If anyone wants a copy …
My friend Tony made this movie at the time of the 1996 General Election in New Zealand. He had no funding, so didn’t wind up getting backing to finish it until just before the 1999 election, so it’s 5-8 years old, now depending on how you look at it.
Basically he decided to cover the election ‘War Room’ style. He picked what turned out to be the most fascinating electoral contest of that election, the contest for our home electorate Wellington Central. Partly thanks to the newly introduced Proportional Representation system of MMP, and the formation of some new parties, there was a fascinating slate of candidates to choose from, and Tony got permission to go behind the scenes with all but one of the candidates. Strategic votings, close pollings and just the beautiful capturing of the candidates’ personalities make for some wonderful drama in this documentary. My favourite bits were watching Mark Thomas squirm when asked by Tony “what’s this about someone trying to out you?”, and a quote “this is what it must have felt like for the Nazis at Nuremburg”.
Anyway, I was already in Taiwan when this movie came out so I missed it. Tony won some awards for it back home. Every time I’ve gone bback I’ve pestered him to put it on DVD and give me a copy. He finally sent me 6. I’d be happy to give or lend copies to anyone interested, particularly Kiwis who haven’t seen it yet.
Brian
