Feast upon this year’s Loading Docs selection featuring ten snack size local documentaries that you can watch in half an hour.
If you struggle at times to hold focus during a 10 second Snapchat – let alone a 59 minute Game of Thrones episode – your scatterbrain might be well-suited to the short, sharp wonders of Loading Docs. With this year’s selection centred around the theme of diversity, it’s an old old wooden ship of excellent local stories, each told in the time it would take you to make a bowl of two-minute noodles (it’s false advertising and we all know it).
For your Friday, here’s this year’s bounty of documentary treats all summed up in one snackable sentence.
The Coffin Club
“Face it: a funeral’s got to have soul”
For those terrified of death, allow the bespoke coffin crafters at The Coffin Club to sing out their philosophies on life, dying, and preparing to go out with a splash and whatever the funeral equivalent of a nail polish emoji is.
He Kākano Ahau – From the Spaces in Between
“It’s glittery, it’s fun, it’s fabulous. It feels empty.”
Beneath the technicolour buzz of Wellington’s Pride Festival, takatāpui (Māori LGBTQI) activist Kassie challenges the inclusion of queer Māori identity beyond being “just entertainment”.
Luckie Strike
“It’s the unknown that makes it exciting”
Without any of the scary bits of The Descent, follow jokey blokes Mike and Dave as they map their way through the mud into one of New Zealand’s most breathtaking caves.
Asian Men Talk About Sex
“The weirdest place I’ve had sex was a portaloo. I can’t say it was aromatic.”
A wide range of Asian men share their own hilarious sexual experiences, expose the casual racism in New Zealand dating scenes, and pick apart the stupid stereotypes that stupid society still holds.
Kotuku Rerenga Rua
“I was dead, but now I am alive”
In a celebration of life told entirely in te reo Māori, Kotuku Tibbles revives his health and spirit through renourishing his language and customs after being in a coma.
Surreal Estate
About as meta as it gets, artist John Radford plays both himself and moustachio’d Ron Jadford, a money-hungry real estate hell-bent on shifting his tiny, tiny, tiny houses.
Ajax the Kea Conservation Dog
“It does make you think: can we win this battle?”
Look, it’s a do-good dog helping to save one of New Zealand’s rarest and we don’t need to say anymore.
East Meets East
“When we see each other, we are always very happy”
Meet 79 year old Fang Ruzhen, as she lives her bloody best life shopping for groceries, chatting with friends on the bus and scouring the Chinese newspapers for bargains out East.
#LOSING
“Your heart looks like a vagina”
Cool poet Dominic Hoey aka Tourettes talks about battling an incurable autoimmune disease, and taking the story to the stage – chronic pain and all.
Union
“Nothing comes easy here”
Turns out, even if you don’t know the language of a new country, you’ll always find people who can speak rugby.