This year’s New Zealand’s Best gathered a bunch of great local short films, put them in a line and asked filmmaker Andrew Adamson (writer and director of Mr. Pip) to choose his favourites. We don’t envy his job – it must have been as painful as choosing the cutest puppy from the puppy orphanage – but it only serves as more of an incentive for you to check this precisely-chosen collection out. This is the best of the best, hand-picked by one of our best, and we got to pose a few questions to the talented filmmakers behind the shorts.
First of all, can you sum up your film in exactly eight words?
JAMES CUNNINGHAM: Connie Radar attempts to stop the first moon-landing. (Over the Moon)
GREGORY KING: Wow, WTF, beautiful, that is cool, nooo, ahhhh. (U.F.O.)
HAMISH BENNETT: Humble farmers, a sudden upheaval, an unlikely saviour. (Ross & Beth)
KATE PRIOR & ABIGAIL GREENWOOD: In-between childhood and adult years, Emily discovers betrayal. (Eleven)
LEON WADHAM & ELI KENT: A comedy about insecurity, nostalgia and ginger crunch. (School Night)
What kind of reaction are you hoping to elicit from the NZIFF audience?
CUNNINGHAM: I hope they are surprised, entertained, satisfied and provoked.
KING: “Wow!” And that it will stay with them for a long time afterwards.
BENNETT: It’s a happy/sad kind of a movie, so with a bit of luck the audience will feel happy at some points and sad at others! Failing that, I hope people will remain awake until the end.
PRIOR & GREENWOOD: That they recognise and remember that time between ten and teenage; that they also remember that nothing was (and ever is) black and white. Our views on bullying so often seem to be split into a false dichotomy of bully and victim – we never remember it being so clear at that age.
WADHAM & KENT: Ideally people will laugh, or they’ll yell “don’t do it!”, or they’ll sit in mortified silence. Any of those would be appropriate.
Tell us how you felt when you first showed your completed short film to someone.
CUNNINGHAM: When I showed it to the writer I was relieved that he liked it.
KING: Excited.
BENNETT: Excited, with a few nerves. I was pretty sure we’d managed to make a film that we could be proud of, but when you watch something over and over again in the editing room it gets a bit hard to see the wood for the trees.
PRIOR & GREENWOOD: Nervous. Excited. So bloody happy when they got it.
WADHAM & KENT: We have a bad habit for tinkering, so we’re not sure that anyone’s seen this final NZIFF version – but when we have shared it, it’s been absolutely nerve-wracking. The responses have been great, though. Really looking forward to sharing it with a cinema audience and experiencing its effect.
If you met someone who hadn’t experienced a quality New Zealand short film before, what short would you want to show them?
CUNNINGHAM: Two Cars, One Night – or The Lounge Bar.
KING: U.F.O.
BENNETT: Two Cars, One Night. It’s just an awesome little film. Very funny and moving.
PRIOR & GREENWOOD: Ellen is Leaving, directed by Michelle Savill. Day Trip, directed by Zoe Mcintosh. Manurewa, directed by Sam Peacocke.
WADHAM & KENT: Anything Mark Albiston and Louis Sutherland (Shopping) have made – their work is always incredibly beautiful, emotional charged and ingeniously structured – or Alison McLean’s flawless Kitchen Sink.
Do have any plans or desires to attempt a feature film anytime soon?
CUNNINGHAM: Yes I do have plans, I always seem to have plans. It is getting beyond the plans stage that is proving tricky.
KING: Yep, it will be a masterpiece, it’s a Dramatic Pornographic Comic Horror Satire Fantasy Thriller, I can’t wait!
BENNETT: Yes, all things going well! I’m working on a feature script at the moment that I’m pretty happy with, but there’s still plenty of work to be done on it.
PRIOR & GREENWOOD: Yes, we are conspiring to take over the world one feature film at a time.
WADHAM & KENT: That’s the desire, that’s the plan.
