Savill Speaks to RNZ about Directing Millie Lies Low

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Member director Michelle Savill (DEGANZ Incubator 2018) spoke about her film Millie Lies Low in a recent interview with RNZ. The film is playing at the New Zealand International Film Festival, and opened for a special preview season for the festival in Wellington.

Millie Lies Low tells the story of anxiety-ridden architecture grad Millie who misses her flight to a prestigious internship in New York. Faced with no money for another ticket and too ashamed to admit her blunder, Millie fakes being in New York through social media prowess while lying low in her hometown.

Michelle shared how her own experiences inspired the making of this film; “The idea came about when the last short film I made, Ellen is Leaving, was screening at a festival in France. I missed my flight, and my first thought was ‘I’m going to have to hide for three weeks and pretend I’m in France’.”

Michelle also drew from her own struggles with mental health to portray anxiety and panic attacks in the film; “I struggle with anxiety a lot, and depression off and on, so I’m always working from ‘write what you know’… so I guess that’s the fountain of creativity that I’m drawing from.”

Tickets to Millie Lies Low are available on the NZIFF website, and you can listen to the full interview on RNZ.

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Anxiety Anthology Series Seeks Support for Boosted Campaign

The team behind HEADLANDS, a short film anthology shining a light on anxiety, is seeking support for their Boosted crowdfunding campaign. The team features several DEGANZ members in the director’s chair: Nicky Cameron, Harriett Maire, Mia Maramara, Claire van Beek, and 2020 DEGNZ Incubator alumna Stella Reid.

Tackling the various ways that living with anxiety can manifest in oneself, HEADLANDS aims to shift perceptions and build community around mental wellbeing. The anthology series is adapted from and inspired by Naomi Arnold’s Headlands: New Stories of Anxiety, a book of different stories by New Zealand writers, poets, journalists, and the like.

HEADLANDS will work like a concept album, with stand-alone stories of differing genres. Together the stories will weave “threads of a collective fabric, honouring the unease in our lives.”

After a successful fundraiser in 2019, HEADLANDS has nine finished scripts, with production teams ready to go, and platform support from RNZ and Attitude Live. Now facing a production funding application to NZ On Air, HEADLANDS needs your support to reach their goal in order to have the best chance possible of making this project a reality.

The deadline to reach their goal is November 29. As match donor for the HEADLANDS Booster crowdfunding campaign, The Body Shop will match any contribution made up to the value of $5,556.

Learn more about the project and donate here.

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Members Featured in 2021 NZ Web Fest Awards

Our congratulations goes to the DEGANZ members whose work featured among the finalists for the 2021 NZ Web Fest Awards.

Taking out the award for Best NZ Pitch was Léah McVeagh (DEGANZ) for her pitch I Choose. Another special shout out to the runner up of that prize category, which went to fellow member Taylor Nixon for his pitch Roadie.

The five-part documentary series 100 Year Forecast, edited by Ben Chesters (DEGANZ) received a Special Mention under the Best Show – NZ Factual category. The Spinoff produced the online series, which explores the implications of climate change for Aotearoa New Zealand, as well as discussing potential action moving forward.

This year’s list of #NZWF21 award nominees also included other work from our members. Rachale Davies’ The Collective was a nominee for the Best Show – NZ Factual Award. Meanwhile, under the Best Pilot (NZ) category, both Anton Steel’s Chloe and the Crash Test and Samuel Shelton’s The Handy Circle were finalists.

Read the full list of winners on the NZ Web Fest website.

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Kuek Announced as Recipient of Every Voice Initiative

Well done to our member Becky Kuek, who has just been announced as a recipient of the very first Every Voice initiative, run by NZ On Air, Screen Australia, and Tik Tok. Becky has received funding for her 10-part scripted comedy series Long x Xia, which she will be co-writing and co-directing alongside Gwen Lin.

Long x Xia follows Ruby and CJ (a.k.a Long and Xia), two cousins who find themselves embracing the vigilante life after hijacking a live lobster from a Chinese restaurant.

Every Voice is aimed at supporting “diverse and distinct creators” to create innovative content exclusively for the platform TikTok. Four teams from New Zealand have been chosen and three from Australia. Each team receives up to AUD $50,000 to cover development and production costs for their projects. In addition to this funding, recipients like Becky will participate in virtual workshops to develop their storytelling skills, and learn how to create the best content for TikTok.

Amie Mills, Head of Funding for NZ On Air says they are “thrilled to support each of the talented emerging creative teams to tell their unique stories, in their own voices, in authentic and exciting new ways.”

Lee Naimo, Screen Australia’s Head of Online, sees exciting potential in supporting the development of these projects; “These distinct scripted and documentary series all reflect one of the greatest strengths of TikTok – that it is a platform for creators to connect with audiences and build their online communities.”

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NZIFF 2021: Akuhata-Brown Announced as NZ’s Best 2021 Jury Award Winner

Congratulations to director Kath Akuhata-Brown (DEGANZ) for receiving the Vista Group Award for Best Short Film for Washday. Kath shares the award and cash prize of $7,500 with director Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu, who won for the film When We Were Kids.

Kath’s film Washday is the story of eight-year-old Hine who mourns for her mother. When her father is busy working, Hine devises a plan to relieve him of his sadness.

The jurors for this year were filmmakers Annie Collins (DEGANZ) and Gaysorn Thavat (DEGANZ), and Matthew Liebmann from Vista Group. The judges called both Akuhata-Brown and Stewart-Te Whiu’s films “very accomplished works of art”, which “demonstrated the best craft” and the “most fully realised storytelling”.

This year marks the tenth anniversary of New Zealand’s Best short film competition. See the full list of winners on NZIFF’s website.

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