This is Our Place

A potrayal of the diversity of life present in Wellington.

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leaving a 1970s SUPER 8mm camera in public (2017) directed by Caleb Jack

leaving a 1970s SUPER 8mm camera in public (Jack 2017) is a short social experiment documentary that puts the subject in the position of becoming their own filmmaking. Jack places a Super 8 film camera in Oriental Bay, offering members of the public to shoot some film on the camera. What follows is beautiful account into the role of perspective and how as individuals we all have a different view of the world around us.  

Caleb Jack is an 18-year-old filmmaker from Lower Hutt. Dropping out of university to pursue his career as a filmmaker, his short documentaries are often heavily based around iconic places in Wellington. As a filmmaker he allows the viewer to experience their own nostalgia or attachment that they may have towards these places.

Recently Jack has travelled overseas, using his experiences as a filmmaker to show not only the extent of his travels but to ultimately inspire the viewer to live in a life in which you take more chances.

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Joe Lai – A Courier from Wellington in NZ  (2016) directed by Zheng Han.

Joe Lai – A Courier from Wellington in NZ (Han 2016).  Told through time, Han depicts the day in the life of Wellingtonian courier Joe Lai. The viewer witnesses the hard labour and long hours that Lai ensues as he navigates courier deliveries mostly though Wellington’s CBD. It also provides a glimpse into the time management and planning skills couriers use daily.

Joe Lai – A Courier from Wellington in NZ documents the often thankless, yet critical role couriers have in the successful economic function of metropolitans such as Wellington.

Although the documentary only has a 3-minute run-time, Zheng Han filmed with Joe Lai for five days. Han uses an observational mode of documentary filmmaking which ‘conveys the sense of unmediated and unfettered access to the world’ (Nichols 176). The viewer gains access to a world in which they are free to spectate and draw their own conclusions. The documentary gives Wellingtonians the opportunity to witness the behind-the-scenes role courier drives have in Wellington.

Joe Lai – A Courier from Wellington in NZ is a Victoria University of Wellington student project that was made under The School of Design.

 WORKS CITED:

Nichols, Bill. The Introduction to Documentary 2nd ed. Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2010. Print.  

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Busker (2017) directed by Kevin Orlando

Busker (Orlando 2017) captures buskers in iconic locations such as Cuba Street, Courtney Place and Wellington’s Waterfront. The documentary’s focus is placed entirely on the musicians with no cutaways to interviews. The viewer witnesses the buskers exactly how the would in real life if they were to pass them on the street.

Busker exhibits the creativity and life that buskers bring to Wellington daily. The documentary showcases a broad range of music style as well as musicians of all ages, genders and ethnicities. The documentary arguably functions as microcosm for the cultural diversity that Wellington inhabits, particularly among its creative field. It provides the viewer with reminder that there are no boundaries in expressing your own creativity.

Busker was made as part of Victoria University of Wellington’s documentary production course. Made over an intensive six-week period, the film demonstrates the creative talent of these young filmmakers for whom many, this is first and/or longest project they had made to date.

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He Kākano Ahau- From The Spaces In Between (2017) directed by Kathleen Winter

He Kākano Ahau- From The Spaces In Between (Winter 2017) accompanies Kassie Hartendorp and her takatāpui community group in the lead up to the Wellington Pride festival.

As an māori LGBT activist, Kassie struggles with the lack of representation the māori LGBT community receive s during Wellington’s Pride festival. She discusses that for takatāpui, Maori who have diverse genders and sexualities, they live in between the narrow spaces.  

When offered to perform a waiata (songs) at Pride Wellington, Kassie feels that the invitation in only there to fill a quota.

He Kākano Ahau- From The Spaces In Between was one of ten short-documentary proposals made as Loading Docs in 2017.

The documentary’s director, Kathleen Winter is a Wellington based filmmaker who has been making short documentaries since 2014. Winter is currently working on her first feature length documentary which will investigate woman working minimum-waged jobs in New Zealand (Loading Docs).

