SUMMER ARRIVES AT CURIOUS

Curious Film in Sydney has signed one of New Zealand’s most hotly anticipated young directors, Summer Agnew.

Aged 28, Summer has been highly awarded for his talents as a documentary and long-format director, despite only graduating from the Elam School of Fine Art five years ago.

“More and more agencies are looking for directors who can apply their long-format experience in a commercial context. Summer is not only a prodigious director and scriptwriter, he is experimental and extremely bright – he understands where things are moving,” says Peter Grasse, of Curious Film in Sydney.

In 2007, Summer snared one of the industry’s most prestigious accolades by winning the Screen Production & Development Association (SPADA) New Filmmaker of the Year Award.

His documentary, Minginui – co-directed by fellow Elam graduate Adam Luxton – has screened at film festivals globally and was hailed by critics as triggering a new era in New Zealand filmmaking: “A deathly barrage of audio and visual decay … It’s a partial, if not gradual step forward towards a more progressive, less conservative national cinema,” wrote film and arts journal Lumiere.

Minginui offers a glimpse into New Zealand’s remote Te Urewera rainforest, where the closure of a local forestry sparked a deterioration in local living standards. The documentary reveals New Zealand’s landscape in a far more unforgiving light than cinema audiences typically see.

More recently, Summer’s short film Patu Ihu screened at Homegrown 08 at the New Zealand International Film Festival. Featuring a core cast of children, the film has been described as “a touching exploration of memory and the lifelong influences that a particular event can have upon us” (Lumiere).

With a background in fine arts, Summer’s long-format work is atmospheric and imaginative, honest and uncomfortable; while his commercial work reveals his innate understanding of the flaws and quirks that make us human.

With a name like ‘Summer Agnew’, it’s perhaps not surprising that Summer (pictured) grew up on a commune in Auckland’s stunning Waitakere ranges. He concedes that these unconventional beginnings may have contributed to a lateral approach to his work: “Where I grew up people were always telling stories, and I learnt there are always different ways they can be told,” says Summer, whose portfolio of work demonstrates a breadth of creative abilities.

He co-founded music video production company The Pyramid Scheme in 2003 and has directed video clips for New Zealand bands including Dimmer, The Checks and Sola Rosa.

Summer won a Qantas New Zealand Television Award in 2006 for the TVNZ series Lets get Inventin and in 2008 developed and co-directed the arts documentary series New Artland for the digital network TVNZ6. Summer has just finished directing a 40-minute documentary for Kapiti Fine Foods and Colenso BBDO.

View Summer’s showreel  and for more information, contact Peter Grasse at Curious Film Sydney: peterg@curiousfilm.com or visit www.curiousfilm.com