May 27, 2014 etc
Introducing Loading Docs, an online film festival dedicated to pint-sized documentaries.
Who really did the first bungy jump? What actually goes on in the abandoned luxury hotels of quake-struck Christchurch? Who is the Raglan cat slaughterer? Ten three-minute documentaries launched today tackle these and other topics all loosely based around the concept of home. They’re part of the Loading Docs initiative, a partnership between the NZ Film Commission and NZ on Air, which tasks filmmakers with cramming a documentary into the duration of a pop song.
http://vimeo.com/95576031
The micro time limit makes for some interesting and varied approaches to the form. The meatier topics such as The Jump (directed by Alex Sutherland) about the origins of bungy jumping in New Zealand, Living Like Kings (directed by Zoe McIntosh) which follows homeless people in Christchurch into their newfound plush surroundings and Catkiller (directed by Aidee Walker and Alexander Gander) on the trail of who is responsible for the spate of cat disappearances in the seaside town serve as intriguing tasters to their respective tales. We’d love to see longer versions of all three.
Joel Kefali makes a poetic animated ode to his Turkish grandfather who immigrated to New Zealand in the 1950s in Baba and Tim Worrall and Aaron Smart take us on a musical journey deep into Tuhoe territory The Road to Whakarae (above).
Queer Selfies (directed by Robyn Paterson and Paula Boock) is a hugely effecting usage of the short timeframe with intimate interviews taken at a booth at the Big Gay Out as people contemplate the question “What is home to you?”
See all 10 documentaries at Loading Docs.
