Issue date: 
Thursday, 11 May 2017

The New Zealand International Film Festival (NZIFF) has announced its first eight titles for the 2017 Festival and three of them are New Zealand documentaries.

Florian Habicht's Spookers, which recently had its world premiere at Toronto's Hot Docs, Annie Goldson's Kim Dotcom: Caught in the Web which had its world premiere at SXSW in March and Gaylene Preston's My Year With Helen which will have its world premiere at next month's Sydney Film Festival will all screen at the NZIFF.

An official NZ/Australian co-production directed by Florian Habicht, written by Habicht, Peter O’Donoghue and Veronica Gleeson and produced by Nick Batzias, Lani-rain Feltham, Suzanne Walker and Virginia Whitwell, Spookers tells the story of a quirky and close-knit family of New Zealand sheep farmers who run the most successful scare park in the Southern Hemisphere –creating a family of scarers like no other.  Spookers has also been announced as screening at the Sydney Film Festival in June.

Directed by Annie Goldson and produced by Alexander Behse, Kim Dotcom: Caught in the Web details the battle between Dotcom and the US government and entertainment industry being fought out in New Zealand.  Kim Dotcom: Caught in the Web most recently screened at Toronto's Hot Docs festival.

My Year With Helen, directed by Gaylene Preston and produced by Preston and Catherine Madigan, offers a behind-the-scenes human view of the inner workings of global power. With unique access to high-ranking candidate Helen Clark, Preston follows proceedings as the United Nations chooses a new Secretary General.

The full NZIFF programme will be available in Auckland on 27 June, and in Wellington on 30 June.

Last updated: 
Thursday, 11 May 2017