Producer: Patrick Grandperret
auteur’s films during his time as Festival Screenplay: Claire Denis, Jean-Pol Fargeau
Director – even the hardest-to-see Cinematography: Agnès Godard
ones (U.S. Go Home NZIFF 1995) – Editor: Nelly Quettier
at the exact moment when Chirac’s Music: Charles Henri de Pierrefeu, Eran Zur
announcement to resume nuclear Language: In French with English subtitles
testing in the Pacific made anything Festivals: Venice, Toronto, New York 1999;
French strictly démodé. Sundance, Berlin, Auckland, Wellington
Beau Travail was widely 2000
considered the masterpiece of the
festival circuit when it screened here in
2000. Bill called it a “visual sensation”
and “unmistakably a film about men
by a woman”. This digital restoration
lends new crispness and intensity to not
only one of the great films of the 1990s,
but one of the greatest endings in all of
cinema.
French filmmaker Claire Denis is
the striking exception to the rule Her vision is rendered all “[Denis] succeeds in
that women rarely make movies that fix the sharper by identification with a
their gaze upon the tantalising character who feels excluded from the fusing the real and the
otherness of men. Her mesmerising physical perfection that surrounds dreamlike, the naturalistic
Beau Travail transposes Melville’s Billy him. — Bill Gosden
Budd to a French Foreign and the figurative, into one
Legion troop stationed in a harsh visual conceit. Never…
and beautiful port town of Djibouti.
Abetted by the dazzling does this shimmering, Screenings
cinematography of Agnès Godard, simmering emotional ITR Sat 6 Nov, 1.00 pm
Denis finds harmony, exhilaration ITR Wed 10 Nov, 1.15 pm
and mystery in the rituals and the esprit desert storm of a film relax
de corps of army life. its grip on your senses.” M Low level offensive language
— Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
Flowers of Shanghai
Hai shang hua
The 1980s were an invigorating Director: Hou Hsiao-hsien
time to be running an international
film festival, not least because of a
Taiwan/Japan 1998| 113 mins
number of emergent ‘new’ national Cast: Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Michiko Hada,
Michelle Reis, Carina Lau
cinemas, New Zealand’s among them.
Producers: Shôzô Ichiyama, Yang Teng-kuei
Bill Gosden, who was promoted to Screenplay: Chu T’ien-wen
programme director in 1982, was Cinematography: Mark Lee Ping-bing
deeply enamoured with Taiwanese Editor: Liao Ching-Sung
cinema during this decade, and the Music: Yoshihiro Hanno
films of Hou Hsiao-hsien especially. Languages: In Cantonese and
A master of capturing ordinary Shanghainese, with English subtitles
everyday life, often through beautiful Festivals: Cannes (In Competition),
long takes filled with the most Toronto, New York 1998; Auckland,
exquisite detail, we’ve selected one Wellington 1999
of Hou’s most celebrated features for
this tribute, in a stunning restoration
that elevates the richness and
incandescence of its late Qing dynasty
drama to new heights.
Set entirely within the walls of
Shanghai’s elegant 19th century
‘flower houses’, Hou Hsiao-hsien’s
genuinely intoxicating film is a kind
of cinematic opiate, a rapturous every ritual and gesture as if it’s about “Flowers of Shanghai
period picture shot not around the to be preserved in amber. Mark Lee
conventions of all-knowing historical Ping-bing’s gold-hued cinematography evokes a vanished
drama, but with a tantalising feeling for is extraordinary, by turns luminous world of decadence and
a world which has faded from memory. from the natural glow of oil lamps and
Centred on the frequent brothel visits dreamlike from the clouds of second- cruelty… where much
of Master Wang (Tony Leung Chiu- hand smoke. In gorgeous extended of the dramatic action
Wai) and his fallout with his favourite takes where the camera is never quite
girl, Crimson, while also straying into still nor focused on one particular detail remains tantalizingly Screenings
the lives and complications of other for too long, he and Hou create a drifting offscreen – even as its LUM Tue 9 Nov, 6.00 pm
clients and courtesans, Flowers of sense of time, place and anguish for the ITR Sun 14 Nov, 12.30 pm
Shanghai observes these comings women imprisoned in this most lavish of emotional fallout registers
and goings through a beautiful, bygone settings. with quiet devastation.” PG Sexual references
melancholic haze, hovering over — Criterion CollectionSupporting the art of filmmaking Buddle Findlay Proud sponsor of the 2021 New Zealand International Film Festival buddlefindlay.com
BILL GOSDEN TRIBUTE 17
Snakeskin
Bill Gosden championed countless Director/Screenplay:
New Zealand films during his tenure
as Festival Director, and not all the
