Celebrated Kiwi film comes home

PRESS RELEASE 30 June, 2011

Celebrated Kiwi film comes home

The Mental Health Foundation is proud to announce that ‘The Colonel’s Outing’ is to have its New Zealand premiere at the Rialto Cinemas in Newmarket, Auckland next month as part of the Film Talk series.

Made with financial support from the Mental Health Foundation, the film has screened at the Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival in the United States and the Torino LGBT Film Festival in Italy and has been described as “a gentle and tender tale which includes complexities which make its length of just less than 17 minutes seem almost inconceivable.”

“The Mental Health Foundation supports every person’s right to be true to their cultural and sexual identity” says Judi Clements, Chief Executive of the Mental Health Foundation. “The negative effects of being marginalised, discriminated against or being forced into secrecy on an individual’s wellbeing and mental health are profound, particularly for young people.”

The heart-warming and bittersweet tale took several years to reach the screen. Despite a strong script, based on an internationally-published short story by local author Steve Attwood, the film was rejected by local funding bodies and seemed doomed to sit on a shelf forever until the Mental Health Foundation came onboard as the primary sponsor.

“This film could not have been made without the financial support of the Mental Health Foundation,” says director Christopher Banks. “We are immensely grateful to the team at the Mental Health Foundation who saw the value in this story being told.”

“The film has been programmed in over twenty festivals so far in a few short months, including some major screenings in Toronto, San Francisco, and Italy where we won a special jury mention,” says producer Andy Jalfon. “We’re really grateful to the support of the Rialto Cinemas in assisting us to bring our film home for local audiences to enjoy as part of their Film Talk series in July”

In addition to the film itself, the 70-minute premiere event will contain behind-the-scenes clips from the making of The Colonel’s Outing interspersed with a cast and filmmakers Q&A, an opportunity to discuss some of the issues raised by the film and the challenges involved with bringing this story to the screen.

An Evening with The Colonel’s Outing Thursday 14 July 7pm Rialto Cinemas, 167-169 Broadway, Newmarket, Auckland

Tickets are available to purchase online from the Rialto Cinemas website: http://tiny.cc/g7act

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