Amy Street
Amy Street is an award-winning series of eight short documentaries. Each tells the story of a resident in a Thames assisted living community for people with intellectual disabilities. Opening the series is Celeste, a superfan of Shortland Street who gets to meet one of her Street idols. Other interviewees include Moyzee, a keen singer who says "labels are on jars and I'm not a jar so you can't label me"; couple Topsy and Dave, who are excited about their upcoming wedding, and Jonathan, a runner who hopes to win a medal at the Special Olympics in Dunedin.
Choice Night
Fifteen-year-old James is a suburban kid who tries to have it all one night on Courtenay Place. A sensitive lead turn from newcomer Aaron McGregor captures the intensity of being taken by the night, as booze and hormones derail romantic intentions. Choice Night was a second short collaboration between director Christopher Dudman and writer Paul Stanley Ward, loosely based on the latter’s experiences as a teenager in 90s Wellington. It was selected for the Clermont-Ferrand (in competition) and BFI London film festivals, and won Best International Short at Geneva.
Mikhail Lermontov
On 16 February 1986 a Russian cruise line, the Mikhail Lermontov, struck rocks off Cape Jackson in the Marlborough Sounds. The ship carried 408 mostly elderly Australian passengers, and a crew of 330. The ship drifted and eventually sank in Port Gore; one Russian sailor died. This Lynton Diggle-directed documentary was shot in the months that followed, as the camera followed dive teams into the black depths of the vessel. Their task in hazardous conditions was to salvage oil from the wreck, and preserve Marlborough's coastline.
Fair Go - 30 Years on Television
Popular consumer affairs show Fair Go is one of New Zealand TV's longest-running series. This episode — presented by its longest serving host, Kevin Milne — looks back at 30 years and 860+ shows of Fair Go. Amidst regular Fair Go stories, there is a flashback to the 1977 debut of original host Brian Edwards; retro segments on soapbox rights in Christchurch Square, blocked gutters, and neighbours at war; a 1982 spoof on the struggle to open screw tops on soft drink bottles; and a 1980 survey of NZ's most untrustworthy occupations (lawyers, car dealers). Contact Fair Go here.
Anchor Me
Don McGlashan’s anthemic plea for safe harbour — written for band The Mutton Birds — won him his first APRA Silver Scroll songwriting award, and began a life of its own. It was used in the soundtrack of a short film (Boy), a movie (Perfect Strangers) and was given all star treatment by Greenpeace. But TVNZ’s use of it on National Party conference footage was a step too far for McGlashan, who took very public offence. Director Fane Flaws places his video — a nominee for an NZ Film and TV Award — in the eye of a mermaid rather than a storm, but plenty of perils await.
Kate Elliott: Katherine Mansfield, Shortland Street, and more...
Kate Elliott began her life on screen after attending an audition at school. Since winning that role - as a bulimic, sexually abused, self-mutilating teenager in House of Sticks - Elliott has starred in many of New Zealand’s major television productions including Street Legal, The Insiders Guide to Love, The Cult, Shortland Street, and played Katherine Mansfield in tele-feature Bliss. Her film credits include Toy Love, The Locals, and Fracture.
Taika Waititi
Sometime actor Taika Waititi has clearly sunk his teeth into directing. His 2005 short film Two Cars, One Night was Oscar-nominated. Second feature Boy (2010) became the most successful Kiwi film released on its home soil — at least until the arrival of Waititi's fourth movie, Barry Crump inspired adventure comedy Hunt for the Wilderpeople. In 2017 Marvel movie Thor: Ragnarok became an international hit.
Rena Owen
Rena Owen made her name playing courageous battered wife Beth Heke, in landmark film Once Were Warriors. The film won her a run of awards, and international acclaim from Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, The Sydney Morning Herald and Vogue. Owen has gone before the cameras in Australia, Fiji, Hungary and the United States.
Tim Eliott
Tim Eliott grew up in Hawke’s Bay, then England. In his 20s, he toured Aotearoa twice with The New Zealand Players, and began doing radio dramas, commercials, and narrating for film. A key force on and off stage in the early days of Wellington’s Downstage theatre, Eliott emigrated to Australia in 1968. A busy career of radio and screen acting followed, including playing a British colonel in Utu. Tim Eliott died in April 2011.