Gillian Ashurst
obvious ones, either. Maybe it was its New Zealand 2001 | 92 mins
lust for Americana, the protagonist’s Cast: Melanie Lynskey, Boyd Kestner,
escape from southern parochialism Dean O'Gorman, Oliver Driver, Paul Glover,
(Bill grew up in Dunedin), or Gillian Charlie Bleakley, Jodie Rimmer, Taika Waititi
Ashurst’s darkly cartoonish take on Producer: Vanessa Sheldrick
Cinematography: Donald Duncan
Goodbye Pork Pie’s road movie legacy,
Editors: Marcus D'Arcy, Cushla Dillon
that made him regard Snakeskin with Music: Joost Langeveld
such fondness. Fascinated, he wrote,
Festivals: Auckland, Wellington 2001
“I wouldn’t be surprised if, played
backwards, it turns out to contain the
solutions to every unsolved murder in DCP courtesy of New Zealand Film
the South Island”. Commission
Bold, funny, sexy and macabre,
Gillian Ashurst’s juicily cinematic first
feature boots the cinema of unease
into the new century. Alice (Melanie
Lynskey) lives, to her dismay, in the
outer suburbs of a flat South Island
town... Why wasn’t she made in
America, like... Elvis, Marilyn [or]
Thelma and Louise? Everyone in New Racing three cars full of bad- “The new local movie
Zealand is just too boringly safe. ass characters across the plains...
Alice’s cute friend Johnny is an ambitious project for a cowgirl, Snakeskin isn't just
(Dean O’Gorman) provides some but abetted by deft editing, tasty the wildest Kiwi road
consolation... They’ve cut the roof off performances, stunning cinematography
his Valiant and drag up and down the and passages of inspired writing, movie since Goodbye
straight and narrow country roads... Ashurst keeps the curse of the Kiwi Pork Pie, it’s a bold feature
looking for dodgy hitchhikers... They caper comedy at bay. Exploiting road
find their man in Seth, a billboard hunk movie dynamics and wild South Island debut for writer-director Screenings
of an American cowboy with snakeskin landscapes with an expert’s love of Gillian Ashurst.” ITR Sun 7 Nov, 12.45 pm
boots, a serpent tattoo and a few spare both, she’s reanimated the spirit of LUM Tue 16 Nov, 4.00 pm
— NZ Herald, 2001
tabs of acid. Heading west becomes a Pork Pie with the sexual politics, the
matter of dodging all the people who’d drugs and the pop-trash-fetishism of Violence, offensive language,
R16
like to get a piece of Seth... the noughties. — Bill Gosden drug use and sex scenes
Written on the Wind
Our Bill Gosden tribute wouldn’t Director: Douglas Sirk
be complete without a wall-to-wall
Technicolor classic. Bill’s love of
USA 1956 | 99 mins
early cinema, vibrant studio-era Cast: Rock Hudson, Lauren Bacall,
Robert Stack, Dorothy Malone, Robert Keith
musicals, and frankly anything starring
Producer: Albert Zugsmith
Elvis could be felt throughout his Screenplay: George Zuckerman
retrospective programming, not least Based on the novel by Robert Wilder
in the carefully curated Live Cinema Cinematography: Russell Metty
events he looked forward to most. Editor: Russell F. Schoengarth
Douglas Sirk, Hollywood’s unrivalled Music: Frank Skinner
melodramatist, influenced some of Awards: Best Supporting Actress (Dorothy
Bill’s absolute favourites – Fassbinder Malone), Academy Awards 1956
and Almodóvar, most famously – Festivals: Auckland, Wellington 1999
and this presentation of one of the
director’s late masterpieces is a fitting
occasion to luxuriate in larger-than-
life filmmaking on the biggest screen
available, as only Bill would have it.
Douglas Sirk’s Texas-sized
melodrama, made at the twilight
of Hollywood’s fabled studio
system, might just be the ultimate
soap opera: the stuff of Dallas and
Dynasty decades before, mounted At the peak of his mastery, “[Sirk’s] vision of the self-
on an expressionistic scale with star Sirk lets the haute bourgeois tale of
power and lusty chemistry to burn. vanity and self-destruction take off, consuming whirlwind is
Beefcakes by name and reputation, all the while steeping even the anchored by a still and
Robert Stack and Rock Hudson are smallest moments in the deepest
duelling best friends entangled in the irony. Heaving with symbolism and unshakeable philosophical
riches of an oil empire and the desires intention in its precise use of colour, center… Yet that very
– both adulterous and incestuous – of décor and framing, everything means
their women, played by Lauren Bacall something in this visual explosion of elusiveness of originary Screenings
and, most unforgettable of all, Dorothy a film, at once excessive and brutally inspiration is itself part of ITR Fri 19 Nov, 10.45 am
Malone as a raging nymphomaniac. exact in its picture of the American LUM Sun 21 Nov, 10.45 am
These characters only have tragedy dream. Sirk’s ironic genius.”
