From Hawke's Bay To Berlin – This Way Of Life

This Way of Life is that rare thing – a truly quintessential Kiwi film. Shot over four years with no budget, the film follows the lives of Peter and Colleen Karena as they raise their six children on the thin edge between freedom and disaster.

The film has been selected to screen in competition at the Berlin International Film Festival, one of the top five festivals in the world.

Follow the filmmakers as they blog their journey from Hawke's Bay to Berlin.

Image: Cloud South Films.

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Part I: Our original intention in making This Way of Life was, as classic documentarians, to observe the Karena family. To create a simple document of their compelling way of life. As our involvement deepened, so our perspective shifted. We were no longer observing, we were and are participating in each other’s lives.

As documentary filmmakers this is most challenging. There is an expectation of clinical purity in documentary. That there is an absolute truth and if the filmmaker can just find a position of sufficient altitude to both observe intimately and yet not be observed, they will capture that truth.

It’s rubbish of course. Truth is inherently paradoxical. Truth is a whimsical poetry. No complex life situation can be explained in an hour or two of screen time. The only hope of achieving something akin to honesty is to pose the questions everyone is thinking, make observations, and pass no judgement.

Perhaps that’s why earlier peoples shunned cameras. Not because they feared the capture of their souls but the opposite; they sensed their true selves were too elusive to be translated by such a rigid medium.

For more, See:
The Blog: This Way Of Life Goes To Berlin
The Trailer: This Way Of Life (official site)
Filmmaker's Site: Cloud South Films

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