Film Archive at Film Cafe
The Film Archive is delighted to be involved with this year’s International Film Festival and to participate in the short film themed Film Cafe at the Wintergarden of the Civic.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the creation of the Film Archive so to celebrate we have selected one short film for each year of The Film Archive’s existence.
There are over 100,000 films in the Archive’s collections and over 1000 of those are categorised as short films.
Please feel welcome to visit us at our Auckland library and exhibition space and take the opportunity to engage with the wonderful material we have to offer.
30 films for 30 years. We look forward to the next 30!
1981 - HOLD UP
Gibson Films / Gaylene Preston Productions. 23mins Rated: Exempt
Two robbers distract a dizzy ticket seller and steal the takings of a movie theatre. The three witnesses to the crime are ignored because they are all disabled.
Jean is deaf, she stands in the theatre foyer signing the registration number to the get away car, unable to make herself understood. When Roy, who is blind, suggests that one of the robbers was a woman he is quickly dismissed and escorted across the road! Jim is a spastic film critic [sic], he holds a vital piece of evidence but is knocked to the ground and told he is having a fit.
At the conclusion of the drama, the actors recount their own experiences of being spoken to in the third person and ignored. They also give their impressions of acting in the film. Recommended for 8 -14 year olds.
Director: Gaylene Preston
Producer: Dave Gibson
1982 - GRASP OF WIND
Robert Franken & Russell Campbell. 23mins Rated: M
A man awakens in a semi-dream at his seaside home. He makes his way down to the beach to fish. On his way, he finds fish in the bush undergrowth and as he proceeds further along the track fish appear in the air. While napping he is unknowingly nudged by a dolphin. On reaching a clearing he stumbles upon bloodied pigs heads staked on tall poles. An ancient Roman dressed in a toga directs him on his way. He empties his sack from which pigeons emerge and fly away. Later, he emerges from his home shakes his head and takes the same path as he had done in his dream. Reminders of what he had seen in his dream, appears as he walks along.
Writer & Director : Robert Franken
Producer: Russell Campbell
1983 - TAUNT
Alison Maclean. 16mins Rated: G
"Alison MacLean's first film parodies the classic thriller chase sequence by having the same actor play both the male pursuer and his female prey" - (Roger Horrocks, Headlands Film Catalogue, P.4.)
"I want the audience to be both emotionally involved and to think, to see some of the ways that meaning is manipulated in film" - (Alison Maclean, Cantrill Film Notes, 41 -42.)
Director: Alison MacLean
1984 - TE RERENGA WAIRUA
Magic Films. 16mins Rated: G
An animated version based on the Maori legend about the journey of a young man’s wairua or spirit after hid death in an Auckland motorway accident. The young man’s wairua journeys through the forests and beaches of Northland, passing other wairua and tourist parties en route to Cape Reinga. After an encounter with the undersea goddess Hine-Nui-Te-Po, his wairua reaches Te Rerenga Wairua, the place of departing spirits.
Director: Joe Wylie
Producer: Susan Wilson
1985 - MY FIRST SUIT
Hibiscus Films. 29 mins Rated: PG
A comedy of adolescent airs and errors. It's about defining your identity by the clothes you choose to wear. It's about your own adolescent tastes under siege by the shriekingly awful taste of your parents as they try to outfit you for the school dance. Steve's dilemma is more than two ill-fitting suits.
"It's his sexuality. It's about a teenage boy trying to find his place in the world. Nothing peculiar in that, but he happens to be gay too. Nothing peculiar in that." - (Stewart Main)
Director: Stewart Main
Producers: Bridget Ikin /John Maynard
1986 - DANNY AND RAEWYN
Hibiscus Films. 29mins Rated: PG
Danny and Raewyn, a young married couple, face economic pressures. Danny, a typical New Zealand bloke with a passion for cars, is fooled into making a bad deal in a desperate bid to earn extra money. His inability to communicate with his family leads inevitably to a breakdown in his relationship with Raewyn and his two sons.
Director: Gregor Nicholas
Producer: Bridget Ikin
1987 - WALK SHORT
The Front Lawn. 10mins Rated: PG
A comic narrative by Auckland theatre / music duo, the Front Lawn, which shoots off in new directions as people bump into one another on Karangahape Road in Auckland.
The bewildering range of characters are all played by two actors / musicians.
Director: Bill Toepfer
Producers: Don McGlashan / Harry Sinclair
1988 - HEY PARIS
Film Konstruktion. 17mins Rated: PG
A film-noir dramatised sequence precedes a dance piece choreographed by Douglas Wright for himself and Debbie McCulloch.
Director: Gregor Nicholas
Choreographer: Douglas Wright
Producers: Gregor Nicholas, Trevor Haysom
1989 - KITCHEN SINK
Hibiscus Films. 13mins Rated: M
A dark and tender love story from the bowels of the kitchen sink...
