Vincent Ward's highly acclaimed new feature film, Rain of the Children, opens in cinemas nationwide just days after Auckland Film Society screens his award-winning documentary, In Spring One Plants Alone.

In Spring One Plants Alone screens at Auckland Film Society as part of Made in New Zealand, a 3-programme mini-season of New Zealand films, which includes Te Rua by Barry Barclay and Kiwi Jokers, a programme of NZ short comedies. Vincent Ward's highly acclaimed new feature film, Rain of the Children, opens in cinemas nationwide just days after Auckland Film Society screens his award-winning documentary, In Spring One Plants Alone.

In Spring One Plants Alone screens at Auckland Film Society as part of Made in New Zealand, a 3-programme mini-season of New Zealand films, which includes Te Rua by Barry Barclay and Kiwi Jokers, a programme of NZ short comedies.People can buy an AFS 2008 card membership and see all three NZ film programmes for just $30. In Spring One Plants Alone is also open to the public: all tickets $12.

In Spring One Plants Alone screens with A State of Siege at Auckland Film Society, Monday 15 September, 6.30 pm at the Academy Cinema, 44 Lorne St, Auckland Central.

Rain of the Children opens in cinemas nationwide from Thursday 18 September.

"Vincent Ward's deeply personal and incredibly moving film unravels and re-imagines the story of Puhi, the Tuhoe woman he documented in 1978 for his early film, In Spring One Plants Alone. Then she was 80 and caring for her adult son, and Ward was 21, a young art student capturing her traditional way of life... Puhi believed herself to be cursed and this unknowable curse is what preoccupies Ward now.

"Puhi, he discovers, was an extraordinary woman. Chosen by Tuhoe prophet Rua Kenana to marry his son, she survived the 1916 police raid on Rua's Maungapohatu community and went on to have 14 children. Cutting between early footage, his own to-camera narration, contemporary interviews with Tuhoe descendents, and magnificently recreated historical sequences (featuring Rena Owen as the older Puhi among a superb cast of Maori actors), Ward reveals both the heartrending background of Puhi's belief in the curse, and her lasting power over him." -- Clare Stewart, Sydney Film Festival

Still: In Spring One Plants Alone

Auckland Film Society

04/09/08