Film Waimate Conspiracy to open at Waimate Regent

Kiwi film “The Waimate Conspiracy” opens at the Waimate Regent October 17

It’s been a long road to Waimate for “The Waimate Conspiracy” but at last the people of this small South Island town will witness the result of the camera crew that took over their hamlet two years ago.

Already seen this year at the New Zealand International Film Festival and the Pacifika New York Hawaiian Film Festival and selected to play the Wairoa Maori Film Festival later this year, the film is being hailed as a telling insight into race relations and the treaty in New Zealand’s social fabric.

The film tells the story of a town divided by history and coming to terms with the need to settle a 139 year old land claim.

Acclaimed film maker Barry Barclay says of “The Waimate Conspiracy”, “This is an inspiring work. It’s as if the camera left the film set for a bit and came out amongst us. That’s exactly what we were seeking to achieve with “Ngati”.”

The people of Waimate are expected out in droves for this gala screening. A town parade precedes the October 17 8pm screening and celebrations of the town’s first feature film will be many. For the first time in New Zealand “The Waimate Conspiracy” will screen at the Regent Waimate using a new 1.3k Digital Projection System from Texas Instruments Company’s Digital Projection Inc. This digital light projector will be beaming the most powerful digital image onto the big screen at Waimate currently available in New Zealand. It heralds the next generation in digital cinema projectors with picture quality simply unheralded to date in kiwi digital cinemas.

“The Waimate Conspiracy” will go on to be seen in the best arthouse and mainstream cinemas nationally.

50 Years of Movies at the Waimate Regent Theatre When you step into The Waimate Regent Theatre you step back in time to the golden age of movie theatres. The Theatre was opened in November 1956 by movie chain operators Kerridge Odeon, the town’s first purpose built movie theatre. The movie theatre was operated by Kerridge Odeon up to 1982. A forward thinking group of individuals got together and formed the Waimate Regent Theatre Trust. They worked in with the community and local council and combined their resources to purchase the Theatre. Since the Trust’s acquisition they have added a stage with back stage redevelopment, an Annex, upgraded the Oasis, installed a new sound system for live performances, re-roofed and re-carpeted the theatre. Fortunately for the town the Trust continues to operated the theatre running movies on a regular basis, hosting a range of shows and entertainers and organising the ever popular variety concerts. What many do not realise is that most of this work is done by a dedicated group of volunteers who have a passion for this wonderful asset. The Trust is delighted to include the Gala night screening of “The Waimate Conspiracy” as past of the theatre’s 50 years Celebrations.

Stefen Lewis, Dark Horse Productions and “The Waimate Conspiracy” Author Stefen Lewis turned to film Production and directing for the sole purpose of bringing his critically acclaimed 1999 novel “The Waikikamukau Conspiracy” to the screen. At the time of publication there was a great deal of film interest but none of the 'would be' producers could raise $1.2 million production funding. As a result Stefen's mom and pop family firm Dark Horse Productions was formed. Stefen learned everything he knows about film from helping out on other peoples short films including NZFC funded “A Quiet Night” which he wrote and the independent short, “Perception” which he wrote and Produced. "It's just been Monkey see... Monkey do really", says Stefen.

Dark Horse Productions is in early pre-production of “The Hydrosnipe”, an environmental thriller set in the small South Island town of Port Lawrence. Starring Jim Moriarty, Helen Pearse-Otene, Janice Gray, Mark Hadlow and David McPhail “The Hydrosnipe” tells the story of 90 year old Rex Devlin who has been secretly building a water propelled 1966 Humber Super Snipe. Rex dies in suspicious circumstances and the car is discovered the same day a stranger arrives in town.

About Tagnz www.tagnz.co.nz Technical Audio Group NZ Ltd is the exclusive New Zealand distributor of Digital Projection, an Emmy Award wining UK based designer and manufacturer of leading edge d-cinema projection systems. Renowned suppliers of d-cinema projectors for large theatres, film festivals & exclusive private home theatre's, Digital Projection produce some of the most film like images using ultra high performance 3-chip DLP technology. These projectors are the reference standard for Digital Cinema into the future and TAGNZ is proud to be leading the field in the new age of Digital Cinema.

ENDS

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