Premiering their forthcoming web series as a special festival presentation, director Max Currie (Everything We Loved, NZIFF14) and writer Cole Meyers’ queer and trans-celebratory drama swells with character and heart.
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We’re not interested in seeing another story told about us, any more transition stories, trauma or tropes. These are so often about how other people see us, how other people experience us. We want to see stories on screen made by us.
Screened as part of NZIFF 2020
Rūrangi 2020
Rūrangi is having its World Premiere in cinema at ASB Waterfront Theatre in Auckland, on Sunday 26 July at 7.00PM. See here for details & tickets.
This film is screening in select cinemas and venues across the country. See here for details.
A young trans activist, Caz (Elz Carrad), breaks down in tears in front of a support group towards the start of Rūrangi. He doesn’t know how he can help the queer people in front of him, and feels entirely guilty, even shameful about that fact. Like many of our young queer people, he’s burned out not by his struggle, but by the struggle of those around him. Having fled his hometown of Rūrangi to find himself, Caz returns hoping to connect not just with his father (Kirk Torrance), who he left ten years ago, pre-transition, but the small community whose residents are having struggles of their own now as well.
Rūrangi is unapologetically frank and unapologetically queer, with not just a strong ensemble – Ramon Te Wake, Arlo Green and Kirk Torrance being special standouts – but a diverse, inclusive cast. But the calling card for the web series, packaged here into a slick five-episode binge watch, is the searing screen debut of Elz Carrad. Carrad carries the entire series on his shoulders; he externalises, with detail and charisma, the struggles of a person stuck between wanting, nay, needing, to talk about and express his own demons, but always caught dealing with the needs of others. — Sam Brooks
About the Filmmakers
Max Currie is a writer and director. He hosted LGBTQ+ TV show Queernation for two years, before writing full-time for Shortland Street. His debut feature Everything We Loved screened at NZIFF14.
Cole Meyers is an educator and activist. He works as a consultant on trans and gender diverse narratives and inclusion in film, television, web series and theatre, including Shortland Street, where he is currently a dialogue writer.