Show Me (DEGANZ Members’) Shorts

This year’s Show Me Shorts, Aotearoa’s leading international short film festival, is chock full of DEGANZ members’ mahi!

Check this complete list to see which programmes their films are screening in and make sure to book your seats for your local screenings from 6-29 October.

The Sampler Programme

Described as some of the top short films from this year’s festival selection. This collection is designed to entertain, delight, and show off rising filmmaking talent in Aotearoa and abroad.

Just Kidding, I Actually Love You

A runaway fiancée breaks in to execute an ill-advised romantic gesture and finds evidence her ex is happier without her.

Writer/Director: Anna Rose Duckworth (Incubator 2019)

* Nominated for Best Screenplay

Whānau Friendly 1 Programme

This collection aims to ignite a love of cinema in our tamariki. Best suited for ages 7-12 years old, these shorts are fun for children and their families to enjoy together.

The Polycees

After a run-in with his slimy deputy, the Prime Minister’s young daughter is shocked to find a magical creature living in Parliament under her Dad’s desk!

Writer/Director/Producer/Editor: Celia Jaspers

Crime Spree Programme

The festival brings you to the edge of your seat with this collection of criminal acts caught on screen.

Day Job

The daily grind of the nine-to-five breeds a murderous intent in this music video from Soft Plastics.

Director: Stella Reid (Incubator 2020)

When The Spirit Takes Flight Programme

This collection of shorts hones into out of this world characters, searching for the answers that will inspire them to improve their lives and reconcile their losses.

Mako

17-year-old Mako has the mental age of a small child; when he realises his father is ashamed of him he goes all out to make him proud, succeeding in the most unexpected way.

Producer: April Phillips

Aotearoa Te Ōhākī Programme

Themed around Te Ao Māori concept of Te Ōhākī (meaning cultural and identity reclamation), these shorts tell the stories of people from many different cultures who are feeling displaced or disconnected and seeking their place in the world.

Buttons and Dumplings

The heartwarming migration story of a Chinese family, takeaway food, mahjong, and the Prime Minister of New Zealand.

Directors: Calvin Sang and Mei Ling Lee

* Nominated for Department of Post Best New Zealand Film

Anu

When a recent widow moves to New Zealand from India, she’s forced to confront her grief by completing an ordinary ritual in an extraordinary circumstance: quarantine.

Writer/Director: Pulkit Arora

Editor: Jolin Lee (Incubator 2022)

* Nominated for Toi Whakaari Best Actor, DEGANZ Best Director, and Department of Post Best New Zealand Film

Lǎo Lao Lǎo Le

A young boy is left home alone with his increasingly unwell grandmother and is forced to come to terms with her deterioration.

Writer/Director/Producer: Julie Zhu

* Nominated for Toi Whakaari Best Actor, DEGANZ Best Director, and Department of Post Best New Zealand Film

Daughter of God

When an arranged marriage is sprung upon an Iranian-Kiwi daughter, she must either dishonour family tradition or lose the woman she loves.

Writer/Director: Maza White

* Nominated for Best Screenplay

What’s the Disabili-Tea: Misty Frequency

Drag icon Misty Frequency’s kaupapa is to celebrate autistic and takatāpui excellence. They are looking to storm the stage at the Drag Wars competition with a cash prize up for grabs.

Editor: Brendon Chan

Producer: Robyn Paterson

Women Rock the World Programme

Show Me Shorts invites audiences to step into the world of queens, dreamers, and vengeful angels. Wherever these women are stifled they will find a way to realise their goals.

Kingmaker

This music video for Tami Neilson’s Kingmaker features a group of women, alive and powerful, rising from the ashes of the old colonial institutions that once oppressed them.

Director: Alyx Duncan

* Nominated for NZ on Air Best Music Video Award

Love Unconditional Programme

The bonds the characters in these stories share run deep, despite some testing times. This programme leaves audiences with some no-nonsense life advice and a renewed sense of appreciation for their parents.

Nai / Milk

A single Chinese woman struggles to bridge the cultural and societal expectations of motherhood in a Western setting until she finds release in the most unlikely way.

Writer/Director/Producer: Michelle Ang (Incubator 2020)

Co-Editor: Jack Brown

* Nominated for Toi Whakaari Best Actor, DEGANZ Best Director, and DEGANZ Best Editor

Whāna Friendly 2 Programme

Best suited and specially curated for 4-10 year olds, this programme will inspire and delight tamariki.

Star Sailors

Philly is with her neighbour, Agent Star Shine, taking on an early morning adventure when an alien lands in her backyard to eat all the strawberries!

Director: Jaimee Poipoi (Ngati Kahungunu/Ngāpuhi) (Incubator 2023)

Writer: Ben Powdrell

 

Congratulations to all 15 members involved with selected films; we look forward to watching!

Last updated on 9 October 2023

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‘The Strangest of Angels’ Flies to Prague

DEGANZ member Rebecca Tansley‘s feature film The Strangest of Angels is heading overseas for the 60th Golden Prague International Television Festival. The film is in competition with other works centered around music, dance, and theatre as part of the festival’s annual showcase.

The Strangest of Angels is a chamber opera inspired by the life of Kiwi writer Janet Frame. While inpatient Janet waits for a lobotomy in a 1940s mental hospital, the film entangles viewers in the relationship between Janet and her fictional nurse, Katherine. While the women grapple with inner torment, duty, and empathy, the film explores preconceptions of mental health.

The film, which recently screened in Whānau Marama NZIFF, was directed and produced by Rebecca for the New Zealand Opera.

Best of luck to The Strangest of Angels team for the festival!

Last updated on 14 September 2023

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McGill Seeking Support for ‘FARM’ on Boosted

DEGANZ member Kate McGill is seeking support for her short film’s Boosted campaign.

Inspired by a dream Kate had nearly ten years ago, FARM is about Jeanie, an elderly woman who believes her late husband has been reincarnated as a cow on her farm. While Jeanie is deeply connected to her farm, her family thinks it’s time she moves into an aged care facility. But she isn’t ready to let go of her home, life, or husband.

The film grapples with love, loss, and slipping memories. Kate delves into the bonds we form with a place, loved one, home, and everything we do to stay connected when we are being left behind. The film will be slow, cheeky, and dark, but finds gentle comedic moments.

This will be Kate’s first short film, which she shares feels deeply personal as the project’s writer and director. She has recently stepped into directing after working primarily as a professional actor and casting director. In 2022, she made her TV directing debut with Raised by Refugees, an award-winning comedy series available to watch on Neon.

Funds from the Boosted campaign will help cover insurance, onset catering, paying cast and crew, locations, and post-production costs.

You can help bring Kate’s (literal) dream to life by supporting the Boosted campaign. You can donate here or support Kate and the team by spreading the word to your friends and whānau!

Last updated on 13 September 2023

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