Kiwi 'Dossing' Film Wins Uk Award

Kiwi 'Dossing' Film Wins Uk Award

Waikato University film and television studies graduate Haydn Butler has won both the Best Film Award and the Audience Award, receiving 500 pounds and an African safari, in the 2003 UpOverDownUnder Antipodean Film Festival in the UK.

Former Kawerau resident Haydn (28), who's currently working as a programming and on-air presentation executive for Playboy TV in London, chose Antipodean "dossing" culture as the subject of his short film Fresh. Dossing involves young kiwis and Australians living in often crowded flats to overcome accommodation shortages and to save money.

The lead actor in the movie was English and perfected his kiwi accent by listening to Peter Jackson speaking in Lord of the Rings documentaries. "Dossing is something that every young Aussie or kiwi doing their OE in London usually has to come to grips with," says Haydn. "Usually it involves staying at a friend of a friend's house or on your cousin's couch for a week or two, which usually rolls into half a year because you've got nowhere else to go."

With three bedroom flats housing up to 15 people at a time, Haydn says a whole culture has developed around dossing, with rules to be obeyed, work rosters to be adhered to and money changing hands.

"The main aspect I alluded to in the film was the strict hierarchy that exists in such flatting situations. When you're a dosser you generally don't have much say. But there are also different levels of being a dosser, with different levels of say based on length of stay and other factors."

During his nine months of dossing, Haydn says his main line of work was appearing as an extra in police line-ups.

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