Catherine Fitzgerald

Helen Kelly – Together

An intimate, inspirational portrait of Helen Kelly in the last year of her life, Together tells the story of a woman whose advocacy and generosity changed the lives of countless New Zealanders.

The Rule of Jenny Pen

Confined to a secluded rest home and trapped within his stroke-ridden body, a former Judge must stop an elderly psychopath who employs a child's puppet to abuse the home's residents with deadly consequences.

Freedom Fighter

There is no safe place to hide when the desire to dance calls Iuli'a, an overstayer, to choose between her own freedom and the safety of those she is responsible for.

Punch

Jim is preparing for his first professional fight but begins to rethink his life's trajectory and his sexuality after tangling with Whetu, a gay Maori boy who spends his days in an old shack down by the beach.

Coming Home in the Dark

A school teacher is forced to confront a brutal act from his past when a pair of ruthless drifters takes him and his family on a nightmare road-trip.

Lowdown Dirty Criminals

Freddy and Marvin have their sights set on a future filled with “monies and honeys”, believing that a life of crime and debauchery will get them there. Unfortunately, living a life of crime comes with consequences. When a series of straightforward jobs are botched, they cross paths with their most intimidating enemy yet, The Upholsterer. The ensuing chaos caused by her two henchmen Semo and Royon their hunt to find the boys forces them to reconsider their careers as criminals.

Bellbird

In the wake of the loss of his beloved wife, a rural community rallies around a farmer to help him deal with his grief.

Boxes

Liam is nineteen, fresh out of high school, and enjoying a life of parties and pills. He lives with his grandmother. He keeps her at an arm’s length, and so, when she has a sudden stroke, he ignores her call, and doesn’t find out until he reads a text message sent from Wellington Hospital. He rushes to the hospital, in the middle of the night, drunk and hopped up on cheap stimulants. He is greeted by a closed door, and a nurse who tells him he has to wait to see his grandma. Thus, Liam spends a night and a morning in the hospital, contemplating his decisions, while befriending a young boy who is waiting for news of his mother. A social-realist drama, Boxes is a story about regret, relationships, and the widespread existence of small tragedies.

One Thousand Ropes

The father of a deeply troubled household that endured tragedy both from without and within, seeks to reconcile with his youngest daughter by making a journey to both symbolically and culturally lay the family "ghosts" to rest.

Rain of the Children

In Rain of the Children, Ward further explores the subject of his earlier film, In Spring One Plants Alone when, as a young film student he travelled to the Ureweras and documented the lives of an elderly Māori woman (Puhi) and her schizophrenic son (Niki).

For Thom

Thom is an isolated teenage girl suffering from suicidal thoughts and depression caused by her deteriorating friendship with her best friend Milly. Thom’s only support comes in the form of her caring brother Joe. Through Thom’s journey of trying to heal her mental state does she come face to face with what it means to be a friend and how what appears on the surface is hardly ever the full story.

The Orator

The Orator (O Le Tulafale) is a contemporary drama about courage, forgiveness and love. Small in stature and humble, Saili lives a simple life with his beloved wife and daughter in an isolated, traditional village in the islands of Samoa. Forced to protect his land and family, Saili must face his fears and seek the right to speak up for those he loves.

Sacred Spaces

Taro planter Lui's grief for his dead wife has infected his whole life. A chance meeting with a stranger, a widow bound in anger to the grave of her husband now drowning in their cyclone devastated village, inspires Lui to reach out to her. This releases him from his own pain and allows his wife to rest.

Event 16

A young inventor, Matt, is on a breakthrough creation in his garage workshop, but is about to lose his girlfriend due to his obsession, when a man walks into the workshop through a wall that his invention created. Soon police, undercover agents and murderers are all hunting for Matt and his girlfriend in a race not only against, but through, time.

The Little Things

Fourteen-year-old George has to find her own way to celebrate her birthday when everyone else forgets it.

Two Cars, One Night

Sometimes first love is found in the most unlikely of places, like in the carpark outside the Te Kaha pub.

Voices of the Land: Ngā Reo o te Whenua

Paul Wolffram’s fascinating and eloquent doco about Māori instrumental traditions accompanies Richard Nunns and Horomona Horo as they perform in a series of remarkable South Island wilderness settings.