New Zealand teen eyes Green Oscars
24 Jun 2010
A New Zealand teenager, who grew up in a town without a cinema, has had her first big film break and is in the running for the world’s most prestigious environmental movie award.
Charlee Collins, now 18, made her movie The Big Break as a final year student at Kaitaia College, in the north of the North Island.
Now the three-and-a-half minute drama, which tackles the issue of climate change in a ‘Dear John’ style, teenage phone conversation, is a finalist in the Green Oscars or Panda Awards - the wildlife and environmental equivalent of the Oscars.
The movie is one of three New Zealand-made films to be selected as finalists.
The Break Up
The Panda Awards are sponsored by the BBC and held in Bristol every two years and Collins’ movie, was one of four named in the judges' special selection category.
The Bristol selection means it will now be eligible for the final jury's choice award at October's Wildscreen Festival.
The Break Up is the shortest film on the programme and was chosen out of entries from 45 countries, including works produced for Discovery Channel and National Geographic.
The movie, which started life as a back-up idea, features five teenagers engaged in a telephone conversation "breaking up" with the things they do that are bad for the environment.
It was put forward for a Panda Award after winning New Zealand’s 'Outlook for Someday' sustainability film challenge.
Movie addict
Collins, a movie addict, says she got around the fact that there was no cinema in her home town of Kaitaia by becoming a video store regular.
"But we were also surrounded by so many beautiful beaches and bush. Places like that show us how much we have to lose," she said.
For the first half of 2010 Collins has been majoring in film for a BA at Victoria University in Wellington, but next month will transfer to the New Zealand Film and Television School.
Judges of 'Outlook for Someday' told Collins she had a "great career in film ahead of her" and said her movie had shown "a natural flair for storytelling and film making".
Green Oscars
Two other New Zealand-made movies are also in contention for a Panda or Green Oscar.
Carving the Future directed by Guy Ryan and Nick Holmes, and Love in Cold Blood by Carla Braun-Elwert and Jane Adcroft, were both nominated for the BBC Newcomer Award. The four Kiwi film-makers are all students at Otago University’s film school.
Carving the Future is a short film that shows how one person might change the future, and aims to inspire tomorrow’s leaders to act today on the challenges posed by climate change and short-sighted management. Ryan and Holmes say grassroots, youth-driven community action inspired the film.
Love in Cold Blood is a love story that brings to life the retiring courtship of Mildred and Henry, two elderly tuatara reptiles that live in Southland Museum, Invercargill.
After years together, the tuatara couple finally decided to mate at the ripe old ages of 80 and 111, and directors Braun-Elwert and Adcroft say their film highlights the importance of the reptiles’ partnership - not just for the passionate and dedicated people who care for them, but also for the survival of the rare, iconic species.
Love in Cold Blood won Best New Zealand Film and Best New NZ Emerging Talent at the 2010 Reel Earth Environmental Film Festival, held in Palmerston North last month.
More information:
The story of Henry and Mildred
New Zealand film industry successes
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