When estranged son, Tai, is called home to Aotearoa to his father Putty's deathbed, he is forced to confront a painful past after years of avoiding it. Once inseparable, Tai and Putty would spend hours together fishing and joking around. However, after a family secret is revealed, their relationship falls apart.

A tragic portrait of mother and child exploring grief through music and lyrical imagery.

In a Maori settlement, Ngati Toa leader Te Rauparaha composes the famous chant "Ka Mate", also known as the haka, after evading enemy capture by hiding in a kumara pit.

The Film Festival has a bug. The bug is called Decaff. He is short and has an even shorter fuse. He lives in a cinema world and has adventures in all genres. Decaff is the bad-tempered little knot we all have inside us - he does what you wish you could but never would!

Henry Waghorn and his father Henry Waghorn Senior run a circus of performing chickens, however the chickens’ real value may be more to do with taste than performance. An offer from Theo Theodolite to join him in a fried chicken outlet has little attraction for the Waghorn family. However Thoe’s daughter Wilga sees a different side to Henry and his training skills and their relationship might have flourished if Henry Senior hadn’t had an unfortunate accident. Finally the truth of the accident is discovered and the explosive finale sheds new light on the need for better-trained chickens.

France makes the most desired, revered and expensive wines in the world. They’ve had centuries to hone their craft. If you make fine wine, France is the benchmark. Or are they? One country famous for punching above its weight is taking on the aristocracy. This is a story featuring the World's most renowned winemakers, critics, writers and fine wine merchants. Travelling from the Old World to the New World we explore the history, culture and tension in the changing world of fine wine, answering that one question - has New Zealand earned a seat at the table?

A social commentary watching the lives of five 15 & 16 year olds as each “slice of their life” is revealed on the hour from 12 midnight until 5am.

An animated homage to some surprising lesbian icons. Eve embarks on a journey beyond the garden gates; the Virgin, Venus and Mona Lisa are waiting.

Celebrated Chinese couturier Guo Pei is perhaps best known for designing the brilliant gold gown Rihanna wore to the Met Ball in 2015. But Guo’s quest to be recognized by the gatekeepers of Paris haute couture goes beyond the red carpet and taps into global power dynamics and the perpetual tension between art and commerce.

On the eve of departing overseas Ellen makes the fateful decision to gift her boyfriend a new girlfriend.

On November 18 1982, a 22-year old Aucklander, Neil Roberts, daubed a washroom wall with the graffiti slogan: ‘WE HAVE MAINTAINED A SILENCE CLOSELY RESEMBLING STUPIDITY’. He then placed a bomb outside the State Security Computer Centre at Whanganui where files are kept on all citizens. The bomb blew him to pieces.

Seven New Zealand women speak about their lives during World War II: some lost husbands, some got married, some went into service themselves. The director lets the women tell their stories simply, alternating between them talking and archival footage of the war years.

Margaret remembers her childhood and marriage.

A short thriller about the murder, and its aftermath, of a young girl.

A psychologist with unconventional methods challenges a psychiatric hospital and win the admiration and love

of a doctor, but he pulls back due to finding that he has only a short time to live. He achieves mixed results with his patients, but ultimately achieves a measure of love and recognition.

Pepe is the son of a successful Samoan businessman, who rejects his father's world and his Christianity. Although he becomes rebellious, anti-social and engages in criminal activity, as well as being expelled from school, he manages to establish himself in business. However, when he gets his girlfriend pregnant, he takes on the responsibilities of a family. Through his close association with half-cast dwarf, Tagata, he enters the supernatural realm of his traditional ways and begins to find some peace and meaning to his life.

One morning, as kids are stealing apples from an old man’s orchard high above a seaside town, an earthquake hits. No one is hurt, and the townsfolk are non-plussed, but the old man is agitated: he alone is aware of the imminent tsunami and tries to warn the village. Based on a classic Japanese fable, The Orchard was made by one-man band Bob Stenhouse, who had been nominated for an Academy Award the previous decade for pioneer tale The Frog, The Dog and The Devil. Fans of the animator will recognise his lush, luminous hand-drawn style.

A digitally engineered life form struggles with a belligerant operating system. In a skewed look at human/computer relations a belligerent digital light blinds our hero into desperate measures. The only way to stop the incomprehensible blinding pain is to opt for physical disablement. Meticulously hand-made on Silicon Graphics computers and Alias-Wavefront software.

On the eve of Chinese New Year, Steven, a closeted Chinese international student living in New Zealand oppressed by the expectations of his parents, plans to lose his virginity to a stranger that he meets online.

Len Lye (1901-1980) was a pioneer of experimental animation, and also of kinetic sculpture. This short film dramatically presents 18 minutes inside the head of the artist as a teenager. The opening scenes are set in New Zealand in the year 1917, on the day when Lye (setting out on his bicycle to deliver newspapers) makes his excited discovery that motion can be the basis for a radically new approach to art.