Hawke's Bay To Berlin – This Way Of Life (P.IV)

This Way of Life is that rare thing – a truly quintessential Kiwi film. Shot over four years with no budget, the film follows the lives of Peter and Colleen Karena as they raise their six children on the thin edge between freedom and disaster.

The film has been selected to screen in competition at the Berlin International Film Festival, one of the top five festivals in the world.

Follow the filmmakers as they blog their journey from Hawke's Bay to Berlin.

Image: Cloud South Films.

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Part 4: Havishamian splendor

The 52 minute cut down is complete, even the new sound mix is done.

Now it’s time to pack our bags and head into deep winter. And right when I should be fizzing with the prospect of turning on the camera again to shoot our next doc and happily mixing and matching my outfits from some of NZ best designers in preparation for the snowy Red Carpets of Berlin (thank you to Jaimie, Barbara Lee, Andrea Moore, Kumfs and Girlsblouse to name a few who have helped me prepare for Berlin) I have to admit to a major reluctance.

Perhaps it’s just sadness at leaving New Zealand in a full-blown and beautiful summer but more likely it’s the reality of the work ahead. Suddenly I’m not so sure why we decided to stop over in London – on our way to Berlin - and shoot a new doco.

‘Artist in Residence - Yolanda’s Portrait’ is a film about women and art and the sacrifices and consequences of choosing art over everything.

It will be filmed inside a single house. Sure, it’s the last unrenovated house in the poshest suburb of London: a house of Havishamian splendor where artist Yolanda Sonnabend inhabits an ever diminishing space, surrounded by over a half century of paintings, sculpture, stacks of frames, sumptuous fabrics, books, archeologia and the ephemera's of her frenzied imagination, but the contrast to the wide open beaches and isolated mountain ranges of This Way of Life could not be greater.

At least Tom does not have to ride a horse along a percipitious mountaintop in a howling gale just to get the perfect shot.

For more, See:
The Blog: This Way Of Life Goes To Berlin
The Trailer: This Way Of Life (official site)
Filmmaker's Site: Cloud South Films

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