This really was the little film that could! Milk has been accepted into 12 international film festivals, including the pick of the bunch, the LA Shorts, one of the few Oscar-qualifying festivals in the world.
Martinborough-based director and writer Celia Jaspers and her team, including fellow WIFT NZ members, producers Auriga Martin and Juanita Deely, made this film "on zero budget" with the help of friends and much local support.
Crew came from as far afield as Auckland and Christchurch. A Martinborough cafe provided its setting, visual effects artist Gemma Cooper, who worked on the Avengers franchise, and hair and makeup artist Gail Wilson, whose credits include Lord of the Rings were also involved.
Filming took place in spring of 2020 with director Jaspers’ daughter, Charlotte – then eight – taking the starring role.
The film is about a little girl who foregoes her hard-earned treats at the local dairy to instead buy an elderly man some milk and the title is a play on the phrase 'the milk of human kindness' coined by William Shakespeare in Macbeth.
Image: Charlotte Jaspers in a still from Milk