Jason Stutter has a talent for going for the jugular, yet doing it in style. In Stutter’s movies, the camera plunges headfirst into haunted hospitals, dodgy smalltown dealings, and fight scenes with Pacific Island Ninjas whose parents were unexpectedly half-gobbled by fish.
In this ScreenTalk interview, Stutter talks about:
- Why he makes films
- His many projects featuring Flight of the Conchords’ Jemaine Clement
- Falling in love with the dialogue in Ronald Hugh Morrieson’s novel Predicament
- The lessons that can be learnt from Morrieson’s career
- The bravery of comedians, and why he loves giving them acting roles in his movies
- The genesis of kung fu comedy Tongan Ninja, Stutter’s no-budget, three years in the making feature debut
- The unusual way haunted hospital tale Diagnosis: Death was funded
- The importance of staying loyal to the original text
This video
was first uploaded on 7 September 2010, and
is available under
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Interview – Ian Pryor. Camera and Editing – Alex Backhouse
I love movies, that's the thing. I mean I only make movies because I love them, which has alway been the way I've made films. I don't make films going 'oh this is going to win me this award'. There's none of that. I only make films that really interest me, and I hope to keep doing that.
– Jason Gunn, at the start of this interview