New Zealand Goes To Brazil

David Blyth, the New Zealand based international film director has been invited to this year's Fantaspoa film festival in Brazil (held in the most southern and European city Porto Alegre on the Atlantic coast), as not one but FOUR of his movies ('Angel Mine', 'Death Warmed Up', 'Bound For Pleasure' and 'Transfigured Nights' ) will be screened there. .

He has also been asked to conduct workshops at the festival with the Argentinean director Fernando Mantelli. But, David won't just be presiding over his past films at the festival, as he will also be talking about his new script outline called Wound, an original supernatural horror film. 'A supernatural daughter returns to haunt her birth mother exposing the monstrous family secrets,' is how David describes his new project (its shoot date will tentatively be early December depending on financing).

So, I was thrilled when I received a couple of freebie DVDs from him sent by FedEx, especially as they were two of his earlier films, namely: Death Warmed Up, and Angel Mine - the latter was so controversial upon its release, that Questions were asked about it in Parliament. (Read all about it on the The Listener article).

Death Warmed Up is notorious for being New Zealand's first horror film which was made before Peter Jackson's splatter comedy horror flicks. In fact, I met David a few years prior to Death Warmed Up's screening at the London Film Festival in 1984, during which members of the audience were vomiting in the aisles because back then, this unique comedy horror film was seen as visually shocking.

Both DVDs are available from David's site (click on David Blyth), as well as the rest of his movies, including Bound For Pleasure, and his latest release - Transfigured Nights, (which will also be screened during the eleven week "Sunday Night Out" festival on Triangle and Stratos Television in New Zealand from 26th July through to 4th October ).

But first, when David returns from Brazil, he will be editing his "French Connection" documentary (funded by the French NZ Friendship Fund) which concerns the 90th anniversary of the Liberation of Le Quesnoy in Northern France, in which his Grandfather played an important role. This illustrates that David is not a one movie genre director. So, it's all GO for David, but why does everything seem to always happen at once?