Two decades on from Cinema of Unease, Tim Wong’s ambitious essay film contemplates the prevailing image of a national cinema while privileging some of the images and image-makers displaced by the popular view of filmmaking in New Zealand.
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OUT OF THE MIST is an alternate reading of New Zealand’s obscure film heritage, narrated by Man Booker prizewinner Eleanor Catton, and illustrated with excerpts from over 70 feature films, shorts, documentaries, and artworks. It premiered at the New Zealand International Film Festival on July 20, 2015.
“The long absence of another major documentary on our film history was a strong motivating factor behind Out of the Mist. But aside from the opportunity to update the record, what has really driven its making is the conversation I’ve shared with fellow cinephiles and filmmakers about the state of New Zealand Cinema, how we might begin to redefine it, and whose work is being obscured by the popular canon. My contribution to this conversation was, through a questioning tone, to script an essay film with many different openings, so that it could be viewed from multiple angles: as an archeology of films and filmmakers underappreciated or ignored; as a study of images, both celebrated and outdated; as a form of advocacy for art on the margins; and as a challenge to the status quo around how national identity is represented in our movies.” Read more: video.lumiere.net.nz/out-of-the-mist
TIM WONG is the founding editor of The Lumière Reader. He specialises in film and visual arts criticism, has covered film festivals in Europe and North America, and was the only New Zealand-based critic invited to vote on Sight and Sound’s decennial “Ten Greatest Films of All Time” poll in 2012. He is also a web and graphic designer.
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FROM THE NEW ZEALAND INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL: The best conversation you have about movies this year may be the one you have in your head watching and listening to Tim Wong’s advocacy for some remarkable New Zealand films and filmmakers who don’t make it into the standard tour guides. The regular line-up is shrewdly characterised in the process too, but there’s no rancour in his account of the mainstream, magnificently and absurdly characterised by a sweeping shot of the Southern Alps from a 50s travelogue while Orson Welles savours every syllable of ‘Aorangi’, ‘Aotearoa’ and ‘Māori’ on the soundtrack; he cuts soon enough to civil war on the streets in Merata Mita’s Patu!, and the voice we will hear delivering Wong’s narration belongs to one of our own, Eleanor Catton. Most of the other films Wong feeds into the conversation are much less generally known and barely political at all. There are such tantalising excerpts on display that we wish we had the space on our schedule to bring you the screenings you’ll be craving of myriad cinematic treasures, not least Annie Goldson’s Wake (1994), Tony Williams’ Next of Kin (1982), Gabriel White’s Oracle Drive (2013) and maybe even Cinerama South Seas Adventure (1958). nziff.co.nz/2015/auckland/out-of-the-mist-an-alternate-history-of-new
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“The Lumière Reader presents” is a web series of original essay films and digital documentaries. Produced by a collective of writers and filmmakers, these films seek to engage with fellow artists, thinkers, and practitioners—particularly those whose work has been neglected, misunderstood, or obscured by popular media and culture. video.lumiere.net.nz
FIRST PUBLISHED ONLINE NOVEMBER 5, 2015.
Produced by Lumière Industries in association with NZ On Air.
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Written and Directed by Tim Wong
Produced by Melinda Jackson
Narrated by Eleanor Catton
Director of Photography: Daniel Rose
Additional stills: Andy Palmer
Editor: Peter O’Donoghue
Music composed and performed by Svenda Ström
Produced, engineered and performed by Jason Erskine
Narration and sound mix by Big Pop Studios
Script advisors: Alexander Bisley, Doug Dillaman, Brannavan Gnanalingam
Legal: Steven Price, Mick Sinclair
Publicist: Rebecca McMillian
Series Producer: Tim Wong
Supported by: Aro Video, NZ On Screen
Film clips supplied by: Images & Sound, Archives New Zealand, Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision
SPECIAL THANKS
Andrew Armitage at Aro Video; Kim Baker and Ian Pryor at NZ On Screen; Eve Chessmur and Glen Cleaver at Big Pop Studios; Jane Anderson at Images & Sound; Kate Larkindale at the New Zealand Film Commission; Emma Richardson and Jamie Lean at Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Tae Allison, Russell Campbell, Anna Dean, Claire Duncan, Jeff Hurrell, Hugh Macdonald, Luke McPake, Thomasin Sleigh, Tony Williams, Alex Mitcalfe Wilson; Wellington International Airport; Brenda Leeuwenberg at NZ On Air; Bill Gosden at the NZIFF; and all the artists and filmmakers without whom this production would not have been possible.
The Lumière Reader presents
in association with NZ On Air
“Out of the Mist”
© Lumière Industries 2015
