Posted Monday 08 Sep 2014
Hope and Wire, Gaylene Preston's drama set in post-earthquake Christchurch, has been announced as an official selection at the Vancouver International Film Festival, where it will screen in the Festival on October 5 and 6. This will be followed by a screening of the entire Hope and Wire television series at the Vancouver Film Centre on October 19.
Preston, who directed, wrote and produced (with Chris Hampson) the series, will be attending both Festival screenings. She has also been invited to sit on the VIFF jury selecting the best Canadian feature film.
VIFF artistic director, Alan Franey, said: "Hope and Wire is an unprecedented and truly extraordinary screen-event directed by the renowned New Zealand filmmaker Gaylene Preston. Utilizing a mix of dramatic staging, found footage and documentary elements, it captures a complex and extraordinary situation vividly and humanely."
Preston has a long-standing relationship with the Vancouver International Film Festival: "Since Ruby and Rata screened there, my films have found a warm and appreciative audience at VIFF. It's great that the Festival is going to honour Hope and Wire in the same way."
She was in Vancouver earlier this year as the mentor director at the Canadian Creative Women's Workshops: Women In The Director's Chair programme..
She also featured on a panel titled "Tough Stuff" at WORD Christchurch Readers and Writers Festival recently, alongside writers Rebecca McFie and Lloyd Jones, discussing 'writing on difficult subjects' with Finlay Macdonald.