Michael Bennett: on writing, directing and cow whispering...

Interview – 2011

Writer/director Michael Bennett has directed episodes of Mercy Peak, Outrageous Fortune and Whare Māori He has written and directed acclaimed short films Cow and Kerosene Creek, penned feature film Jubilee, and co-created gang drama Vegas. In 2010 he directed his first feature, Matariki.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Bennett talks about:

Exploring communication without dialogue in the short film Cow
Borrowing a wet set and props from Xena for the film
Using a "cow whisperer" on set to control a floating bovine
Exploring childhood grief in short film Kerosene Creek
Using the metaphor of transcendence in his movie Matariki
Managing eight lead characters in an ensemble cast
Shooting the first scene in one take with two young inexperienced actors
Learning from every filmic experience, and moving on to the next project

This video was first uploaded on 11 January 2011, and is available under this Creative Commons licence. This licence is limited to use of ScreenTalk interview footage only and does not apply to any video content and photographs from films, television, music videos, web series and commercials used in the interview.

Interview, Camera and Editing – Andrew Whiteside

We had a premiere in Berlin for Kerosene Creek, and that was pretty amazing because you always worry about how something's going to travel away from your own cultural context. You know, is the story universal enough? And sitting in the movie theatre on the other side of the world, and feeling a definite emotional reaction to what was happening on the screen . . . what I want to do in filmmaking is to give the audience some kind of a journey, and that is always the most rewarding thing, is to sit with an audience and to feel that you've given them a journey.
– Michael Bennett on the debut of short film Kerosene Creek at the Berlin Film Festival

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