Shihad - Beautiful Machine

This theatrically released documentary charts 23 years of highs and lows for one of Aotearoa's most enduring rock bands — complete with personal dramas, early tragedy, adoring local audiences, album sales of 250,000, attempts to crack the United States, and an agonising name change. Seeking an audience beyond the faithful, award-winning director Sam Peacocke expanded the story's scope to feature the band's family and friends, as much as the music. NZ Herald writer Scott Kara called the result "a cracker", and "a must-see for fans of the band".

To see your life on a film is pretty incredible. It's got the friendships in it; the mistakes we've made. It's more about family and people in our lives and he's done it in a way that it's almost incidental that we're musicians. It's definitely not a boy-band movie.

– Jon Toogood in an interview with website Stuff, February 2012

Key Cast & Crew

Cushla Dillon

Editor

Ari Wegner

Cinematographer

Simon Baumfield

Cinematographer

Laurence Alexander

Producer

Sam Peacocke

Director

Grant Roa

Producer