Five of the best shorts from New Zealand's currently crop of talent make their nationwide premiere at the TNZIFF. The films – Official Cannes Selection Nothing Special, Taika Waititi's Tama Tu, Truant, The Little Things and No Ordinary Sun – arrive barely re-spooled from their overseas festival appearances, and screen as part of the Homegrown: Works on Film programme. BENJAMIN BARRETT samples the entrees.


SHORT FILMS are those miniature movies that, in their diminutive size and stature, aren't often given enough opportunities to shine. Responsible for establishing many a filmmaker's career, five of the best from New Zealand's currently crop of talent make their nationwide premiere at the Telecom New Zealand International Film Festivals. The films in question – Official Cannes Selection Nothing Special, Taika Waititi's Tama Tu, Truant, The Little Things and No Ordinary Sun – arrive barely re-spooled from their overseas festival appearances, and screen as part of the Homegrown: Works on Film programme, an annual collaboration between the Moving Image Centre and the NZ International Film Festivals.



Director Michael Duignan has left a mark of strength in the delivery of Truant. A 15-year-old boy finds out more about life than he bargains for when he encounters a transfixing rebel girl. He finds himself drawn to her raw energy, while she dictates the boundaries of their newfound relationship. One thing that you don't have much of in a short film is time, and Duignan has done well to develop the central characters with maturity and experimentation. Appropriately we shift around time via non-linear editing, sending us into the possible realms of memory and the mind, where the notion of idealisation is also introduced. Seemingly simple devices like out of focus subjects and out of sync dialogue can quickly become rapid departures from what audiences are used to seeing, and a director can risk losing them – however for Duignan, this doesn't eventuate. Although I felt somewhat lost in the pursuit of an eternal "why", it's on second thought where we're supposed to end up – searching for meaning beyond our depth. Is this why endings are so hard to do well? Like our own relationships, we want them to end comfortably for fear they'll remind us of the pain associated with life's lessons. For a sophisticated cut of New Zealand filmmaking "in progress", this comes recommended.



There were moments in Nothing Special that coax you to laugh out loud – a sure sign of good comedy. As quickly as the bizarre circumstances of a young man idealised by his mother are developed, so to is the theme of escapism. The film spends most of its time setting this in concrete, as the reaction to young man's upbringing causes him to overact and do "funny" things. The film ends on a one liner, and yet I was disappointed that this moment wasn't brought forward and explored in the sense that comedy, like drama, requires character development and momentum, with quirk not making the story alone. Nevertheless, the taleneted Helena Brooks has made a strong, humorous short film – one that as comedic piece works as powerful medicine indeed.



The Little Things is a subtle, beautiful, moving short film that takes us into an experience of the world through the eyes of a young Maori girl. Importantly we hit home on the eve of George's 14th Birthday, as she is about to depart childhood. It is clear however that she knows all to well of the hard realities of life – they surround her. An important story that needs to be told, film stands as a wonderful medium to spread these experiences and enrich our community, and the NZFC should commended for dedicating funds to a project that carries social responsibility delicately into our hearts and minds. Director Reina Webster has made a film that transcends Maori culture and speaks of everyone's responsibility to be there for each other, as well as demonstrating how strong content will out-weigh any shortcomings in production. The characters moved me to the point of overlooking how the film was put together – a great sign of successful storytelling, in any.



There seemed to be two different films at work in Tama Tu, a competent tale of a NZ Maori Battalion during the WWII. Standardised shots mimicking modern war movies were admittedly off-putting, and did not pull me in as I'm sure director Taika Waititi intended. Alternatively, I enjoyed the digitally simulated collage of a painterly war zone filled with desaturated skies and desolate creatures moving through the mist. Thereafter, what followed was a different film altogether – the wonderful comradery of the Maori Battalion sharing a silent world of joy and laughter, resilient to all that war could throw at them. Waititi extracts such beauty from daily life, but the discord of components within the film means it doesn't reach the perfection of Two Cars, One Night – an example, perhaps, of how difficult it is to recreate spontaneity when faced with more complex production techniques.



The amazing thing about No Ordinary Sun is that its director found his own way to Antarctica to shoot the film's stunning cinematography. As if making a coherent film wasn't hard enough, this is something of a feat in itself. Jonathan Brough takes us into the isolated and scientific experience of a man in Antarctica, disconnected from his loved ones and the world. Brough successfully uses isolation as a device for exploring the mind, but also keeps his audience baffled, perhaps with the intention of leaving us there, in the middle of nowhere. Although I'm in favour of ambiguous endings that stretch an audience, in leaving the interpretation of story so wide-open Brough has also disoriented the viewer. This is eased however by some brilliant moments of filmmaking – particularly those images that created awareness outside of the research hut, and the seamless matching from location to studio – that brought a kind of universal connectedness to the film.