Self-Funded Doco Double Qantas Winner

20 September 2010
For immediate release

Self-Funded Doco Double Qantas Winner

An ultra low budget home-crafted documentary has taken out two prestigious trophies at the 2010 Qantas awards.

This Way of Life won Best Director - Documentary for Thomas Burstyn and Best Arts/Festival/Feature Documentary at the event on Saturday.

This follows a gushing review in international film bible Variety, where it describes the film as “A collision of realities - earthly nature vs. human nature” with a “very big heart…catapulting this Kiwi-made story of a Maori family beyond mere portraiture and into a realm of metaphysics, melancholia and cosmic doubt.”

This Way of Life has just finished screening as part of an Oscar-qualifying theatrical run in Los Angeles and New York in an audacious bid to be nominated for an Academy Award.

Shot over four years against the isolated Ruahine mountains and beautiful Waimarama beach in Hawke’s Bay, This Way of Life follows Peter and Colleen Karena as they raise their six children off the land – a far cry from modern day lifestyles.

This Way of Life, which was made with no crew apart from the filmmakers, Tom and Sumner Burstyn, won a Jury award at the prestigious Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year and recently completed a 16-week screening run at selected cinemas around New Zealand.

This Way of Life can be purchased in New Zealand on DVD through www.thiswayoflifemovie.com

-ENDS-

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