WIFT Members in Loading Docs

Posted Monday 02 Feb 2015

Big congratulations to WIFT members, Rowena Baines, Paula Jones, Hayley Cunningham and Jeremy Macey whose projects have been selected for Loading Docs 2015, and to WIFT members Julia Parnell, Anna Jackson and Nia Phipps for their dedication to documentary!

Executive Producers Julia Parnell and Anna Jackson set up Loading Docs to fill a

gap for audiences hungry for quality local documentaries and to offer documentary

makers a unique creative challenge.

The filmmakers are provided with mentoring from industry leaders to further their

skills in development, crowdfunding, marketing and online distribution. The initiative

is designed to support filmmakers to take their filmmaking craft to the next level and

promote creative documentary making of the highest standard both locally and

internationally.

Loading Docs launched in May 2014. The first series of short docos (all freely

available to view and share online here: www.loadingdocs.net/2014films ) were an

immediate success, featuring on high profile local and international websites,

screening on Air New Zealand's inflight entertainment and New Zealand Television

(3News, Seven Sharp, 20/20, Te Kaea, Iti Pounamu, the Rialto Channel) and selected

for local and international film festivals (Show Me Shorts (NZ), Out Takes (NZ),

ImagineNATIVE (Canada), New Zealand Short Film Festival (Aus) and the 2015 Banff

World Tour (US).

 

The project is supported by the New Zealand Film Commission and NZ On Air's

Digital Media Fund. Each documentary will crowd fund via the website

Boosted http://www.boosted.org.nz to raise $2000, which is then matched

by Loading Docs. The crowd funding phase will take place from the first week of

March 2015 when the filmmakers have a month to raise the cash and reach out to

audiences before production begins.

 

LOADING DOCS 2015: www.loadingdocs.net/2015films

 

The Crystal Palace

Directors Karl Sheridan and Robin Gee, Producer Monster Valley

Location: Mt Eden, Auckland

Cultural icon and cinematic relic The Crystal Palace fights to hold off the final curtain

call.

 

Dance Like Nobody's Watching

Director Rowena Baines, Producer Paula Jones

Location: Grey Lynn, Auckland

A suburban library hall on a mundane Monday is transformed into a world where

there's no inhibitions, no worries, and most importantly, 'No Lights, No Lycra'.

 

Fantasy Cave

Director/Producers Michelle Savill and Matt Henley

Location: Dannevirke.

In the heart of rural New Zealand the residents of Dannevirke have transformed a

Christmas Cave into a DIY 'Disney Land.'

 

H20 Below

Directors Louis Olsen and Frances Haszard

Producer: Scott Elder

Location: Auckland

An adventurous, cinematic expos� of our cities' hidden waterways and the story that

connects us with our forgotten history and our unseen environment.

 

Killer App

Director/Producers Wendell Cooke, Jeremy Macey

Location: Wellington

Over hot drinks and a potluck afternoon tea, a group of senior Wellingtonians

discuss the best ways to die.

 

Kusuda

Directors Amber Easby & Henry Oliver, Producer Amber Easby

Location: Martinborough

New Zealand, Japanese and French cultures merge in the vineyards of salaryman

turned master winemaker, Hiro Kusuda.

 

Madness Made Me

Director Nikki Castle, Producer Alexander Gandar

Location: Dunedin

To the psychiatrists, Mary O'Hagan was just another head case. But where they saw

illness, she saw meaning.

 

The Pet Whisperer

Directors Justin Hawkes & Ian Hart, Producer Hayley Cunningham

Location: Christchurch

Imagine if you could have a conversation with your pet... Faye Rogers can.

 

Tihei

Director Hamish Bennett, Producer Orlando Stewart

Location: Auckland

A boombox and a beat helped Tihei Harawira find his voice. Now he's freestyling his

way from Otara to the world.

 

Wilbur Force

Director J.Ollie Lucks, Producer Veronica Stevenson

Location: Dunedin

The former king of New Zealand pro wrestling is challenged by his best friend to reconnect

with his glory days of battle.

 

Reaction from this year's successful applicants on being involved with

Loading Docs:

Justin Hawkes & Ian Hart LOADING DOCS Filmmakers 2015 (The Pet

Whisperer)

'Being selected for Loading Docs is not only an amazing chance to explore the craft

we love, but it's also an opportunity to film with a telepathic pet communicator - we

can't think of anything else we would rather be doing'

 

Rowena Baines LOADING DOCS Filmmaker 2015 (Dance Like Nobody's

Watching)

"Loading Docs is a fantastic initiative that provides a supportive environment for

filmmakers to create work, then promote and showcase it. I'm excited to see the

many different interpretations of the common theme 'connect' and to have the

opportunity participate in the creation of the new collection."

 

Three of last years filmmakers on Loading Docs:

Joel Kefali, LOADING DOCS Filmmaker (Baba)

www.loadingdocs.net/2014/baba

"I like the one to one relationship a filmmaker can have with their audience when

sharing their work online. The LOADING DOCS format and crowd-funding approach

brings this relationship full circle and allows me to share a particularly personal story

within the online community."

Alex Sutherland, LOADING DOCS Filmmaker (The Jump)

www.loadingdocs.net/2014/thejump

"When I heard about Loading Doc's short documentary initiative, I immediately

thought this would be a great way to jump-start Chris's story to life and get it out

into the world. The discipline of having to distil a story like this down to three

minutes forces you to think about what is absolutely necessary to tell the story and

what is really driving it."

 

Prisca Bouchet and Nick Mayow, LOADING DOCS Filmmakers (Today)

www.loadingdocs.net/2014/today

"As directors, being part of LOADING DOCS has given us an opportunity to

challenge ourselves, at the same time learning about and participating in the bold,

dynamic world of online storytelling."

 

Loading Docs is a Notable Pictures initiative, produced by Julia Parnell

and Anna Jackson with the support of the New Zealand Film

Commission and NZ On Air's Digital Media Fund.

For more information visit www.loadingdocs.net