The Face of Time - POV - Aarhus Universitet

A Danish Journal of Film Studies 109
you have any way of accounting for the innovative quality of New Zealand
short films?
I don't know. I guess it's partly the funding structure, which has
been very supportive of short films in a way that just isn't possible
here. If you're trying to make a short film here, you have to do it
with your own money, pretty much. And there's no way of showing
it. Whereas in New Zealand... Actually, it's a combination of things.
There were a group of us back in the late ’80s, who were making
short films, and we lobbied together to create the short film fund.
We were there at the inception of this fund. Also a group of us,
including Gregor Nicholas, we were organizing our own screenings
of short films, and advertising them and plastering the city with
posters. And finding that there was a really big audience for them.
But we sort of created it ourselves. That's a factor. And sometimes I
think it has to do with the isolation that in some ways allows a space
for originality, that you don't feel overwhelmed with the competi-
tion, the weight of all those other filmmakers out there or influences.
You just feel a little bit removed.
And there have also been a few really important directors, like
Vincent Ward and Jane Campion, who have been very inspiring to
me and to many other filmmakers, because they have succeeded in
making very strong, singular films that are uncompromising and
that have at the same time been very successful internationally. So
that sort of gives you confidence or courage that you could do that
too.
Jane Campion I know but who is Vincent Ward?
He's really extraordinary. His features are Vigil, The Navigator, then
he made Map of the Human Heart. He made a number of shorter films