Angel Mine
"I like to pull rabbits out of hats to surprise people". So said young director David Blyth, before unleashing Angel Mine. Inspired partly by the surrealism of Luis Buñuel, Blyth's inventive debut is one of a handful of Kiwi experimental feature films to win mainstream release. Featuring a whitebread suburban couple and their liberated alter egos, the film explores ideas of consumerism, sexuality, the media, and taboo-breaking. The film excited criticism from Patricia Bartlett, and a notorious addition to its R18 certificate: "contains punk cult material."
Kaleidoscope - Edward Bullmore
Sensuous expressions of landscape and the human form made Edward Bullmore (aka Ted Bullmore) a pioneer of surrealism in New Zealand art. This Kaleidoscope report interviews the painter’s colleagues and family, and surveys the artist’s life and career: from an unlikely mix of Balclutha farm boy, Canterbury rep rugby player and Ilam art student, to success in 60s London – exhibiting with René Magritte and Salvador Dali, and having his works used by Stanley Kubrick in film A Clockwork Orange – before returning to teach in Rotorua (and obscurity), and his untimely death in 1978.
Strata
In Geoff Steven's Kiwi riff on the European art film, a vulcanologist (Brit character actor Nigel Davenport) roams the Volcanic Plateau accompanied by a journalist, a photographer and escapees from a cholera quarantine. Steamy philosophical musings and symbolic intent made for a marked departure from the realism of the NZ feature film renaissance (e.g. Steven’s own Skin Deep). The second feature produced by John Maynard (The Navigator), this moody allegorical tale was co-scripted by Czech writer/designer Ester Krumbachova and Czech-based Kiwi Michael Havas.
The Big Art Trip - Series Two, Episode 10
Episode 10 of season two of The Big Art Trip kicks off in Timaru, birthplace of artist Colin McCahon, where hosts Fiona and Douglas check out a collection of his paintings. Next it’s Dunedin to meet designer Vita Cochran, who makes handbags and other objects, and they visit the studio of Jeffrey Harris who talks about his evolving painting style. Dancer and choreographer Shona Dunlop MacTavish describes her career and life as a young woman in 1930s Europe and artist Grahame Sydney discusses landscapes, nudes, surrealism and his love for the Otago countryside.
Kaikohe Demolition
Director Florian Habicht's follow-up to his offbeat fairytale Woodenhead is a documentary tribute to a community of characters, drawn together by a desire to jump in a car for the local demolition derby. Behind the bangs, prangs, and blow-ups, the heart and soul of a small Far North town — Kaikohe — is laid bare in this full-length film, thanks to a cast of fun-loving, salt of the earth locals. Kaikohe Demolition won rave reviews, and The Listener named it one of the ten best films of 2004. Filmmaker Costa Botes writes about the film's characters and qualities here.
Peter Read
A self taught stargazer, Peter Read’s passion for astronomy coincided with a budding television industry and the beginning of manned spaceflight. His programme, Night Sky, played in primetime from 1964; and his avuncular style inspired New Zealanders to look at the stars. It was the country’s longest running TV show when it was cancelled in 1974, and he was the longest serving presenter. Peter Read died in 1981.
Kathy Dudding
Kathy Dudding's films often merged documentary and personal essay. Influenced by surrealism after spending time in Paris, Dudding later got a Masters in video installation, and worked as an editor and film archivist. 2008's The Return merged multiple perspectives of Wellington, including that of her late grandmother. Dudding died of lung cancer in August 2010, weeks after the Film Festival debut of Asylum Pieces.