ahead of them; their collision course — Richard Brody, The New Yorker R16
contrived in a manner that’s trashy to
the core, yet also scathingly satirical.18
Mark Hunt: The Fight of His Life
Director: Peter Brook Bell
Aotearoa
New Zealand 2021 | 84 mins
With: Mark Hunt, Julie Hunt,
Michael Shiavello, Jon Anik,
Ariel Helwani, Lucy Tui,
Peter Graham, Ray Sefo,
Lolo Heimuli
Producer: Bettina Hollings
Cinematography:
Mark Chamberlin
Editor: Gary Sims
World Premiere
Mark Hunt: The Fight of His Life is a despite this unpromising beginning,
warts and all documentary following almost immediately rises to global
New Zealand films at NZIFF one of New Zealand's most successful
sportspeople.
stardom. But with his increasing
success also comes self-sabotage,
are proudly supported by Mark Hunt remains a global
superstar in both kickboxing and
challenging his own ascent at every
step. By the time he joined the
mixed martial arts, yet, as the fledging MMA circuit, he was already
documentary makes clear, has washed up.
remained a rank outsider for the Hunt is a compelling figure
majority of his sporting career. This in a classic underdog story,
is highlighted in the film as Hunt cementing there was something
singlehandedly takes on his employer remarkable about him from the outset.
UFC, persuading them to take a — Brannavan Gnanalingam
harder line with drug cheats.
Charting an almost Rocky-like
trajectory, director Peter Brook Bell Screenings
highlights Hunt as he overcomes LUM Wed 17 Nov, 8.45 pm
horrendous childhood dealings LUM Thu 18 Nov, 2.00 pm
We proudly present a slate of powerful local with his abusive father, jail time and
films that illuminate and challenge our national an adolescence spent on society's Documentary film exempt
margins. He becomes a last-minute E from NZ Classification
character. New documentaries shine a spotlight ring-in to kickboxing fights, and labelling requirements
on personalities, cultural practices, artistic
endeavours and influential industries that have
shaped the unique face of Aotearoa. From
deeply personal narratives of toil and triumph
to provocative examinations of the forces that Signed, Theo Schoon
mold our society, these films illuminate the
connections between past and present with Director/Screenplay:
power, ingenuity and humour. Luit Bieringa
New Zealand 2021 | 100 mins
With: Theo Schoon
And we continue to celebrate the short film Creative Producer: Jan Bieringa
format with two curated programmes collecting Cinematography: Scott Mouatt,
Bruce Foster, Joseph Kelly,
the best new shorts from both Aotearoa and the David Paul
Pacific community in New Zealand’s Best 2021 Editor: Lala Rolls
Music: Gareth Farr
and Ngā Whanaunga Māori Pasifika Shorts. Plus Q&A: Luit & Jan Bieringa*
we selected five additional short films from New
Zealand filmmakers which will screen ahead of
feature films throughout the festival and have
been matched with films that have thematic or
tonal commonalities. Filmmaker and art historian Luit Schoon crossed paths with the
Bieringa (Ans Westra: Private Journeys/ likes of Rita Angus, Colin McCahon,
Public Signposts NZIFF 2006, The Man Len Castle, Helen Mason and,
See also The Power of the Dog (p5), in the Hat NZIFF 2009 and The heART significantly, Gordon Walters, but
Night Raiders (p53) and Mothers of the of the matter NZIFF 2016) pieces his most powerful encounters were
together the tale of Theo Schoon from with Māori culture. From his work to
Revolution (p55) historic archive footage, photos and preserve historic cave paintings, to
audio recordings, underpinned by his his exploration of koru and kowhaiwhai,
own encounters and correspondence he unapologetically traced a maverick
with this mercurial artist. path towards a legacy that remains
Raised in Indonesia, Schoon controversial and relevant today.
grew up appreciating the country’s — Andrew Clifford
indigenous culture more than the
trappings of his Dutch colonial
Screenings
upbringing. Art training in Europe
gave him first-hand experience of LUM Wed 17 Nov, 6.00 pm*
the progressive Bauhaus movement, LUM Thu 18 Nov, 11.15 am*
bringing a fresh eye at a time when MM Timaru Sun 21 Nov, 12.00 pm
Modernism was emerging in Aotearoa.
