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Sam Jamieson, Basil Beaumont-Foster, Brendon O'Keefe, Spud McGhee and Shorty Larsen eke out an existence in the small town of Kurikino, working seasonally at the local freezing works. The end of each day sees them gather in the local pub, the...

Life for Liz is circumscribed by the respectable veneer of an affluent community. The streets she walks are clean and safe. She sleeps between matched sheets, eats at good restaurants. She has never told a deliberate lie or used foul language in public...

The screenplay for Mr Wrong was based upon the story by well-known English writer Elizabeth Jane Howard. Director Gaylene Preston used the genre of thriller to examine sexual violence towards women, and what she calls 'the cinderella...

Part of the About Face series.

This series of seven contemporary dramas showcases the fresh, up-and-coming filmmakers of the 1980s.  The seven stories fit into various genres and of the seven filmmakers, five went on to make feature films. My First Suit - directed by Stewart...

An obsession with the the American cowboy as portrayed in countless westerns attracts members of both sexes to a club in the outer suburbs of Auckland. Dressing up in western garb, complete with holsters and guns, is a weekly form of escapism for club...

Sculptor-Composer Phil Dadson and his two musical colleagues, Wayne Liard and Don McGlashan overwhelm the senses by producing percussive and other sounds from musical instruments of their own devising - large plastic tubes combined with drums and other...

The feature film Should I Be Good is based on the actual events of the New Zealand based drug scandal which exploded into the news media with the brutal murder of Martin Johnstone in Britain in the early 1980s. He had already been dubbed 'Mr...

She deposited the letter in a bank security box with instructions that it be given to her husband in the event of her death. Five months later, Katherine Mansfield died. Unknown to Murry, she had also left a copy of the 'last letter' with...

Filmed in one continuous shot, this is a confronting film about a young boy's relationship with an older man.  Staring directly at the camera, a boy talks about his first sexual experience at Scout camp.  The confession raises several...

Director David Blyth was won over by Michael Heath’s script because it reversed convention, and “was a plea for children to be allowed to keep and develop their imaginations”.

From romance, drug deals and an imported hitman, to Swiss bank accounts and the occasional killing, Don Reynold's Dangerous Orphans is a pacy urban thriller which takes a seemingly straight-forward story and turns it into a tense, violent,...

In Murray Ball's iconic cartoon strips - and now in the animated feature film - the day-to-day events of Footrot Flats are chronicled by an extremely intelligent dog with a great sense of his own worth. He is simply known as "Dog"....

There's panic on the streets as 19-year-old tearaway Ska (Matthew Hunter) comes to terms with love and death in Auckland's 80s urban underworld. After an ultimately tragic attempt to 'rescue' his prostitute sister, Ska plots revenge at a...

This early short from Alison Maclean (Kitchen Sink, Crush) is a comedy about a disconnected New Zealand family.  Nan has been recently widowed. As she  prepares the Sunday roast for her family, she assesses her life and where she fits into her...

Starring both Don McGlashan and Harry Sinclair from The Front Lawn, this slice-of-life short shows the people of Auckland's K Road in their natural habitat.  Structured in the same relay style as Richard Linkater's Slacker, the two actors...

Peter Jackson's breakthrough feature, Bad Taste, began as a 20 minute short titled Roast of the Day, the simple tale of a charity worker who meets a terrible fate in a small town. The motive for making the film was for Jackson to try...

Their curiosity is fuelled when a caller reveals that Roger's wife is in labour. The talkback lines run hot - but Joanah suspects it's not the happy event her callers believe it to be. Through the night, Jonah becomes increasingly drawn to the...

Gaylene Preston's insightful documentary about writer Keri Hulme was filmed two years after the writer's Booker Prize win for The Bone People.  It is partly a love story to Hulmes hometown of Okarito and a musing on the writer's creative...

When a young woman returns to the Greek island where her family came from to visit an aunt still living there, she discovers the contrasts between the life-styles of two women living in different cultures. . A personal and poignant documentary film...

Footage shot for this revealing documentary became the basis for Herbs' music video for their hit, Sensitive to a Smile. When Herbs made the decision to celebrate their record release in Ruatoria, a town divided by a Rastafarian sect whose actions...

It is 1930. The Great Depression has spread far afield from its Wall Street beginnings to wreck havoc on rural New Zealand. The land is rich but the money has gone. Farmers who can afford it are living off their savings but others have already been...

In this dark comedy about obsession, people reach absurd states in search of their unique little highs. Music, oddball characters and weird noises combine to create fully realised and recognisable world in which the pursuit of pleasre is all...

Award-winning filmmaker Gregor Nicholas and celebrated contemprary dancer and choreographer Douglas Wright collaborate in a film which evokes Brassai's Paris, Orson Welles's Vienna and W. C. Handy's New Orleans. The dancers split and merge...

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