New Zealand Film Commission.
Series
Criterion collection volume 1158
Publisher
The Criterion Collection
Pub. Date
[2022]
Formats
Description
Jane Campion returns to the kind of mythic frontier landscape--pulsating with both freedom and menace--that she previously traversed in The Piano in order to plumb the masculine psyche in The Power of the Dog, set against the desolate plains of 1920s Montana and adapted by the filmmaker from Thomas Savage's novel. After a sensitive widow and her enigmatic, fiercely loving son move in with her gentle new husband, a tense battle of wills plays out between...
2) Whale rider
Publisher
Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment
Pub. Date
[2003], c2002
Appears on list
Description
The Whangara people believe their ancestor Paikea was saved from drowning by riding home on the back of a whale. The tribal group has since granted leadership positions to the first-born males, believing them to be descendants of Paikea. But then a young mother dies in childbirth along with her newborn male son. His twin sister survives and the little girl, Pai, is brought up by her grandparents. Learning the skills of chiefdom from her uncle, Pai...
3) Juniper
Publisher
Kino Lorber
Pub. Date
[2023]
Description
Ruth is a worldly former war correspondent now bored in retirement with a drinking problem and a newly fractured leg. Sam is her unruly grandson, recently kicked out of boarding school and grieving the death of his mother. When the two are brought together under the same roof, they form an unexpected bond.
Publisher
Magnolia Pictures
Pub. Date
[2006], c2005
Description
Burt Munro, a Kiwi from far south New Zealand has been building and rebuilding his motorcycle for the last 40 years, dreaming of the day when he and the bike can go to Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats and see what they can really do. When Burt's heart goes bad on him, his dreaming is threatened to come to an end. Luckily, Burt is not ready to stop dreaming. He decides to mortgage his house and bring his dream to life. He and the motorcycle head for American...
Publisher
Lionsgate
Pub. Date
[2021]
Description
In the throes of World War II, Captain Maude Garrett joins the all-male crew of a B-17 bomber with a top-secret package. Caught off guard by the presence of a woman on a military flight, the crew tests Maude's every move. Just as her quick wit is winning them over, strange happenings and holes in her backstory incite paranoia surrounding her true mission. But this crew has more to fear; lurking in the shadows, something sinister is tearing at the...
6) Housebound
Publisher
[Publisher not identified]
Pub. Date
[2014]
Description
Kylie Bucknell is forced to return to the house she grew up in when the court places her on home detention. Her punishment is made all the more unbearable by the fact she has to live there with her mother Miriam, a well-intentioned blabbermouth who's convinced that the house is haunted. Kylie dismisses Miriam's superstitions as nothing more than a distraction from a life occupied by boiled vegetables & small-town gossip.
Publisher
Dark Sky Films
Pub. Date
[2021]
Formats
Description
A family's outing descends into terror when teacher Alan Hoaganraad, his wife Jill, and stepsons Maika and Jordon explore an isolated coastline. An unexpected meeting with a pair of drifters, the enigmatic psychopath Mandrake and his accomplice Tubs, thrusts the family into a nightmare after the duo kidnaps them and embarks on a road trip to hell.
8) Baby done
Publisher
Gravitas Ventures
Pub. Date
[2020]
Description
Zoe freaks out when she falls pregnant to her long-term boyfriend Tim. Tim embraces the idea of parenthood, while Zoe rushes away from it.
Description
Jools and Lynda Topp are lesbian twin sisters who were raised on a farm in rural New Zealand. Since the early 1980s they've made a reputation for themselves as unconventional singers, comedians and political activists. This film is structured around a kind of 'This Is Your Life' event, in which important people in the lives of the Topps join them in songs and reminiscence. Leanne Pooley's affectionate documentary is a good introduction to a couple...
