Original Skin

Director: Costa Botes
Year: 1996
Country: New Zealand
Running time: 15 mins
New Zealand
Screenpiay: Costa Botes
Production co: Kahukura Productions
Producer: Larry Parr
Production design: John Girdlestone
Photography: Sean O'Donnell
Editor: Mike Horton

With: Colin Hodson (Robbie), Dra McKay (Phee), Roy Ward (Saul), Nick Ward (Metz,. Ricky Allan (Strut), Adele Chapman (Adele)
I believe a character who can wield absolute power over others must lose the motivation to look inward; and any such character, one who has lost sight of their inner self, cannot make good art. Art at its best is a meaningful record of personal experience (which is why the greatest tyrants have always promoted the worst art). Equally, it's an awkward fact of history that not all great artists happened to be great human beings. Morality can be sadly irrelevant to the issue of talent.
However, the quality one finds in such characters, even more than talent, is courage. All artists must sooner or later face and overcome the terror of personal exposure - the paralysing thought that they might have nothing to say.
The odd and ironic process by which one very blinkered, broken down, and morally fallible artist regains that courage is mostly what this story is about. It's not an easy or reassuring film, but I hope it's one that rings true. — Costa Botes