Directing
The larger-than-life story of Kim Dotcom, the 'most wanted man online', is extraordinary enough, but the battle between Dotcom and the US Government and entertainment industry—being fought in New Zealand—is one that goes to the heart of ownership, privacy and piracy in the digital age.
In 1999, the largely conservative Wairarapa district in New Zealand elected a former cabaret performer/actress named Georgina Beyer to the country's House of Parliament -- a seemingly unremarkable event in that country's history except for the fact that Beyer is a transsexual and may very well be the first transsexual in the world to be elected to a national office. In their 2002 biographical documentary Georgie Girl, co-directors Peter Wells and Annie Goldson highlight the popular Member of Parliament's rapid rise through local government to prominence in the New Zealand national government.
Wake compares colonial paintings of New Zealand intended to encourage migration to the colonies in the 1850s, with filmed images of the same country 100 years later, shot by the filmmaker's father. This experimental film compares the vision of a "promised land" with the lived memory of migration and explores too, the misrepresentation of indigenous people during both these eras. The half-hour experimental film is a response to the death of the filmmaker's father, an event that ultimately led to her return to New Zealand after a decade in America.
The brutal murder of John Scott, Head of Fiji’s Red Cross, and his gay partner is still clouded in rumour and political mystery. In a country that has become increasingly fundamentalist, many regarded the couple with hostility. Allegations of drug use, pornography and rent boys circled. Shortly before his death, Scott came to international acclaim helping hostages during the 2000 coup. Was his murder a political assassination; the result of a soured love affair or an act of insanity? This award winning documentary uses the murders to examine Fiji’s history over the past 50 years. Narrated by Scott’s brother, it’s a moving tale of colonial privilege, evangelical Christianity and a country still deeply divided.
New Zealand’s own mid-century anti-Communist witch hunt which reenacts the fate of Cecil Holmes, a filmmaker at the National Film Unit, who was fired because he was a member of the Communist Party.
Drawing on extensive archival material, Annie Goldson has pulled together a raucous and entertaining portrait of the radical and boundary-pushing New Zealand theatre troupe Red Mole.
From Doc Edge Superhero (2023), director Annie Goldson's film centres on life and work at a secret pet shelter, allowing victims of family violence to seek safety while knowing their animals are being cared for.
Brother Number One is a New Zealand documentary on the torture and murder of New Zealand yachtie Kerry Hamill by the Khmer Rouge in 1978. It follows the journey of Kerry's younger brother, Rob Hamill, an Olympic and Trans-Atlantic champion rower, who travels to Cambodia to retrace the steps taken by his brother and John Dewhirst, speaking to eyewitnesses, perpetrators and survivors.
Twenty eight years after featuring in landmark feminist documentary series Women, five interviewees reveal how their lives have changed. Donna Awatere Huata, Miriam Cameron, Sandi Hall, Aloma Parker and Marcia Russell candidly discuss work, sex, the media and Māori in this 70 minute documentary. Artist Cameron recalls how feminists were seen in the 1970s: "she was a braless, hairy, fat hag". Journalist Russell remembers not being allowed to work past 11pm because she was a woman, while psychologist Parker felt liberated by feminist Germaine Greer's refusal to wear a bra.
The story of New Zealander Helen Todd's law suit against an Indonesian general that she pursued after her son, Kamal, was shot dead in the Dili massacre in East Timor.
Annie Goldson and Kay Ellmers’ doco, expanded from the film they made for Maori Television, takes a timely look at New Zealand’s military and media, notably journalist Jon Stephenson, in Afghanistan.
