26 Apr 2014 Round Up

Just a quick hello from my newly-designed websites – which will let viewers screen my past films online, rather than track me down and order DVDs. So a good move into the virtual world.

Please note too the Save Georgina Campaign! We have just launched through Fundrazr. In exchange for a donation of any size, you can stream my 2002 film Georgie Girl (the life and times of Georgina Beyer) for the first time. The film is also screening as part of Documentary Edge coming up in June in Wellington only – Georgina, who many of you know has kidney failure, will be in attendance. So check out the schedule at documentaryedge.org.nz. Peter Wells, the writer, filmmaker and co-director of Georgie Girl will be there – I will be too.

Otherwise – to catch you up with various developments. My last film, He Toki Huna: NZ in Afghanistan which I produced with Kay Ellmers, aired one year ago on Maori Television, with a feature version following up at the NZ International Film Festival. Since then, we raised a small grant from PADET to distribute a DVD of the film to all secondary schools and Alex Edney-Browne, who is currently completing her BA at the University of Auckland, wrote a couple of great study guides, one in English/Media Studies, the other in History, which you can download for free via our shop. The film is also available to purchase as a DVD or you can stream on Vimeo.

I also set off to Tahiti earlier this year to the fabulous FIFO film festival, which is dedicated to films of the Pacific. I pitched our new film William Mariner which traces the story of a young English cabin boy who was shipwrecked in Tonga in 1806. FIFO is a really different event, with filmmakers from Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Samoa, Tahiti, Vanuatu – some great dancing, food, conversation and entertainment too. No-one writes a check on the spot of course, so it has been a few more months of emailing …

And we are waiting to hear from the New Zealand Film Commission about funding for a new exciting documentary – we should hear about any day.