Dunedin film-maker Stefan Roesch attends the Little Cinema — Dunedin event held at Te Whare o Rukutia yesterday. PHOTO: GERARD O’BRIEN Productions as short as one minute long were given the chance to breathe on the big screen at an event celebrating grassroots film-making in the South. A total of eight small films, documentaries and music videos were given the opportunity to be shown to the public at Te Whare o Rukutia yesterday as part of the ‘‘Little Cinema — Dunedin: Short Films from the South’’ event, presented by the Southern Filmmakers Collective. The works chosen were made by film-makers connected to Otago and Southland. That included Wāhine Waveriders, an 18-minute documentary about three generations of women and their relationship with surf culture in the South Island, and Planet 13, a 13-minute short film set in 2093 exploring the notion of a ‘‘backup planet’’. Also being screened was Dunedin: Auditioning Now, a three-minute show reel created by Enterprise Dunedin and Film Dunedin promoting the city, which recently won gold at the US International Awards. It starts as an audition tape for New Zealand comedian James Mustapic and turns into a showcase of Dunedin. Producer Stefan Roesch, of Dunedin, said it was great to feature the production. It was ‘‘not just some branded content’’, Mr Roesch said. ‘‘The idea was to do something completely different, to cut through the noise and just produce something that gets noticed.’’ Mr Roesch, also a founding member of the Southern Filmmakers Collective, said the event was about grassroots film-making and a community of creatives supporting one another. Makers of short films hardly ever got to see their works displayed on the big screen, and so it enabled them to put their craft in front of an audience. ‘‘You can imagine, it’s different when you see it on a phone or even on a laptop screen. ‘‘If you watch it at home on your phone, it’s not the same as sharing it with your film-making community.’’ tim.scott@odt.co.nz
