David Farrier’s Documentary ‘Tickled’ to Get Sundance Premiere

David Farrier’s Documentary ‘Tickled’ to Get Sundance Premiere

Kiwi documentary Tickled will receive its worldwide premiere in the World Documentary Competition of the prestigious Sundance Film Festival in January.

Probing into the bizarre world of Competitive Endurance Tickling, Tickled follows journalist David Farrier as tries to understand this strange and secretive world. Facing fierce resistance on his quest for answers, David and his team take their questions to the USA in attempt to get to the bottom of a story stranger than fiction.

“Out of the all the stories I've done it is by far the biggest - and definitely the strangest,” says Farrier. "Sundance is the dream festival for this film - I’ve watched so many great Sundance films as a journalist and can’t believe we’re taking Tickledthere. On top of that Robert Redford is there every year as the founder of Sundance. My mum is freaking out - she loves Robert Redford."

Tickled has already drawn attention from all corners of the world including international comedian Stephen Fry.

“When I first heard about Tickled I was intrigued by the idea of tickling being, perhaps, a competitive sport,” says Fry. “But then to discover that the film is about something much more. It’s a suspense movie - and quite heart-in-mouth.”

Co-Director Dylan Reeve joined Farrier to investigate the strange origins of Competitive Tickling as soon as he learned of the bizarre story.

“When I saw the weird messages David was getting from the organisers of Competitive Endurance Tickling I knew there was something crazy going on,” says Reeve. “Once we started digging a bit deeper I could see it was a story we needed to tell, and a documentary seemed like the best way.”

The film’s producer, Carthew Neal, will also be taking Taika Waititi’s adventure comedy Hunt for the Wilderpeople to the 2016 Sundance Festival.

“It’s incredible to have two very different films premiering at such a prestigious festival and a privilege to work alongside such talented New Zealand filmmakers.” says Neal.

The film was financed by the New Zealand Film Commission and MPI Media Group. North American Sales are handled by Submarine and Rest of World by MPI. The film has pre-sold to Vendetta Films in Australia and New Zealand.

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