WIFT International

WIFT International, a network of over 10,000 women working in the screen industry around the world.

Grass Roots

Short film produced by WIFT member Vanessa Alexander selected for Tribeca Film Festival

The New Zealand short film Cargo has been selected for the short film competition of the 7th Tribeca Film Festival in New York City next month. It will be the North American premiere for Cargo, written and directed by New Zealander Leo Woodhead and shot in Prague.

Cargo portrays a young boy’s descent into the world of child trafficking. Believing he is about to cross a border to a new life, the young runaway instead discovers he is to be sold as a human slave. Through a remarkable moment of pity, he is spared – but the reprieve comes at a huge personal cost.

Woodhead explains; “I’m interested in what human beings do in order to survive, and how they can lose the essence of who they are in the process. When escape seems impossible, the boy is given the opportunity to live. But he’s dying inside because he’s losing the emotions that give him humanity.”

Cargo had its world premiere at the 64th edition of the Venice Film Festival in August 2007.

Section: Grass Roots

Tracey Moffatt and the status of film in galleries

Check out this article on film and the visual arts, courtesy of Mark Amery and the Dominion Post
Art at the Movies: Tracey Moffatt and the status of film in galleries http://tbi.co.nz/tbi/article/5154

Section: Grass Roots
Source: The Big Idea

Widening the view 2007

Documentary – a thriving but troubled genre

The documentary genre is currently attracting much energy and attention. Surveys confirm its continuing popularity with the public. The latest figures show more documentaries on TV than ever before. Some of the newer channels are screening NZ documentaries (including the Documentary Channel, Maori Television Service, the Arts Channel, etc). DocNZ (the International Documentary Festival) is now well established as an annual event, and is Australasia’s only international competitive documentary festival. NZ documentaries are winning awards around the world. Some feature-length NZ documentaries are receiving cinema release (recent exs include Kaikohe Demolition, Banana in a Nutshell, and Squeegee Bandit). And new low-budget digital equipment has made it possible for many new film-makers to try their hand (as shown by the range of work in recent film festivals).

And yet…there is currently a high level of dissatisfaction among documentary makers. Two problems stand out:

Section: Grass Roots