“It’s a dark little fable about fear and desire - about a woman who refashions a monster into a man, and finds herself falling for her creation. In some sense I see it as a Pygmalion story, with the genders reversed” - (Alison Maclean)
Writer/Director: Alison Maclean
Producer: Bridget Ikin
1990 - PIANO LESSONS
Toucan Films. 13mins Rated: PG
When Craig O’Reilly is given a piano for his thirteenth birthday, he doesn’t expect to be terrorised by it. The piano was the only thing to survive the big fire at the Blue Moon Ballroom and by the end of the film it is obvious that the instrument probably caused the fire. At first impressed by the piano’s abilities, Craig soon becomes wary of it. The piano is bad. It smokes, it drinks, it eats the family’s cat and even kills the school bully, famous Fahey.
Writer/Director: Johnathan Cullinane
Producer: Trevor Haysom & Johnathan Cullinane
1991 - MON DESIR
Nicky Marshall & Katherine Fry. 15mins Rated: PG
Gwyneth, a suburban housewife, fantasizes about her musclebound neighbour Lance. Everything changes the day she discovers her husband is having an affair.
Writer/Director: Nicky Marshall
Producer: Katherine Fry & Nicky Marshall
1992 - LOVELOCK
Stratford Productions. 16mins Rated: G
Jack Lovelock was the first New Zealander to win an Olympic gold medal. This film is a dramatised reenactment of his record-breaking 1500 metre race at the 1936 Berlin Olympics and the build up to it. It examines Lovelock's unique determination, his relationship with his trainer, and ultimately his death in New York in 1949. It is here in fact that the story begins - Lovelock is standing on a Brooklyn subway platform with the commentary of his historic race ringing in his ears. He steps over the white line and hears the approaching train...
Director: David Robertson
Producer: Bruce Sheridan
1993 - PEACH
Oceania Parker Films. 15mins Rated: PG
Sal is making her way home on a hot afternoon when she receives an unexpected gift of a luscious peach. Soon after, she has an encounter with an attractive young tow truck driver. The two events seem oddly connected and exciting. At home, she has an argument with her tough boyfriend Mog. She is left with a screaming child and a disapproving mother. That evening, Mog attempts to patch things up but tensions are heightened by the arrival of Hog’s tow truck mates, including the woman Sal met earlier. Sal escapes the party and is followed by the woman.
Director/Writer: Christine Parker
Producer Caterina de Nave.
1994 - STROKE
Meridian Film Productions. 6mins Rated: G
Dorothy is enjoying a leisurely swim in a heated pool when her sanctuary is invaded by a team of athletic swimmers lined up on the diving blocks. They charge towards her with perfect precision as Dorothy struggles to "redefine her space".
Director: Christine Jeffs
Producer: Robin Laing
1995 - BROWN SUGAR
He Taonga Films. 11mins Rated: G
Three young women get set to do their first up- market gig. Meanwhile a cousin is swept off his feet by a commercial proposal - but is the offer really due to his good looks and talent? The results are unexpected!
Director: Justine Simei- Barton
Producer: Ruth Kaupua
1996 - THE ROAD BACK
Frame Up Films. 15mins Rated: G
The Kauri gum fields, New Zealand, 1910. A Croatian woman searches the trackless land for a road back to a home left behind. When she meets an Indian woman they agree to share tea. Despite no common language both lonely women are enchanted by the sound of another's voice. A pact to return is made. But can the road she has come by ever be retraced?
Director: Annalise Patterson
Producer: Rachel Jean
1997 - SARAH’S WASHING
Rocket Pictures. 10mins Rated: PG
Douglas is infatuated with his neighbour Sarah. He listens to her through the thin concrete wall that separates their flats. Sarah makes the first move, but Douglas takes things one step too far.
Writer / Director: Greg Page
Producer: Steve Sachs
1998 - JUMBO
Vertical Films. 15mins Rated: PG
What do you do when you’ve built a fortress around yourself, but forget to lock the gates? What happens when you suspect your girlfriend likes the house guest more than she likes you? In a barren wasteland, Ricky is under siege, Odlin moves in and Francine is in no hurry to see him go.
Writer / Director: Jim Marbrook
Producers: Heather Lee / Anna Marbrook /Jim Marbrook
1999 - MOTHER TONGUE
Yeti Productions. 4mins Rated: Exempt
Mother Tongue is a montage documentary utilising found footage, text, and super8 footage overlayed with sound bytes from an oral history with Hungarian immigrant Jozsef Roland.
Director: Zoe Roland
Sound / Editor: Matt Dillon
2000 - SEVERAL WAYS OF GETTING AROUND
Film Nation. 12mins Rated: PG
A glimpse into the lives of four different and unusual characters. Each contends with idiosyncratic and interconnected problems. The characters are: Sam and George; The Robinsons; Gladys; Some Girl; Joshua.
