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DOCNZ E-Newsletter

#05–Sept 2007

DOCNZ 2007 is ready to roll. The new website is out, programmes have been printed and we are gearing up for the Opening Night in Auckland on 27th September. From 7th September, programmes are available in Auckland and it will soon reach the rest of the country. In this newsletter, we profile the very latest on the DOCNZ Summit and Festival.

The DOCNZ Team

1. Finalists for Competition

International

Seventeen world class films will compete for the Feature, Medium and Short-length 2007 DOCNZ international film awards for cash prizes and top honours.

Best International Short Documentary

• Renita, Renita, Indonesia
• Civil Status, Russia
• Wittenoom, Australia
• JR: Street Expo, Netherlands
• A Summer not to Forget, Lebanon

Best International Medium Documentary

• Freeheld, USA
• Please Vote for Me, South Africa
• My Daughter the Terrorist, Norway
• The Old Stores, Israel
• The Importance of Being MLABRI, Denmark/Thailand
• Time of Closure, Switzerland

Best International Feature Documentary

• Jerusalem is Proud to Present, Israel
• Knee Deep, USA
• Lost in Liberia, Germany/Switzerland
• Description of a Memory, Israel
• The 11^th Hour, USA
• Terra Incognita, USA

New Zealand

New Zealand’s filmmaking talent, both established and emerging local filmmakers, offers up a fine selection of documentaries that reflect our very own stories and experiences. Eleven finalists are vying for the top awards in the New Zealand competition:

Best New Zealand Short Documentary

• In the Night Kitchen
• Prints of Darkness
• Calici: A Rural Conspiracy

Best New Zealand Medium Documentary

• Darling! The Pieter-Dirk Uys Story
• An Abbreviated Life
• The Godmachine
• A Grandmother’s Tribe

Best New Zealand Feature Documentary

• Billy’s Christmas
• Suffer the Children
• The Nuclear Comeback
• Lovely RITA

DOCNZ 2007 Awards Night

DOCNZ 2007 Awards Night will be held at the Academy Cinemas on Monday, 1st October at 8.00pm. Come and walk down the red carpet, have a drink, meet the filmmakers and celebrate the achievements of 2007 with us. Tickets ($20.00) are limited and available at the Academy Cinemas.

2. Festival Opening in Auckland

The DOCNZ 2007 Festival screenings kick off on Thurs, 27 Sept with:

• 11.45am: Sugartown: The Bridegrooms at the Academy Cinemas, and
• 12.30pm: Hear and Now SkyCity Cinemas (Queen St).

Opening night at the Academy Cinemas features:

• 5.45pm: the youngest director at DOCNZ 2007, Yonatan Weinstein (17 yrs) from Israel, will attend his film My Grandma: Frau Masha. A Q&A session will follow the screening.
• 7.15pm: New Zealand director, Gaylene Preston will attend the World Premiere of her latest documentary Lovely RITA about artist Rita Angus. A Q&A session will follow the screening.
• 9.00pm: DOCNZ will feature the film everyone is talking about: Leonardo DiCaprio’s documentary The 11^th Hour. On his website, Al Gore urges everyone who cares about the environment to go and see this film—it’s not to be missed.

Opening night at the SkyCity Cinemas (Queen St) features:

• 5.30pm: Freedom Fuels, featuring Darryl Hannah and Willie Nelson, takes an in-depth look at renewable fuel sources.
• 6.45pm: Suffer the Children looks at the hypocritical, hilarious and often devastating world of TV evangelism.
• 8.35pm: Lost in Liberia follows a young ideological Westerner who is sent by the International Red Cross to Liberia on a mission to reunite parents with their children who were separated during the civil war.

The DOCNZ 2007 Festival runs in Auckland (Sept 27–Oct 10), Dunedin (Oct 11–21), Christchurch (Oct 25–Nov 4), and Wellington (Nov 8–21).

3. Festival Hub in Auckland

For the first time, DOCNZ 2007 will have a focal point for all your festival’s needs and enquiries—the Festival Hub at the Real Café in Auckland.

Come to the Festival Hub and enjoy fresh, healthy, gourmet food and great coffee—at very affordable, everyday prices. DOCNZ representatives will be there to assist you with any information or assistance you may need.

Real Café is at the Central City Library on the corner of Wellesley and Lorne Streets; opening hours are Mon to Fri: 8am–8pm, Weekends: 10am–4pm; phone: 09) 307 1456.

