Kakapo movie man honoured

Dunedin film-maker Scott Mouat has received two pieces of good news in recent weeks.

His feature-length documentary The Unnatural History of the Kakapo has been selected to screen at the world's biggest wildlife film festival, and Mr Mouat will be there to watch.

"I'm surprised and pleased. I did not think the film would be selected, and I certainly had not expected to be able to go and see the screening," he said.

The film won a merit award in the human-wildlife interaction category at the Missoula International Wildlife Film competition and was named as a finalist in the environment and conservation category.

While it did not win any major prizes, it was selected to screen at the week-long festival in the US city.

Now, a grant from the New Zealand Film Commission will enable Mr Mouat to travel to Missoula, Montana, on Thursday to attend the festival.

Mr Mouat declined to say how much money he had been given but said it was a "substantial amount", which would enable him to spend 12 days meeting others in the documentary industry, promoting his work and trying and find backers for future projects.

Mr Mouat (36) is a graduate of the University of Otago's postgraduate diploma in natural history film-making course.

His 77-minute kakapo film, completed last year, has already won four awards, including best feature-length documentary at last month's Australasian 2010 Documentary Edge Festival in Wellington.

It was up for two awards in the Reel Earth environmental film competition in Palmerston North this month.