Director: Rachel Davies
Producer: Daniel Pritchard
2001 - WATERMARK
Frame Up / Godzone Pictures. 12mins Rated: PG
Watermark tells the story of a young girl and the sequence of events that occur when she goes fishing in a local mangrove swamp.
Director: Damon Fepulea’i
Producer: Liz DiFiore
2002 - LITTLE GOLD COWBOY
Mosiac Pictures. 12mins Rated: M
“Little Gold Cowboy, the first film by Michael Reihana, is a metaphorical tale of the search for true love by a flamboyant gold cowboy. It was selected for the Venice Film Festival, the New Zealand Festivals, and the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. The unexpected arrival of a strange letter propels the cowboy on a quest to find his soul mate, or what he imagines as his true love. Unfortunately when detached hearts are left guarded by a mere goldfish, the future doesn’t always turn out in one’s favour” - (www.nzfilm.co.nz)
Writer / Director / Producer: Michael Reihana
Co-Producers: Tara Landry / Melanie Webber
2003 - SWEET AS CANDY
Bubblegum Valley Productions. 11mins Rated: PG
A musical set in a 1950s fantasy world, Candy questions the love of her beau, Blue. The come together in song and dance - forever in love.
Writer / Director / Producer: Kezia Barnett
2004 - FLEETING BEAUTY
Nomadz Unlimited. 9mins Rated: M
In the pale diffused light of an overcast afternoon, a woman traces the spice routes of antiquity on her lover's back. She tells her story with the scent of cinnamon, the golden stain of tumeric and the heat of chili.
Director: Virginia Pitts
Producers: Shuchi Kothari / Sarina Pearson
Writer: Shuchi Kothari
2005 - US
What the Thunder Said Films. 7mins Rated: PG
“In every relationship, we make choices - sometimes right and sometimes wrong, but always with consequences. ‘Us’ explores the nature of trust and intimacy and shows us how fragile these things are. How easily they can be broken. A woman and a man are in love. They trust each other. And everything else flows from that. But what happens if that trust is broken? What can a relationship survive? And when we are left alone, how do we live with our regrets? ‘Us’ asks these questions by taking us into a woman’s mind - where we learn, little by little, that what seemed so secure is not necessarily so, and in the middle of the night when dreams and memory intermingle, nothing is as it appears. What do we have to lose?” - whatthethundersaidfilms.com
Writer / Director: James Blick
Producer: Johnny Blick
2006 - DEAD LETTERS
Quarter Acre Pictures Limited. 13mins Rated: G
"On the 'home front' in 1943, Ngarie and Gerald sort air graph letterforms destined for New Zealand soldiers abroad. A tiny act of heroism brings together this unlikely pair in an unconventional love story that cleverly blends fact with fiction."- nzfilm.co.nz
Writer / Director: Paolo Rotundo
Producers: Gemma Gracewood / Fraser Brown
2007 - THE LETHAL INNOCENTS
MF Films. 9mins Rated: M
"Rita, a 15 year old girl who dances to a different beat, is relentlessly bullied by the queen bees. When they kill her cat, they go one step too far." - nzfilm.co.nz
Writer / Director: Kirsty Cameron
Producer: Michele Driscoll
2008 - COFFEE & ALLAH
Nomadz Limited. 14mins Rated: G
''Coffee & Allah is a film about a young Muslim woman's appetite for coffee, Islam and a good game of badminton. When Oromo Ethiopian Abeba Mohammed moves to suburban Mt Albert to unite with her sister under the refugee family reunion quota, she has nothing but her faith in Allah, a taste for Ethiopian coffee, and a zest for life to sustain her. From behind her purdah, and no knowledge of English, Abeba struggles to make a connection with the people of her new homeland. Nonu, a Samoan barrista at the local coffee shop takes a shine to her. But, the cultural chasm separating them seems unbridgeable until one afternoon, a spontaneous game of badminton with an unknown neighbour ultimately leads Abeba to accept Nonu's gift of friendship.''- nomadzunlimited.com
Director: Sima Urale
Writers / Producers: Shuchi Kothari / Sarina Pearson
2009 - CANARIES IN COLOUR
Jill Kennedy. 6mins Rated: G
“New Educational Series - Canaries in Colour is a nostalgic pastiche of found graphic material from AV learning programmes of the 1970s. The viewer is taken on a psychedelic journey through a book of canaries, with animated excursions through scrolling landscapes of the Scottish Highlands, through the Waitomo Caves of New Zealand and back again.” - (www.nzfilm.co.nz)
Director/Writer/Producer: Jill Kennedy
Sound: John Payne
2010 - CAREFUL WITH THAT CROSSBOW
Jason Stutter & Kevin Stevens. 2mins Rated: M.
A young boy has fun in the park firing a crossbow... at his sister. Two kids and a crossbow ... what could possibly go wrong?
Director/Writer: Jason Stutter
Producers: Jason Stutter/Kevin Stevens
The Film Archive short-film programme is an ongoing screening as part of Film Cafe.