When he arrived in conservative, mid- Documentary film exempt
century New Zealand in 1939, he might
E from NZ Classification
as well have landed from another planet. labelling requirementsAOTEAROA 19
Millie Lies Low
Illustrating how a small misstep can Director: Michelle Savill
significantly alter the trajectory of
a life, New Zealand comedy-drama
New Zealand 2021 | 100 mins
Millie Lies Low sees a young Cast: Ana Scotney, Rachel House,
Chris Alosio, Jillian Nguyen, Sam Cotton
professional turn to social media
Producers: Desray Armstrong,
duplicity to save face after missing Angela Littlejohn
her flight to success. Screenplay: Michelle Savill, Eli Kent
Already soaking in anxiety, Cinematography: Andrew Stroud
Millie’s day becomes a complete Editor: Dan Kircher
disaster when a moment of panic Music: Evelyn Ida Morris
causes her to miss her flight from World Premiere
Wellington to New York, where she
is due to start an internship at a
prestigious architecture firm. With
no money for another ticket and too
ashamed to face the disappointing
truth, Millie decides the best course of
action is to fool everyone into thinking
she’s living her best life in NYC.
Going to ground in her
hometown, Millie gets by on her wits
and Instagram trickery, convincing
family, friends and followers that
she’s halfway across the globe while
concocting increasingly desperate the story. With a cast of local talent, “[W]hat if someone did
schemes to get the money for another including Ana Scotney (Cousins) in the
flight. Deception is no easy feat, let titular role alongside the great Rachel hide... just until they could
alone deceiving your own whānau, House (Hunt for the Wilderpeople), get the money for a new
but maybe she can pull it off. After Savill’s feature debut is a sharp
all, “fake it ‘til you make it” they say... character-driven tale of finding your ticket? What would they
so what’s the price to pay for a little place in the world. — Adrian Hatwell, have to do to keep up the
white lie? Eleonora Mignacca
Many elements of Millie’s life ruse? How would their Screenings
are pulled from award-winning short lives be affected, perhaps ITR Wed 10 Nov, 6.15 pm
film writer/director Michelle Savill’s ITR Thu 11 Nov, 11.00 am
own biography, from her Filipino- in ways they could never
Kiwi background to a real-life missed have imagined?” Sex scenes, offensive
M language, nudity & drug use
flight that becomes the impetus for
— Michelle Savill
Rohe Kōreporepo – The Swamp, the Sacred Place
“If your forest is healthy, then your bird Directors: Kathleen
life is healthy, if your bird life is healthy,
then we are healthy.”
Gallagher, Kate Goodwin
Wetlands are like terrestrial New Zealand 2021 | 70 mins
sponges – when it rains, they soak With: 60 kaitiaki (repo guardians)
up water. When it’s dry, they slowly Producer: Kathleen Gallagher
release moisture to nearby land and Screenplay: Kathleen Gallagher, Dylan Pyle
groundwater reservoirs. They also trap Cinematography: Dave Perry
Editor: Jack Bayliss
sediments running off the land, helping
Music: Lisa Tui, Mahina-ina Kingi-Kaui,
to keep our rivers and oceans clean. Geoff Low, Nicole Reddington
They store carbon. Yet, to Aotearoa’s Languages: In English and Māori, with
European settlers, wetlands were English subtitles
one of the country’s most maligned World Premiere
geographical features. To create dry Q&A: Kathleen Gallagher*
land for farming and settlements,
wetlands were deprived of water –
rivers were widened and diverted,
willows were planted and swamps were
drained, until only 10 percent of the
country’s wetlands remained.
In Rohe Kōreporepo – The
Swamp, the Sacred Place we are
introduced to the diversity of
Aotearoa’s wetlands through aerial
footage and the tangata whenua, In these days of eco-anxiety “The species that fed our
landowners, government agencies and climate anxiety, we need positive
and army of volunteers who are using stories to show us the way forward. tūpuna over centuries is
mātauranga Māori and scientific There’s more good news: restoring now… crying out to us.
knowledge to restore them. Willows wetlands will pull carbon from the
are being removed, drains re-dug and atmosphere – thereby helping to ‘We fed you over many
native species planted in a series of mitigate against further climate years, now it is your turn to
local restoration projects. Wetlands change – and can protect the land
aren’t just a vital component of the from flooding caused by the heavy look after us.’” Screenings
natural environment, to tangata rainfall events and sea-level rise that — Russ Parai, Ngāti Koata Sat 6 Nov, 3.15 pm*
whenua wetlands are a place for are an inevitable consequence of our
resource gathering and mahinga kai: warming climate. — Rebecca Priestley Documentary film exempt
vital habitat for waterfowl and tuna E from NZ Classification
[eels], raupō and harakeke. labelling requirementsYou can also read
