Homegrown: Drama
A smorgasbord of works from Aotearoa’s finest up-and-coming filmmakers.
This year’s crop of short digital dramas has screened in a number of international film festivals, showing the depth of local talent. It features a range of stories from the haunting brutality of war and domestic violence to the depths of romantic and familial relationships. There’s something for everyone in this smorgasbord of works from Aotearoa’s finest up-and-coming filmmakers.
3 Hours
R16 violence, content that may disturb
UK/Jordan/NZ 2010. Director: Regan Hall Producers: Regan Hall, Toby Stone, Issa Sawaqed. 14 mins
3 Hours is NZ-born British film director Regan Hall’s first dramatic short film. Based on a true story, with an entire cast of Iraqi refugees, this film explores one day in Baghdad when militants kill a young boy and his brother sets out for revenge.
Monifa
M violence, offensive language
NZ 2011. Director: Luke Savage Producers: Anna Stuart, Leela Menon. 14 mins
Luke Savage is an Auckland-based director who has studied film in NZ and France. He has directed numerous award-winning commercials and music videos. Monifa, his first dramatic short, traces a young African refugee’s struggle to adapt to her new life with adopted parents.
Hauraki
PG low level offensive language
NZ 2011. Director: Kirsten Green Producers: Stephen Lovatt, Angela Thomas Festivals: Tribeca 2011. 10 mins
Kirsten Green has worked on movies, commercials, shorts and television productions in Australia and NZ since 1993. Her previous short, Fish ‘n’ Chip Shop, screened in Homegrown in 2007. In Hauraki, a young girl goes on a trip to the country and innocently provokes an angry confrontation between her mother and a farmer’s wife. It takes the innate honesty of a child to see both sides.
Elaine Rides Again
M
NZ 2011. Director: Michelle Savill Producers: Michelle Savill, Gaylene Preston. 15 mins
Michelle Savill is both a filmmaker and a musician playing in the Wellington band The Sing Songs. Elaine Rides Again, her second short film, sees Elaine wanting to spend more time with her teenage daughter. She will do just about anything to ensure this happens.
With My Little Eye
M offensive language, sexual themes, disturbing behaviour
Australia/NZ 2010. Director: Kylie Plunkett Producer: Tamasin Simpkin. 15 mins
Kylie Plunkett is a successful Australia-based NZ filmmaker whose short The Butcher’s Wife screened in Homegrown in 2007. In With My Little Eye, Charlie goes on a weekend away and has to decide how she will face the unexpected. Instead of losing hope, Charlie finds that sometimes you have to hit the bottom to make you realise which way is up.
Darryn Exists
PG adult themes
NZ 2010. Director/Screenplay: Jamie Lawrence Producers: Bonnie Slater, Kelly Kilgour. 15 mins
Jamie Lawrence has studied film in New York and NZ and worked on numerous productions, from low-budget to blockbusters. Darryn Exists centres on Penelope, an unpublished romance writer who goes on a quest to write her own tale about love. Will she find love before it’s too late, especially when she doesn’t know what love looks like?
