June 11, 2020
Documentaries in progress get Cannes showcase
An inside view of the band Six60 and a tale of a Northland kuia turning 100 are among four New Zealand documentaries chose for this year’s Cannes Docs line-up by the New Zealand Film Commission.
The online showcase will feature a video pitch and 10-minute sequence of the rough cut of each documentary, which could help them get selected for festivals or wider distribution.
Till the Lights Go Out, directed by Julia Parnell, is pitched as a tale of how aggressive ambition meets the vulnerability of creative expression in the creation of a pop phenomenon by five young Māori men.
In James & Isey, director/producer Florian Habicht joins 99-year-old Isey from Ngāti Manu, who lives with her tohunga son James on their small farm in Kawakawa.
James, who has devoted the last 20 years to looking after his mum, invokes the spirit world to get her over 100 in a joyous celebration of the sacred and the profane.
The other documentaries are Leanne Pooley’s The Girl on The Bridge about mental health activist Jazz Thornton, and Lula Cucchiara’s Fiona Clark: Unafraid, about the artist whose ground breaking photographs of drag artists in 1975 helped transform New Zealand society.
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