Predicament

Jason Stutter – director of Ronald Hugh Morrieson adaptation Predicament – has a talent for going for the jugular, yet doing it in style. In Stutter’s movies, the camera plunges headfirst into haunted hospitals, dodgy smalltown dealings, and fight scenes with Pacific Island Ninjas whose parents were unexpectedly half-gobbled by fish.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Stutter talks about

* why he makes films
* his many projects featuring Flight of the Conchords’ Jemaine Clement
* falling in love with the dialogue in Ronald Hugh Morrieson’s novel Predicament
* the lessons that can be learnt from Morrieson’s career
* the bravery of comedians, and why he loves giving them acting roles in his movies
* the genesis of Tongan Ninja, Stutter’s no-budget, three years in the making feature debut
* the unusual way haunted hospital tale Diagnosis: Death was funded
* the importance of staying loyal to the original text

Saw Kiwi film, "
Predicament"
, at the DGA! This should be a Samuel Goldwyn release... Ya know what I mean...?
7:14 AM Nov 6th

Director, Roger Donaldson spoke at screening of "
Predicament"
at the DGA yesterday eve! Cocktail reception followed with New Zealand wines from Seresin Vineyards!
about 6 hours ago

[size=150:371313st]NZ films to screen at the Beijing International Film Festival
10:12 AM Tuesday Apr 19, 2011

Two New Zealand films have been selected to screen at the inaugural Beijing International Film Festival.

Jason Stutter's crime comedy, Predicament, featuring Flight of the Conchords star Jemaine Clement, Heath Franklin and Hayden Frost, and Simone Horrocks' début feature After the Waterfall, starring Outrageous Fortune's Antony Starr and Sally Stockwell will both screen as part of the festival's film panorama programme.

The two films would join a line-up of top films from around the world, including this year's Academy Award winners, New Zealand Film Commission chief executive Graeme Mason said today.

Stutter will travel to Beijing as a guest of the festival, to be held from April 23-28.

"
I am honoured to have my film selected for Beijing and to be invited to attend,"
he said.

"
I am a huge fan of Chinese cinema, especially martial art movies, and I'm excited the festival ambassadors are Jackie Chan and Crouching Tiger's Ziyi Zhang."


Horrocks, who was unable to attend the festival, said it was a great honour to be invited to the birth of this new film festival, and have the opportunity to share After the Waterfall with Chinese audiences.

- NZPA

"
I am a huge fan of Chinese cinema, especially martial art movies, and I'm excited the festival ambassadors are Jackie Chan and Crouching Tiger's Ziyi Zhang."

NEW ZEALAND

This year Down Under Berlin - Australian Film Festival has expanded its programme to include a section devoted to New Zealand cinema. Since the late seventies, the cinema from the other side of the world has been developing its own distinctive style, offering far more than anything coming out of Hollywood. Aotearoa - a country of streaming white clouds - uses the big screen to reveal the contradictions between mysticism and reality, tradition and modernity, pacific serenity and hectic hustle-and-bustle, as well as the juxtaposition between indigenous people and settlers. Waititi, whose creative roots are still firmly planted in comedy, consistently manages, with his tales of tragicomic heroes, to strike a chord with his compatriots. These are tales of nerds and loners, whose failures are always depicted with tenderness and compassion and who, through their persistence are ultimately always granted a slice of happiness.

...

Friday, 14.09., 22.00 h, Kino 1
Predicament

by Jason Stutter
2010, 98 min., English
German premiere

Three misfits, one murder. In this crime comedy, naive teenager Cedric Williamson, conspires with two misfits (played by Flight of the Conchords star Jemaine Clement and Australian comedian Heath Franklins) to photograph and blackmail adulterous couples. But when the scam goes wrong, they end up with blood on their hands. Tortured by lust, roped into blackmail and possibly an accessory to murder, Cedric finds himself in a predicament.

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Jason Stutter

Jason Stutter is a director and writer, whose debut feature, the cult comedy Tongan Ninja (2002), was one of his earlier collaborations with Jemaine Clement and producer Sue Rogers. Jason was born and bred in the Wellington suburb Wainuiomata. He started making films at the age of 11 and got his first job at the Avalon Television Studios as a tape editor for TVNZ. He has made about 20 short films a number of which have been screened at A-list film festivals around the world. Predicament is his third feature film.