The Pinkies are Back is a heart-warming and hilarious feature film, following a group of extraordinary women on their journey to rebuild a dragon-boating team. Edited by DEGNZ board member Francis Glenday, the film is now in cinemas around Aotearoa.
The documentary centres around the dragon boating team, The Pink Dragons – breast cancer survivors who dragon boat for exercise, the challenge and for the sense of community.
Last updated on 25 March 2021
Director and member Mia Maramara’s project Only Human is part of season 8 of the award-winning Loading Docs initiative. Only Human is an animated short film that asks the question: Is it possible to break up with your family?
They say you canโt choose your family, but can you overcome irreconcilable differences with those you love the most? The youngest daughter of an unconventional Filipino family explores the complexities of communicating across countries, generations and the internet.
Starting with crowdfunding campaigns, Loading Docs has announced eight new short documentaries by eight filmmaking teams. Brought together under the theme of Tลซmanako/Hope, Loading Docs invites audiences to get behind the crowdfunding stage by supporting the creation of important Aotearoa stories. In a time of upheaval, filmmakers have opted to make documentary projects with themes that are personal to them.
But first, the filmmakers must raise $3,500 on homegrown website Boosted.org.nz to unlock further funding from Loading Docs. Itโs an all or nothing campaign running from today until April 15. If filmmakers donโt raise the funds, the documentary wonโt get made. To find out more visit: www.loadingdocs.net/tumanako
Last updated on 25 March 2021
Season 3 of Sui Generis is underway and the creators are crowdfunding to shoot the last episode of this anthology series. The seriesโ director, Roberto Nascimento (DEGNZ) and his production team are aiming for a $6000 goal for their boosted campaign. Each episode of Sui Generis is a stand-alone story with its own style, conceived and written by members and allies of the LQBTQIA+ community.
The final episode is titled Vanessa. This story is inspired by the idea of anonymity – with being unknown in a new city, what would you do? What could you do? What version of yourself would be presentedโฆ and would you take advantage of that?
Here are some ways you can help them:
Last updated on 25 March 2021
Congrats to members Julie Zhu with Takeout Kids, Incubator alumna Michelle Ang and Ghazaleh Golbakhsh with Hair Now and Julia Parnell with The Hustle for their projects being selected for the March 2021 Pan Asian Projects Fund. For this fund, NZ On Air invested $1.7m into six documentary projects that speak to the diversity of experience of Pan-Asian people in Aotearoa.
Uhz & Hexwork Productions teamed up with The Spinoff and received up to $259,974 for a four part observational documentary series, Takeout Kids, that follows the joys and challenges of children growing up in the back of takeaway restaurants run by their immigrant parents.
A Grain of Rice Productions received up to $107,932 for short series, Hair Now, set to release via the Spinoff. In Hair Now, six women of different ages, ethnicities, languages, religions, and socioeconomic backgrounds examine their complex relationship with their hair.
Notable Pictures received up to $368,633 plus a platform contribution from THREE of $96,000 for entrepreneurial based seriesย The Hustle. The series focuses on the lives of Pan-Asian entrepreneurs and seeks to find out how they are pushing the boundaries of the world stage.
Last updated on 25 March 2021
Following the success of the virtual Table Reads during 2020, the 2021 Table Reads will take place online and script submissions are being accepted from NZWG and DEGNZ members around the country. The T&Cs as per our usual Table Reads apply.
Donโt miss out on this opportunity โ this is a great development tool to help take your script to the next level. If you have a script ready with a director attached (or you are also directing) then submit it now. There are four reads this year, so note these deadlines in your diary:
Table Read One: 8 May 2021
Submit scripts by 30 April
Table Read Two: 3 July 2021
Submit scripts by 25 June
Table Read Three: 11 September 2021
Submit scripts by 3 September
Table Read Four: 20 November 2021
Submit scripts by 12 November
Actors who would like to take part in a Table Read from the comfort of their own homes can apply here.
Last updated on 8 April 2021