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Auckland based filmmakers Miriam Smith & Christopher Pryor lived and filmed in Jerusalem for a year, spanning 2010/2011.  How Far is Heaven follows the journey of Sister Margaret Mary, the newest Sister to Jerusalem, who is a regular volunteer...

The Most Fun You Can Have Dying is a debut feature for both writer/director Kirstin Marcon and producer Alex Cole-Baker. The film is based on the well-reviewed 2003 debut novel ‘Seraphim Blues’, written by Steven Gannaway. The film...

Set almost entirely in a petrol station, Fantail was shot on location in South Auckland, New Zealand. Fantail is the passion project of director Curtis Vowell, producer Sarah Cook and writer/actress Sophie Henderson.  It was funded through the New...

Like the Anzacs 100 years ago Sam Neill journeys across oceans, seeking an answer to why a legend was born in Turkey on 25 April, 1915. Why our two island nations, separated by sea, still celebrate a botched military expedition. Submerging...

From the author of Whale Rider, the screenwriter of Master and Commander and the producer and director of Once Were Warriors comes a profound and enduring tale of rural family life.

Every culture has its stories and its heroes. For us, the men of the 28 (Māori) Battalion are legendary. These were soldiers who owed no allegiance to a flag but fought and died in their thousands because they were warriors at heart. When they fought...

DIRECTOR’S NOTES -SUMMER AGNEW “In any culture a tangi (funeral) reminds us that the relationship between life and death is intricate. A tangi is when the living and the dead come together equally, in the whare nui (meeting house) to ensure...

Kiri, an overweight Māori woman, takes a trip to the Whakatiki River where she spent many summers as a girl. With her goes her husband Dan, his friend Seb and beautiful newcomer, Josie. The place awakens powerful memories for Kiri, and as...

A state of political unrest prevails in New Zealand - with strikes, riots and rationing. The Prime Minister has set up an anti-terrorist force of "Specials" - supposedly to restore law and order. Smith (SAM NEILL) is too busy with his...

Director’s Notes - Te Arepa Kahi FORESHORE AND SEABED 2005 in New Zealand was election year. The National party had been making little traction on Labour’s command of Government for some time, but in election year, tactics and...

Poi E is the latest chapter in director/writer Tearepa Kahi’s exploration of New Zealand’s musical history. His first film, Mt Zion, was a fictional story inspired by his musician father and his whānau in the 1980s. This film is the true...

River Queen is an original story by director Vincent Ward (Vigil, The Navigator, What Dreams May Come), who wrote the screenplay with Toa Fraser (Bare, No 2).    The film stars double Academy Award-nominated Samantha Morton (In...

THE TATTOOIST was made by Singaporean and New Zealand co-production partners, from a New Zealand-originated script on locations in New Zealand and Singapore. The story centres on Samoan spiritual beliefs, in which the barrier between our world and the...

It's 1903: South African farmer Arjan can Diemen has lost everything - his wife, children, farm and home - in the brutal Boer War in which he fought against the colonising British.  Arriving in New Zealand, he is immediately hired by Major...

Kimi lives inthe country with her grandmother and her Uncle Tau. One day at the end of summer, the big bus from the city gobbles up Uncle Tau and takes him away. Before he leaves, he promises to return when the watermelon is fully grown. The...

Director’s Notes - Peter Burger "In this film I wanted to capture the complexity of the idea of turangawaewae. For those Māori today, who no longer live in the place where their ancestors have lived for centuries, it becomes important to...

DIRECTOR’S NOTES - Michael Bennett “Making Kerosene Creek was both a great honour and a significant challenge for me. As a Māori writer and director, this film provided a unique opportunity to explore one of the most significant...

Bunny King (ESSIE DAVIS) is a mother of two, who is best described as a rough cut diamond with a sketchy past. Attempting to leave this past behind, she works intersections as a squeegee bandit using her quick wit to charm money from motorists....

A young girl battles an arcade claw machine over the fate of a cute plush toy. Unbeknownst to her, the machine houses a dark entity, hell-bent on harvesting the disappointment from any child that accepts the challenge of the alluring claw machine.

When a proudly-stubbled College student, Amon, is sent home to shave, he instead chooses to bunk indefinately. While chasing his own sexual-education, over one long afternoon, Amon is confronted by the complications, and repercussions, that come with...

In January 1981, US President Ronald Reagan swept into power with a mission to out-develop and out-spend on nuclear technologies against the Soviet Union – the Cold War ideological foe of the West. That September, in response to the growing East-...

A mother tries to comfort her grieving son, but on each attempt her son’s silence becomes more and more deafening. An outing to the local aquarium places further strain on their troubled relationship - until her son finds a reason to let his mother...

Adapted by Alan Sharp (Rob Roy), Dean Spanley is directed by UK-born, NZ raised Toa Fraser (No.2). A truly impressive international cast is led by eight-time Academy Award nominee Peter O’Toole (Venus, Lawrence of Arabia) and also features...

"Pelorus is a personal story that I have grown up with. I’ve been friends with the Sigglekow family since the mid 1980’s, when Chris Sigglekow was at the height of his bungy jumping development. Now he is my father-in-law. To tell...

Even stray dogs remain elusive to Little Man, a nine-year-old boy who seeks to understand the remote world around him.  He finds refuge with Kid, his younger, autistic sister who provides Little Man with a brief glimpse of another world. When Kid is...

Ralph Hotere is hailed as one of New Zealand's greatest artists, having exhibited throughout Europe, the USA, Canada, Japan, Brazil, England and Australia.  In New Zealand he has executed a number of large public works, designed theatre sets,...

When Freddy loses his job delivering pizza, he and his best buddy Marvin find work with a small-time crook Spiggs. After they botch a straightforward job, Spiggs sends them on a fool’s errand - to kill gangster Donny Kong who's been sleeping...

DIRECTOR’S NOTES - Ainsley Gardiner & Catherine Fitzgerald “There are a few moments in childhood that have a lasting impact. Not because they change the course of your life, or because they arrive with any great fanfare, in fact...

Intricately handmade from paper and cardboard, this stop-motion animated tragicomedy follows Danny, a university Geography tutor, as he and his students stray from the syllabus in order to break new academic ground. After managing only to break some...

Will Bastion (Temuera Morrison) returns from 20 years service in the New Zealand Army to Raukura, his hometown, to face the biggest challenge of his life. His father has died, leaving a sacred greenstone patu, the symbol of leadership, to him. He doesn...

6 months’ pregnant Rose celebrates her son Jaden’s 6th birthday. Amongst the new presents is a strange clickity-clack wooden toy - Vaspy. While cleaning up the next day, Rose unknowingly gets “stung” by it, and starts to crave...

Amaia is a young girl living with her depressed mother in an inner-city apartment. With no family or friends close by, she desperately seeks out her absent father. Believing that a mysterious woman can reconnect them, Amaia goes to extreme lengths to win...

D I R E C T O R ’ S N O T E S “The stronger the wind, the stronger the trees” -J. Williard Marriott “When I began writing the little things I knew from the outset that I wanted it to be a story that whispered and didn’t...

Part of the British Film Institute’s Century of Cinema series in which some of the world’s most respected directors investigate their national cinema. Cinema of Unease examines the cultural and historic context from which the New Zealand...