DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL

Great excitement - the third annual Documentray Film Festival starts in Auckland today with movies being screened at The Academy and Skycity. Check the programme on the website.

Bookman Beattie was privileged to attend the Festival launch event last evening where we were teased and tempted by brief clips from many of the featured documentary movies. Wow, movie-goers are in a for a great time.

I had an interesting chat to Neil Parker about the making of his 75 minute film, Billy's Christmas, which tells the story of an outback Australian farming family and the hard decisions being forced on them by the seven year long drought.

Billy's Christmas is screening at The Academy on Sunday 30 September at 3.20pm and again on Wednesday 10 October at 2.35pm.

Here is the Festival schedule:

Auckland 27 September - 10 October

Dunedin 11 - 21 October

Christchurch 25 October - 4 November4

Wellington 8-21 November