NZ On Screen Launches The 48Hours Collection

NZ On Screen celebrates 20 years of Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest guerrilla filmmaking competition, with the launch of The 48Hours Collection.

Spanning two decades of fast and furious filmmaking, the collection gathers up all the winning films, and shines a spotlight on some of the organisers’ faves. You’ll find entries from absolute beginners alongside significant screen names — many in the collection have cut their teeth in the competition and gone on to direct major TV projects and feature films. There are also memories from some of the competitors included, plus backgrounders from competition founder Ant Timpson, and co-managers Ruth Korver and Ness Patea, as well as 48Hours super fan Dave Brough.

Producer, director and film distributor Ant Timpson, who introduced the 48Hours concept to New Zealand in 2003, explains the nuts and bolts of the competition; ”Filmmakers have just one weekend (48 hours natch) to make an entire short film. Well, maybe not that simple, as each team doesn’t know what genre they’re getting (thriller, romance, comedy, etc.) until the start of the competition. All of the creativity — writing, shooting, editing and adding a soundtrack — occurs within a 48-hour window, which begins on Friday evening at 7pm, and ends Sunday at 7pm. To add to the mayhem, they must also include some random elements. In previous years these elements have included a specific prop, character, line of dialogue, or camera move.”

48Hours veteran Taika Waititi, who has participated in multiple competition entries over the years — including the 2004 Wellington regional winner Heinous Crime — explains the allure of competing; “You never have that amount of fun and freedom in any other filmmaking environment...it is really good for creativity. You need to embrace the chance to take risks and make huge mistakes. It’s one of the only times, as a filmmaker, that you’ll get to screw things up and not get fired or have your career ended...I think it’s a great tool for people who want to let loose for the weekend.”

A variety of madcap short films await, covering a multitude of genres. There are inept cops on the trail of a music-related murder in the 2003 winning film Special Crimes Unit, directed by Housebound’s Gerard Johnstone. Johnny Barker (Shortland Street) directs and stars in Lease, a musical set in a sub-par Grey Lynn flat, and a dead father gives unwelcome dating advice to his courting son in Only Son, starring Josh Thomson (7 Days). There’s ‘cringe comedy’ in A Familiar Feeling, competitive finger dancing in F*Dance, and ‘chumping’ is the name of the game in The Child Jumpers. There are also touching takes on real life experiences in Charlotte and Under the Bridge. But that is certainly not all!

The 48Hours Collection is available to view now with 27 shorts to enjoy. Click here for the full list of titles. Want to experience this year's Vista Foundation 48Hours Grand Final in the flesh? Head along to the big event at Auckland’s Civic on Friday 18 November. Tickets available now from Ticketmaster.

NZ On Screen is Aotearoa New Zealand’s screen-culture showcase, with more than 4,500 free-to-view titles from the beginning of the screen industry to the present day. Find us at www.nzonscreen.com.

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