Dustin Feneley’s ambitious crowd-funded debut feature Stray is a powerful and controlled drama about two lonely souls in rural New Zealand.
Deathgasm – An Interview with Director Jason Lei Howden and Producers Ant Timpson & Andrew Beattie
We sat down with Jason Lei-Howden, Ant Timpson and Andrew Beattie to discuss DEATHGASM, one of the most ridiculous and entertaining films currently playing the festival circuit at the moment.
Tale of Tales
Matteo Garrone’s fairytale film is a disappointment, caught between searching for cinematic splendour and resting on lazy jokes and an uninspiring script.
How to Change the World
Jerry Rothwell’s Greenpeace documentary is unfortunately content with personalities over politics, leaving it little more than a surface level look at the organisation.
Out of the Mist: An Alternate History of New Zealand Cinema
Tim Wong’s essay film is an intelligent and compelling look at an alternate canon of New Zealand cinema, one which acts as a corrective to the naturally idyllic view of the country in mainstream cinema.
The Fool
Yury Bykov’s bleak drama follows a man whose sense of compassion runs counter to the intentions of the bureaucratic machine in small town Russia.
Pervert Park
Frida and Lasse Barkfors’s exploration of a half-way house for sex offenders effectively opens dialogue on the issues of recidivism and rehabilitation, with formal elements that elevate it above its simplistic documentary roots.
Very Semi-Serious
A remarkably entertaining, if a touch shallow, VERY SEMI-SERIOUS looks at the cartoonists of The New Yorker, with a particular focus on the editor of these cartoons, Bob Mankoff.
Tchoupitoulas
TCHOUPITOULAS is a love letter to New Orleans, the music it provides, and the spectre of kinship with which the documentary navigates it.
NZIFF Announces Impressive and Eclectic Auckland Programme
New Zealand International Film Festival’s Auckland programme contains some gems from Cannes, a collection of our favourite films from Sydney Film Festival, and some really compelling documentaries.