Fantasy Short Tackling Domestic Violence to Shoot in April

Fantasy Short Tackling Domestic Violence to Shoot in April

Wellington, NZ - 21 February, 2012 - Pre-production has now commenced on Broken Glass, an independently financed short film about bullying and domestic violence.

Broken Glass follows Max Petersen, a young boy being bullied at school and with an abusive father at home.

One day when playing alone in the woods, he encounters a mysterious creature that soon changes his life forever.

The film has received the endorsement of Shine; New Zealand’s largest domestic abuse charity organisation and Jigsaw; a network of 42 child and family protection organisations around the country.

Written and directed by award-winning filmmaker Chaz Harris (101 Dates/The Shoe Box), after writing the script in June last year Harris was alarmed to learn the statistics surrounding domestic violence in New Zealand. Based on a UN Women report released last July, the study found that a third of New Zealand women reported experiencing physical violence from a partner between 2000-2010 making it the worst affected country of the 14 responses.

“I had no idea quite how big the issue was here until I did the research because it's not something people really talk about.

The story deals with these issues from a child’s point of view in the context of a modern day fantasy tale and if we can create more conversation about it then that can only be a good thing.

Once Shine and Jigsaw gave us their endorsement, knowing that those in the sector believe in and support it gave us the confidence to go ahead and make it happen”, Harris says. To date, the filmmakers have raised 70% of the funds required to shoot the film and are now using New Zealand’s first crowdfunding platform PledgeMe to raise enough for the film to officially be greenlit. More information can be found on the film’s PledgeMe page here: https://www.pledgeme.co.nz/Crowd/Details/71

The filmmakers plan to enter the finished film into festivals and use it as a proof-of-concept to pitch a planned fantasy feature film based on the same mythology as the short to overseas studios and investors. The confirmed cast for the film includes: Rhys Jennings, Rachel Roberts, Nathan Green, Fiona Sutherland, Chris Buckham, Joseph Demetriou, Landen Hale-Brown and Nick Blake (District 9/The Hobbit/Home by Christmas/The Killian Curse). Filming will commence in Wellington in mid-April.
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