 WORKS CITED:

Loading Docs. Web. 07 May. 2018 < http://loadingdocs.net/>

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Take a Photo! (2017) directed by Caleb Jack. 

Take A Photo! (Jack 2017) is another of Caleb’s Jack social experimental documentaries. Similar to the format of leaving a 1970s SUPER 8mm camera in public (Jack 2017), Jack places a film camera near the Wellington waterfront asking that onlookers take a photo using the camera.

Take A Photo! (Jack 2017) received widespread circulation amongst Wellington based Facebook communities. The short documentary ultimately captured the attention of organisers of TedxWellington 2017 resulting in the short-documentary being played during the festival.  

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Street Smart (2016) directed by Leigh Minarapa

Street Smart (Minarapa 2016) follows Regina Tito as she looks back on her experience living on the streets of Wellington over a decade ago. The film portrays the ongoing issue surrounding homelessness in Wellington. Regina Tito argues that to acknowledge the existence of the homeless in Wellington, you must also acknowledge all the other contributing factors that have led to the growing number of people living on the streets in New Zealand.  She asks the audience to view the homeless as human beings.

Street Smart is Leigh Minarapa’s first short-documentary as a director. Having studied Film and Media Studies at Victoria University of Wellington, she has worked in numerous projects ranging from feature films to music videos (Loading Docs). Minarapa was driven to make Street Smart after retuning to Wellington after being overseas for a year and seeing the massive increase in homelessness in the region.

 WORKS CITED:

Loading Docs. Web. 07 May. 2018 < http://loadingdocs.net/>

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A Friend in Sight (2014) directed by Norman Zafra. 

A Friend in Sight (Zafra 2014) is a documentary that explores the life of Julia Mosen. was born blind and relies on guide dogs to complete simple daily task. The purpose of A Friend in Sight to provide is to provide a day in the life of Julia and her relationship with her current guide dog Kerry. Kerry is Julia’s second guide dog.

What makes A Friend in Sight particularly compelling as a short documentary is the way Zafra demonstrates that although guide dogs are an essential form of both safety and companionship for the blind, there navigation is not always perfect. In the documentary, we see that Julia’s memory of location through its distance is just a critical as Kerry’s navigational skills. We witness moments in which both Julia and Kerry get lost or Kerry gets distracted by other dogs in the surrounding are.

A Friend in Sight not only captures the voice of a minority figure in Wellington, but it allows its viewers to become more aware of the blind community and how they live on a day-to-day basis.

Norman Zafra is a Filipino born filmmaker who made A Friend in Sight after he was inspired by the independence that the blind have in New Zealand.  He wanted to use his documentary as a way of showing his home country how blind live daily overseas. The documentary was selected as part the 2014 Documentary Edge Festival in New Zealand.

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The Bay (2011) directed by Ryan O’Hara. 

The Bay (O’Hara 2011) is about surfing around the Wellington coastline from Lyall Bay to Houghton Bay. The film blurs the lines between a music video and documentary however, as Bill Nichols’ states ‘Documentary is not a reproduction of reality, it is a representation of the world we already occupy’ (13). The film was shot entirely on a GoProHD, supplementing Nichols argument that documentaries represent a world already inhabited. The tactility of the GoProHD Camera and specifically its placement above the head, suggests that in The Bay, we are seeing the ocean, waves and other surfers entirely through how O’Hara perceives them.

In The Bay, O’Hara adopts the use of a spilt screen and heavy colour grading to create the illusion that the film was captured on a Super 8 camera. This provokes a feeling of nostalgia that that Super 8 camera can often create when used in the context of cotemporary filmmaking.

O’Hara made The Bay as part of his degree at Victoria University of Wellington studying a Bachelor of Design Innovation. He wanted to be able to capture the surf lifestyle and the relationship between surfers and the ocean in day-in-the-life format. This is captured in The Bay through the sunrise and sunset bookmarking each end of the film. O’Hara filmed, edited and create the film’s soundtrack entirely by himself (“The Bay”).

