Reviews and notes

UNION
(New Zealand 2003) 1 minute
Festival: 2003 Wellington

Director: Alyx Duncan
Producer: Catherine Chappell
Originator: Tim Turner
Cinematography: Richard Harling
Editor: Daniel Strang
Music: Eden Mulholland
Choreographer: Catherine Chappell
Performer: Tim Turner
Dog: Bioski

Dance video about a one-legged man who has a three-legged dog.
Commissioined by Touch Compass Dance Trust.

On the banks of a river bank, a dance floor, destiny's head, reared once more
three a.m. the dark of night, a three legged dog has taken flight
brushed aside by his life's past
a union, our souls to hold fast
Boiski it seemed has a plan, him my dog and I his man
how I ponder he chose me
I with one and he with three
this mystery yet I do unravel
four legs between us, the same road to travel.
- Tim Turner



APPETITE
(New Zealand 2010) 16 minutes
Festival: 2010 Wellington

Director: Alyx Duncan
Production Manager: Hannah Goldblatt
Designer: Ian Hammond, Alyx Duncan, Paul Wedel, Robin Kerr, Adam Donald
Cinematographer: Aline Tran
Editor: Paul Wedel
Music: Brigid Bisley, Tak Yamada
Sound Design: Jeffrey Holdaway

With:
James Ashcroft
Kristyl Neho
Sophie Roberts

Creation myth meets contemporary consumption in a downtown sushi bar.

From the chopping board of a bustling sushi restaurant comes a tale inspired by Te Ika a Maui (a Maori creation myth of New Zealand). The setting is Wellington, New Zealand, in 2010. A 9-year-old girl weaves two parallel stories into one with her narration.

‘Once, deep beneath the ocean and long ago, there lived a gigantic fish. It lived with instinct and freedom until one day a man came …’

In a sushi restaurant, three cousins meet after the death of their grandfather. Their conversation moves from love to inheritance – and the mood darkens.

Hauled out of the sea, the fish lies on the surface, gasping. The worlds of fantasy and reality merge as a forested landscape grows from its belly, creating the country we live upon. The fish is gutted, cut up, and turned into sushi.

Told in stop-motion animation and live action, Appetite explores our blindness to the earth as a living being and our increasing disconnection from one another. It’s a film that questions our choices in relation to each other and the land we are part of.


FLY
(New Zealand 2002) 5 minutes
Festivals:
2002 Wellington
2003 Melbourne
2005 Hawaii

Director: Shona McCullagh
Producer: Margaret Slater
Screenplay: Shona McCullagh
Cinematography: Aaron Morton
Editor: Ken Sparks
Music: David Long

With:
John Callen (Father)
Richard Cesan (Son)

"A father struggles between his instinct to protect, the desire to see his creation take flight, and the need to set his deaf boy free. Loosely based on the ancient story of Daedelus and Icarus, the boy who flew too close to the sun, the film describes, through the language of movement, the final moments before separation." Thanks to NZ Film Commission


BERIK
(New Zealand/Denmark 2010) 16 minutes
Festivals:
2010 Cannes, Melbourne

Director: Daniel Joseph Borgman
Producer: Katja Adomeit
Screenplay: Daniel Joseph Borgman
Cinematography: Niels Buchholzer
Editor: Dan Loghin
Music: Jonas Colstrup

With:
Berik Sysdikow (Berik)

"This short drama about friendship and understanding takes place in Semey, Kazakhstan. Berik, 33, blind and deformed due to radiation poisoning, spends his days at home alone, while his brother is at work. That is until Adil, 11, the smallest and least popular of the kids in the apartment block, turns up on Berik's doorstep looking for the local bully's football, which he has lost."
Thanks to NZ Film Commission


SIGNING OFF
(New Zealand 1996) 14 minutes
Festivals:
1996 Wellington
1997 Clermont-Ferrand
2001 Drifting Clouds

Director: Robert Sarkies
Producer: Lisa Chatfield
Screenplay: Robert Sarkies
Cinematography: Steven Downes
Editor: Robert Sarkies
Music: Bruce Lynch

With:
David Corballis (Walter Perryman)
Pam Pow (Joyce Hatfield)
Paul Barrett (Station Manager)

"The tall tale of Walter Perryman, a radio host of the old school. No effort is too great in his determination to please Joyce, his first and possibly only fan."
Thanks to NZ Film Commission


MES MER
(New Zealand 1998) 13 minutes

Director: Morag Brownlie
Producer: Morag Brownlie
Screenplay: Morag Brownlie
Cinematography: John 'Armie' Armstrong
Editors: Andrew Mann, Keng Lim
Music: Angus McNaughton

With:
Charlotte Corner (Mesmer)
Michael Saccente (Enraptured businessman)

"As a downtown Auckland street performer - Mesmer - makes a special connection with a cafe customer, it transpires that she can move punters in mysterious ways. Her alien perspective is distinctively conveyed: Mesmer's metallic outfit shimmers in silver, blue and gold, and she sounds like a robotic tui as she shifts and whirs and works the crowd. The first film from Morag Brownlie, Mes Mer was invited to international festivals. Among the spellbound locals, watch out for future-NZ’s Next Top Model judge Colin Mathura-Jeffree, next to Bjork(!)."
Notes from NZ On Screen. Thanks to NZ Film Commission


THE MODEL
(New Zealand 1994) 11 minutes
Festivals:
1994 Cannes, Brisbane, Wellington

Director: Jonathan Brough
Producer: Di Oliver
Screenplay: Jonathan Brough
Cinematography: Simon Riera
Editor: Jonathan Brough

With:
John Brough (Mr Clarke)
Susannah Devereux (Ms Cuper)

"This short explores subtle tensions in a relationship between an artist and his model. To the young beauty who has arrived to model nude, the aging painter (played by the director Jonathan Brough’s father) initially appears decent and respectful. But when she demands to see the painting before he is ready, and he refuses, his intentions are questioned. Based on a short story by American Bernard Malamud, this understated two-hander was invited to play at Cannes, in a special 1994 season of Kiwi shorts."
Notes from NZ on Screen. Thanks to NZ Film Commission


HURTLE
(New Zealand 1998) 10 minutes
Festivals:
1998 Wellington, Cork, Hawaii
1999 Clermont-Ferrand, Edinburgh

Director: Shona McCullagh
Producer: Margaret Slater
Screenplay: Shona McCullagh
Cinematography: J B Armstrong
Editor: Ken Sparks
Music: David Long

With:
Taane Mete (Nun 1)
Kelly Nash (Nun 2)

"A surreal dance comedy. One day in the life of two extraordinary sisters of the cloth. Compelled by a literally uncontrollable urge, the sisters seek higher spiritual truth and sweet relief from mortal discomfort."
Thanks to NZ Film Commission



BREAK
(New Zealand 2006) 14 minutes
Festivals:
2006 Clermont-Ferrand, Wellington

Director: Shona McCullagh
Producer: Ashley Stuart Coupland
Screenplay: Shona McCullagh
Cinematography: John Cavill
Editor: Tim Woodhouse
Music: David Long

With:
Ursula Robb
Thomas Kiwi
Arlo Gibson

The third in a series of innovative dance films from internationally acclaimed dancer, choreographer and filmmaker Shona McCullagh.

"A long-term relationship is ending; set in rural new Zealand a depressed mother makes the difficult decision to leave her son and partner. The film explores the relationship a nine-year-old boy has with his mother and the ultimate loss of his trust."
Thanks to NZ Film Commission

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