NZ Festival Doco The Last Resort releases on DVD

NZ Festival Doco The Last Resort releases on DVD

Wellington, July 9th 2007

After spending the last year touring big screens around the country since it's Film Festival premiere, the local feature documentary The Last Resort is now available on DVD.

This emotive and informative independently made film takes a panoramic snapshot of current land and business ownership issues in Aotearoa/New Zealand.

The sale of the iconic Blue Bay camping ground in Mahia for a multimillion-dollar coastal subdivision and subsequent occupation of the land by local iwi unfolds in parallel to the passing of the Overseas Investment Bill in Parliament.

Interviews featuring Moana Jackson, Murray Horton, Roger Kerr and the late Rod Donald provide insight into such nationally-burning issues as coastal development, home ownership, foreign investment, conservation and the foreshore and seabed dispute.

With music by Trinity Roots, Linn Lorkin and Fred Dagg, The Last Resort is a rich exploration of our identity and the place we call home.

Extras include the trailer, directors' commentary by the filmmaking duo Errol Wright and Abi King-Jones and a raft of interview excerpts.

DVDs will be available from the 9th of July at www.cutcutcut.com

"Best Films of 2006 - Dominion Post"

(4 Stars) "Thought-provoking and poignant" Mark Orton, Otago Daily Times

(4 Stars) "Moving and disturbing in equal measures" Margaret Agnew, The Press

(4 Stars) "A subtle but fiercely angry film" Graeme Tuckett, The Dominion Post/Radio NZ

"Of all the documentaries made in recent years in NZ, this is the most important" Alister Barry

The Last Resort is the second documentary feature from Errol Wright and Abi King-Jones.

Partially funded through Creative New Zealand's Screen Innovation Production Fund, shooting began in August 2004 - taking the filmmakers around the country before finishing shooting in December 2005. The film took 6 months to edit and premiered at the New Zealand International Film Festivals in July 2006 and was the most extensively screened local film for that years festival. Since then the film has been exhibited in numerous regions, events and festivals over the past 10 months.

As was the case with their first documentary feature, Te Whanau o Aotearoa - Caretakers of the Land, filming on mini DV allowed for a lightweight, mobile and unobtrusive on-location shoot.

The story of the closure of the Blue Bay motorcamp in Opoutama, Mahia, and subsequent occupation by tangata whenua, who have a Waitangi claim on the land being developed into a multi-million dollar subdivision, provides the backdrop for intersecting formal interviews and related national events.

The Overseas Investment Bill is followed through parliamentary process - from the select committee where public submissions are made, to the in-house debate and final passing of the legislation by vote.

Other significant meetings and events featured include a Green Party/CAFCA (Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa/New Zealand) organised Hawkes Bay meeting about foreign investment, the 2005 election year Labour Party conference, the Roger Award for the worst trans-national corporations operating in New Zealand, the Blue Bay Resort development/Wairoa District Council consent hearing and the Foreshore and Seabed hikoi to Parliament in 2004.

One tragic note is the inclusion of some of the last footage ever taken of the late Green Party co-leader Rod Donald, who was interviewed just months before his sudden passing.

Trailer, filmmaker bio's, synopsis and full reviews online at: www.cutcutcut.com

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