Celebrating diversity at Whānau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festival
Did you know several towns and cities in Aotearoa, New Zealand, are currently showcasing Whānau Mārama – NZIFF 2024?
This festival showcases stories and voices worldwide that don’t usually make it into our mainstream media or Netflix algorithms. Despite a massive resurgence in Māori filmmaking and independent local storytelling (which we love) in the past years, a chunk of our content is Eurocentric and excludes many of the rich, underrepresented voices we have in our communities.
We have selected a range of flicks to celebrate this year’s festival. Visit their website to see the full schedule of films, dates, and locations. Films are showing in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin, Hamilton, New Plymouth, Nelson, Tauranga, Napier, and Masterton.
Refugee and Migrant films
Playing NZIFF in Auckland and Wellington
A bold and atmospheric queer romance about two coal miners who find love deep in the bowels of the earth, this stunning feature from upcoming young Vietnamese filmmaker Trương Minh Quý was beautifully shot on 16mm film. A poetic meditation on the recent history of Vietnam.
Playing NZIFF in Auckland and Wellington
This urgent, vibrant and incredibly topical debut feature from Palestinian filmmaker Mahdi Fleifel follows two refugee cousins stranded in Athens as they strive to hustle and scam their way to a new life in Germany.
Playing NZIFF in Auckland and Wellington
A young Guinean immigrant seeking asylum in Paris tries to survive day-to-day in this tense, heartrending piece of social realism anchored by an astonishing performance from first-time actor Abou Sangare.
Playing NZIFF in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin, Hamilton, New Plymouth, Nelson, Tauranga, Napier and Masterton
Brutal, enraging and heartrending, Polish writer-director Agnieszka Holland’s controversial take on the Polish-Belarusian border crisis serves as a startling call to arms in the face of a little-seen humanitarian crisis. Captured in stark black and white, Holland weaves together the disparate stories of a family of Syrian asylum seekers, a border guard facing a crisis of conscience, aid workers and a psychologist thrown into action when she crosses paths with a pair of refugees on the run.
Playing NZIFF in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin
Sensitive and funny, this semi-autobiographical film follows 13-year-old Chris Wang as he grows up in diaspora, flirting through AOL emojis and navigating family life, with beautiful small details that feel painfully realistic and true to life.
Disability films
Sun 18 Aug 12:15PM The Civic
An intimate look at the man behind the cape, Super/Man charts actor Christopher Reeve’s journey from super-stardom to near-death injury and paralysis, and how he turned his tragedy into an inspiring tale of advocacy for the disability community.
Thu 15 Aug 3:45PM The Civic
Winner of multiple awards at Sundance this powerful and heartwarming documentary reveals an outwardly introverted gamer’s vibrant secret cyberlife following his death from a degenerative muscular disease.
I See You (short film playing within New Zealand’s Best Shorts 2024)
Sun 18 Aug 3:15PM ASB Waterfront Theatre
A young mother struggles with her toddler’s delayed development until a chance encounter with a charismatic young man shifts her feelings.
Flow (no dialogue, suitable for deaf or hard of hearing audiences)
Wed 14 Aug 6:15PM The Civic
Thurs 15 Aug 1:30PM The Civic
Straight from wowing audiences at Cannes, this immersive animated wonder from Lativian director Gints Zilbalodis tells the surreal tale of an unlikely group of animals who must overcome their differences to survive a great flood.
Rainbow films
We Were Dangerous dir. Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu
Thurs 15 Aug 10:30AM ASB Waterfront Theatre
Earning director Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu the Special Jury Prize at SXSW this year, this electric debut launches our festival with a fiery trio of delinquent schoolgirls railing against the colonial system in 1950s New Zealand.
I Saw the TV Glow dir. Jane Schoenbrun
Sat 17 Aug 6:00PM The Civic
Gunge, goons, and girls with unbreakable psychic bonds are your new late-night obsession in this unsettling fable about what happens when you get offered a chance at a fantasy, but choose to settle for reality.
Viet and Nam dir. Trương Minh Quý
Sat 17 Aug 3:45PM Hollywood Avondale
A bold and atmospheric queer romance about two coal miners who find love deep in the bowels of the earth, this stunning feature from upcoming young Vietnamese filmmaker Trương Minh Quý was beautifully shot on 16mm film.
Naughty Little Peeptoe dir. Garth Maxwell, Peter Wells
Fri 16 Aug 9:00PM ASB Waterfront Theatre
Garth Maxwell and Peter Wells’ deeply personal ode to friend, fashionista and foot-fetishist Doug George who narrates the story of how high heels saved his life. Recently selected by MoMA for its permanent film collection. “Is Garth Maxwell Aotearoa’s own John Waters?” — Art New Zealand. This screening will be followed by a reading from queer author Samuel Te Kani.
A Mistake dir. Christine Jeffs
Sat 17 Aug 6:00PM ASB Waterfront Theatre
On the eve of a move towards greater public health data reporting, a medical error throws life into a spin for a respected surgeon and her surgical team; the downward spiral threatening all in her orbit.