DocEdge International Documentary Film Festival

A quality selection of the best Documentary Films made in the past year will screen in a unique, DocEdge Film Festival scheduled in Alpine Village of Hanmer Springs next week.

The national Documentary organisation DocEdge in collaboration with the Hanmer Springs Hotel has approved the screening of nine award winning documentaries from Australia, United Kingdom, United States, Netherlands, NZ, France, & Hong Kong-China.

The DocEdge International Documentary Film Festival will open on Friday 15 November with a special screening from the Netherland’s about a five-day canoe journey on the sacred Whanganui River. The producer Petr Lom took three years to make this film.

The Whanganui River is the first river in the world to be recognised as a legal person, as a living adult indivisible being. Maori river guardian Ned Tapa invites a First Nations Elder from Australia & his daughter to join him. It’s a journey binding hearts & igniting change. The film is a positive urgent call to action for the rights of nature. It’s beautiful & powerful.

“Ko au te Awa, ko te Awa ko au, the River Flows from the Mountain to the Sea, I am the River & the River is Me” features superb scenery that is a magnet for Overseas tourists.

The iconic Ballroom in the Hanmer Springs Hotel has been turned into a Cinema for this three-day event. The ambiance of the Spanish Splendour architecture will be enhanced by an open fire, a large visual screen, comfortable couches, cushions, hospitality access.

DocEdge is a not-for-profit charitable trust serving as New Zealand’s national organisation since 2005. Next year is its 20th anniversary & already it has become well-established as the premiere Asia Pacific hub for documentary film & associated projects.

There are eight other new release films that residents & visitors to Hanmer can view over the Canterbury Anniversary Weekend. These include the wonderful life & artistry of the late sculptor Barry Brickell of Coromandel, the intriguing investigation into a young Jewish boy who survived the Holocaust. He was adopted by elite German SS soldiers. The current war in Eastern Ukraine as viewed by a British journalist Sean Langan on the Russian side.

A full list of screening times & titles of these select & best of DocEdge Documentaries to be screened in the Ballroom Cinema in Hanmer is available online. Tickets for this special event go on sale this week at www.trybooking.com

Kevin [Kev] Loughlin

Project Manager

Hanmer Springs 7334

Mobile 021 131 2849

Email: kevinloughlin@hotmail.com