 WORKS CITED:

Nichols, Bill. The Introduction to Documentary 2nd ed. Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2010. Print.  

O’Hara, Ryan. “The Bay”. Vimeo. 04 June. 2011. Web video. 07 May. 2018. < https://vimeo.com/24642861>

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Aeon (2004) Directed by Richard Sidey. 

Aeon (Sidey 2004) is an experimental documentary that captures the Wellington CBD through a series of several time lapses. The documentary was largely inspired by Koyaanisqatsi (Reggio 1982), an experimental film that uses sped up or slowed down footage of both natural landscape and cityscape to display how humanity has become distant from nature. In Aeon, the cityscape is represented though the juxtaposition between the creativity of Wellington and its economic and political functions. The cityscape shots are then furthered juxtaposed against the natural landscape and the town belt that surrounds the Wellington CBD.

Sidey made Aeon as part of his Visual Communication Design Degree at Massey University of Wellington. Sidey shot the film over a fourth month period, collating over 50 hours of footage. Aeon went on to win best short documentary at the DocNZ Film Festival in 2005 and best student film at the American Conversation Film Festival in 2007 (“Aeon”).

WORKS CITED:

GALAXIID. “Aeon”. Vimeo. 23 June. 2011. Web video. 07 May. 2016.

< https://vimeo.com/25501640>

Koyaanisqats. Dir. Godfrey Reggio. IRE Productions, 1982. Film.

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Wellington - Promises, Promises | Short Film | NZ On Screen

Wellington - Promises, Promises - Made in an era before “coolest little capital” and Absolutely Positively Wellington, the title of this NFU promotional film — Promises, Promises — nods to the capricious charms of the harbour city. A reflective narration is scored by a saxophone soundtrack as the film tours from the stock market, school fair, and swimsuit shopping, to Trentham and up hillside goat-tracks. The opening of Parliament is cut together with a Lions versus France rugby match at Athletic Park, while Scorching Bay is jam-packed with sun-seekers (it must have been filmed on a good day).

Cannot embed video. 

Wellington Promises, Promise (1985) Directed by John King. 

Wellington Promises, Promises (King 1985) was a short documentary made by the National Film Unit. While the film was initially made for promotional purposes, the documentary now stands as a compelling piece of archival footage that displays life in Wellington during the 1980s.

In Wellington Promises, Promises, locations such as Lambton Quay and Oriental Bay are captured. What is intriguing about the depiction of these locations is how they still stand the test of time in 2018 and remain as popular spots for Wellingtonians. Although New Zealand has socially changed since the 1980s Wellington Promises, Promises accurately captures the culture of Wellingtonians, something which has had little changes since the 1980s. The viewer witnesses the hustle and bustle of the work week as well as the relaxed nature of Wellingtonians come the weekend.  

Within the subtext of Wellington Promises, Promises, the documentary demonstrates how much film technology has developed since the documentary’s release in 1985.

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Toehold on a Harbour (1966) directed by Mike G. Ryan. 

Toehold on a Harbour (Ryan 1966) was another short documentary created by the National Film Unit. The documentary focuses largely on the role of the landscape in Wellington however also features interviews with Wellingtonian’s towards the start of the documentary. Toehold on a Harbour captures Wellington as an economic and political metropolis while still capturing the youth of the city and young professionals that live their due to work opportunities.

Captured on colour in 35mm film, Toehold on a Harbour shows Parliament, the Cable Car, Wellington’s Waterfront and Oriental Bay and its relation to the greenery of the town belt that surrounds Wellington’s inner suburbs.

Wellington’s steep landscape is demonstrated in the documentary through comedy. The viewer witnesses a man using a rope to hoist his lawnmower up and down the side of his property. A small sequence is also dedicated to workers trying to navigate through the harsh winds Wellington is renown for.