Films near end of extensive Canada tour

Press, 26 February 1986, Page 24

Films near end of extensive Canada tour

Five programmes of independent New Zealand films are nearing the end of an extensive mid-win-ter Canadian tour.

The films, collectively titled “The Invisible Cinema,” have toured North America since last October.

The Auckland-based film maker, Martin Rurnsby, co-ordinated the films for a New Zealand tour last year before taking them to North America.

His aim was to expose the rarely-shown shorter films to the New Zealand and American public. Included in the 18 films are “Bastion Point: Day 507” by Merata Mita, Gerd Pohlman and Leon Narbey, “Blitzkreig” by Bella Grant, "In Spring one Plants Alone” by Vincent Ward, “Vistas” by Martin Rurnsby, and “Fifty Years of Len Lye.”

Already this year “The Invisible Cinema” has screened in two of North America’s most prestigious showcases for independent films — the Funnel Film Centre in Toronto and La Cinematheque Quebecoise, Montreal. The tour, which should encompass most of the United States as well as Canada, will wind up in Quebec City in May. There it will be shown as part of the conference of the Canadian National Alliance for Independent Cinema.

Mr Rurnsby will sit on one of the film selection panels at that conference.

The tour was funded with the help of the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council, the Railways Corporation, Air New Zealand, and the Students Arts Council.