Siobhan – 19/5/00
Picture this: Jake Heke throws his ragdoll wife against a hard concrete wall, one of many brutal incidents where Dr Hone Ropata went bad in the grim Once Were Warriors.
The skirt of Holly Hunter balloons as she sinks into pioneer mud, fingerless, while Anna Paquin dances like a mad thing on Kiwi shores.
Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey in a bath, as Christchurch’s 1954 teen killers Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme, plotting their gruesome revenge on poor old mother.
Memorable scenes from classic New Zealand films which the majority of us can recall instantly. Today, Scarfies, Holy Smoke, Lord of the Rings are amongst films on the tip of our tongues either written, directed and/or produced by New Zealanders. Already New Zealand has the 1980s classics of Sleeping Dogs, Came
a Hot Friday and the crude Goodbye Pork Pie under a belt that is
vastly expanding.
The 1990s signalled the emergence of an increasingly growing number of new talented film makers, and the public’s easy access to films.
Peter Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures, The Frighteners and Jane
Campion’s gripping The Piano and An Angel at My Table are among outstanding Kiwi films which are continuing to receive widespread international recognition and commercial success. One flick through the film section in the newspaper reveals at least three New Zealand films struggling to make a stand in a sea of big budget Hollywood blockbusters.
Although still a restricted industry, New Zealand film has reached a point where the dream of writing, producing and directing a film can be
made a reality. The New Zealand Film Commission supports those wishing to obtain qualifications in the industry, by setting up a variety of film schools throughout the country.
The 1999 releases of Channelling Baby, Scarfies, What Becomes of the Broken Hearted? proved popular with local audiences. Watch out for romantic comedies Savage Honeymoon, Hopeless
and Jubilee currently screening at cinemas and the thriller The
Lunatic’s Ball, which has already won prestigious awards overseas. These home-grown films are well worth seeing!
Stay tuned for the soon to be released feature films, The Price of Milk, Wild Blue, Magik and Rose and Serendipity.
She’s Racing and Soul Trader are among many short films currently in production. There’s also the local Snakeskin being shot outside Christchurch and The Vertical Limit currently shot on
location in Queenstown.
Forget low budgeting! Envisage computer graphics and a budget mounting to $NZ 264 million in the Tolkien trilogy, Lord of the Rings. Directed by the creative genius of Peter Jackson, the trilogy
uses 300 full time crew, 150,000 extras and stars Liv Tyler, Elijah Wood and
Billy Boyd. Whew! Need I say more?
New Zealand film is becoming a realistic career option for all creative minds out there. Complete with Maori and Pakeha humour, the huge wave of recent New Zealand films reveals an increasingly unique Kiwi perspective regarding our own history and lifestyles. These films are our voice celebrated by our own talented filmmakers, as New Zealand film fights to earn a deserved place in the world.