10) Boy
Publisher
Kino Lorber, Inc
Pub. Date
[2013], ©2013
Description
The year is 1984, and on the rural east coast of New Zealand Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' is changing kids' lives. 'Boy' is a dreamer who lives with his brother Rocky and his Nan. When Boy's father, Alamein, returns home after seven years away, Boy is forced to confront the man he thought he remembered, find his own potential, and learn to get along without the hero he had been looking for.
Publisher
[Publisher not identified]
Pub. Date
[2015]
Description
A visually stunning journey to the end of the world with the hardy and devoted people who live there year-round. The research stations scattered throughout the continent host a close-knit international population of scientists, technicians and craftsmen. Isolated from the rest of the world, enduring months of unending darkness followed by periods when the sun never sets, Antarctic residents experience firsthand the beauty and brutality of the most...
12) Meat
Publisher
MPI Home Video
Pub. Date
[2017]
Description
A modern story of the animals we eat, as told by the people from whom we rarely hear. From the solitary hunter, who believes everyone needs to be educated about their food, to the family farmer, who argues that money isn't his primary driver, compassionate practices of food production connect their stories. It is an eye opening, thoroughly engaging, fly-on-the-wall film. Never has "farm to table" been more personal.
Publisher
Lions Gate Entertainment
Pub. Date
2010
Description
Teenage twins Rachel and Theo travel to Auckland to stay with relatives following the sudden death of their mother. Where there was once a psychic bond between them, now there is a rift as Theo, particularly, refuses to confront his grief. Rachel reaches out to him, but is rebuffed. They visit Mt. Eden, where Theo sees Mr. Jones, a strange old man from whose hands fire seems to glow. Inside the mountain, he and Rachel find what can only be an alien...
14) Free in deed
Publisher
Gravitas Ventures
Pub. Date
[2017]
Description
Set in the distinctive world of storefront churches, and based on actual events, it depicts one man's attempts to perform a miracle. When a single mother brings her young boy to church for healing, this lonely pentecostal minister is forced to confront the seemingly incurable illness of the child and his own demons as well. The more he prays, the more things seem to spiral out of his control.
Publisher
Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Pub. Date
[2001?]
Description
When circumstances bring together two bright and highly imaginative teenage schoolgirls they quickly form an unwavering bond, creating a fantasy world that only they can share. Disturbed by the intensity of the friendship, their parents threaten to keep them apart. The girls vow to stay together, devising a secret plan that leads to shocking consequences.
16) Slow west
Publisher
Lionsgate
Pub. Date
[2015]
Description
A sixteen-year-old boy heads west on a journey across nineteenth century frontier America in search of the woman he loves. He encounters a mysterious traveler named Silas, who protects him from the savage elements and outlaws in a lawless land. But is Silas really watching out for him, or is he tied to the band of thieves tracking their every step?
17) Dead alive
Publisher
Lions Gate Home Entertainment
Pub. Date
[2004]
Description
A hapless young man's overbearing mother gets him into a heap of trouble when she catches a bizarre zombie virus and starts turning innocent passersby into walking corpses.
Series
Criterion collection volume 301
Publisher
Home Vision Entertainment
Pub. Date
[2005]
Description
The true-life story of Janet Frame, New Zealand's most distinguished author. The film follows Frame along her inspiring journey, from a poverty-stricken childhood to a misdiagnosis of schizophrenia and electroshock therapy to, finally, literary fame.
19) Bad behaviour
Publisher
Gravitas Ventures
Pub. Date
[2023]
Description
Lucy, a former child actor, seeks enlightenment at a retreat led by spiritual leader Elon while she navigates her close yet turbulent relationship with her stunt-performer daughter, Dylan.
Publisher
Kino Lorber
Pub. Date
[2020]
Description
An eye-opening journey through wealth and power, a film that breaks the popular assumption that the accumulation of capital runs hand in hand with social progress, and shines a new light on today's growing inequalities. Traveling through time, the film assembles accessible pop-culture references coupled with interviews of some of the world's most influential experts delivering an insightful and empowering journey through the past and into the future....