Reel Earth Film Festival

The 'Unnatural History of the Kakapo' has received a Jury Nomination for International Feature and NZ Feature at the Reel Earth Film Festival. I'm chuffed to bits and luckily I get back from Montana just in time to head up to Palmerston North for the opening night. Reel Earth gets bigger every year and after chatting with Warren the festival director this morning it sounds like this year's event will be awesome. The festival schedule has a full list of what's on and when.

Montana here we come

Yesterday I had a phone call from the New Zealand Film Commission. An application for post production funding had been approved. It's a great help in getting the DVDs finished off but whats even more exciting is it means ELWIN Productions gets to mix and mingle with some natural history giants at the International Wildlife Film Festival.

A Quick Update

Since the last post a lot has happened. The Kakapo film won Best NZ Director, Best NZ Sound, Best NZ Cinematography and Best NZ Feature at the DOC Edge Film Festival. It's been selected for the Reel Earth Environmental Film Festival in Palmerston North next month and on Friday we found out that it has also won a merit award for human-wildlife interaction at the International Wildlife Film Festival in Missoula, Montana. This is one of the biggest wildlife film festivals in the world. At the moment we are trying to find funds to head to Montana. Here's the link for the festival schedule. It really is an opportunity to good to miss.

The Film Release

The Unnatural History of the Kakapo is finished. It's been selected at the DOC NZ festival and will be screening in Auckland and Wellington during Feb and March. The film also has a facebook page and there are clips on you tube too. Facebook will also have a few extras on it and it will keep everyone up to date with screening times and locations. The Kakapo page on this site will be updated shortly and you will be able to buy the DVD through elwin.co.nz from late Feb. We are also hoping to have a premiere in Dunedin in the not too distant future.

Dhow Time

For someone like me who gets sea sick if he sits in the bath too long, the prospect of a sailing trip in the Persian Gulf gave me mixed feelings but I thought I could cope with a short excursion. We were on board a dhow, a traditional arab yacht, made entirely of wood, bamboo and rope. It was an awesome piece of work. The test drive round the harbor was a chance for the camera crew to see how it worked and what it did before we set sail next week to film pearl diving from it. I have to say our Qatari sailors soon had the sails set and with the gentle breeze and the sun setting behind us, it wasn’t an entirely unpleasant experience.