4. Festival Website Launch

DOCNZ are proud to announce the launch of the 2007 Festival website.

Thanks to the team at Motive, our new look website should be your first port of call for all things DOCNZ.

Browse the Festival by showcase (Best of Fest, World Cinema, Heroes & Icons, etc.) or find films by topics including animation, experimental, and natural history. From each film find trailers, reviews and background info on the filmmakers.

If you’re caught without your festival programme, you can use the screening schedule to check out screening details or help plan your doco intake.

The website is also the best place to check up on late breaking Festival news (things you won’t find in the print programme), including: news and events, extra screenings, and which screenings filmmakers will be attending.

You can also download the print programme and a handy A4 schedule that lists the time and venue details for all screenings.

5. Programmes, Schedules and Campaign

Programmes booklets are now available at the Academy Cinemas and SkyCity Cinemas on Queen St, and your local public library. A pocket-size programme is also available in cafes and public spaces around town.

Look for the outrageous colourful cover ‘Real People Are the Stars’.

Saatchi & Saatchi created this year’s campaign. Check out the TV commercial on the National Geographic Channel and the Documentary Channel. You will also find ‘Real People Are the Stars’ on billboards and posters around the city.

6. DOCNZ Summit Update

The DOCNZ Summit will be held in Auckland, 24–26 September 2007. The 3 day event will include Masterclasses, Seminars and a Pitching Forum. Details of the programme, speakers and registration will be announced shortly in a separate DOCNZ Summit E-newsletter.

We are pleased to announce the 7 projects selected for this year’s Pitching Forum:

• Baghdad Child Filmmakers Project
  Director Nathan Price and Producer Michele Law, New Zealand/Jordan
• Left Behind
  Director Kathleen Mantel and Co-Producer Wendy Douglas, New Zealand
• Lost in Wonderland
  Director Zoe McIntosh and Producer Costa Botes of Lone Pine Film and Television Productions Ltd, New Zealand
• Miss Tibet
  Director Echo Di Zhu, New Zealand
• No More Fish in the Sea
  Director Dan Salmon and Producer Arani Cuthbert of Diva Productions Ltd, New Zealand
• The Art of Being Brown
  Director/Producer Janette Howe, Co-Director Michelle Johansson and Co-Producer Phillip Gore of Caravan of Productions Ltd, New Zealand 
• Te Henua e Noho: There Once Was An Island
  Director Briar March and Producer Lyn Collie of On the Level Productions, New Zealand

7. International Guests

Both DOCNZ Summit and Festival will have overseas guests who will attend and participate at various events. We are honoured to have them join us.

• Mark Verkerk, Director of Buddha’s Lost Children, The Netherlands
• Peter McCarthy, Director of Fight or Flight, Ireland
• Yonatan Weinstein, Director of My Grandma: Frau Masha, Israel
• Chiel Aldershoff, Director of JR: St Expo, Netherlands
• Lois Vossen, Vice President ITVS, USA
• Cynthia Kane, Program Manager, ITVS International, USA
• Leonard Retel Helmrich, Director, Netherlands
• Carole Lee Dean, From the Heart Productions, USA
• Trevor Graham, Commissioning Editor Documentary, SBSI, Australia
• Sharon Robool, Producer, Al-Jazeera International, Malaysia
• Julia Overton, Film Finance Corporation, Australia
• Fiona Lawson Baker, Acquisitions SBS, Australia
• Sky Sitney, Director of Programming Silverdocs, USA
• Amanda Duthie, Producer ABC, Australia
• Joost den Hartog, Director AIDC, Australia
• Marcel Rawady, Madman Films, Australia

8. DOCNZ 2007 Venues and Dates

DOCNZ Summit: Sept 24–26, Auckland University, Auckland

DOCNZ Awards Night: Oct 1, Academy Cinemas, Auckland

DOCNZ 2007 will be held in 4 centres nationwide:

• Auckland: Sept 27–Oct 10 at Academy Cinemas and SkyCity Cinemas (Queen Street)
• Dunedin: Oct 11–21 at the Hoyts: Octagon
• Christchurch: Oct 25–Nov 4 at the Hoyts: Regent on Worcester
• Wellington: Nov 8–21 at the Paramount, Hoyts: Regent on Manners, and The Film Archive

Please mark your calendar and get ready for the best showcase of documentary films in New Zealand this year!

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