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A crew of 13, a cast of 100, 38 locations, 5 weeks shooting, immense community goodwill, showing in 47 cinemas - and
brought to the screen for under $100,000!

     Download presskit (pdf) and stills

     Release date

           Thursday 5 May 2011

     Media contact

           Andrea Bosshard
           04 934 3761

          andrea@torchlightfilms.co.nz

           Jeremy Macey
           021 511 415

           jeremy@torchlightfilms.co.nz

Cast

Crew

Technical details

108 minutes
COLOUR
SOUND 5.1
HIGH DEFINITION DIGITAL VIDEO
Aspect ratio: 16:9
English
Release: 5 May 2011 (New Zealand)
Rating: M

Stills available

You can download hi-res versions of the images below. Please contact us at publicity@torchlightfilms.co.nz if you have any trouble.

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Background

HOOK, LINE & SINKER, to be released nationwide on Thursday 5 May 2011 in over thirty cinemas, is the latest feature from Andrea Bosshard and Shane
Loader, the writing/directing  partnership behind the critically acclaimed micro-budget feature Taking the Waewae Express. Shot on the Wellington south
coast in April 2010,Hook, Line & Sinker is a character-driven story with a terrific ensemble cast of well-known veteran actors  - among them Geraldine
Brophy (Second Hand Wedding), Carmel McGlone (former Chapman Tripp Best Actress winner), Rangimoana Taylor (Waewae Express), Matthew Chamberlain
(In my Father's Den) and with a guest appearance by Dame Kate Harcourt. Hook, Line & Sinker is a story of our times, full of unexpected humour, song, and
great performances.

Synopsis

PJ (Rangimoana Taylor) is a truckdriver with a workingman's pride in his job. His partner Ronnie (Carmel McGlone), her two kids bordering on adulthood,
singing at the local pub and fishing with his best mate Jono (KC Kelly), form the backbone of his modest existence. But when he fails a mandatory eye test
and loses his driving licence, PJ's life unravels. In the face of his imminent future as a blind man, the ever pragmatic Ronnie upscales her wedding dress
business with the help of her ambitious older sister Bernadette (Geraldine Brophy) to become the breadwinner of the family. But PJ, refusing to accept the
loss of his sight and unable to cope with the rapidly altering family dynamics, takes everyone on  a tumultuous emotional journey to the very edge until,
with Ronnie's help, he accepts a new place in the world.

About Torchlight Films

WRITERS AND DIRECTORS Shane loader and Andrea Bosshard set up Torchlight Films under the umbrella of the Community Media Trust in 2007.  They
are developing a model of film-making that takes advantage of the new digital technologies to create a financially sustainable, low-budget but professional
film practice that is prolific, vigorous, independent and above all, relevant to our society. The stories they tell are sourced from our communities - stories
that are contemporary, multi-cultural, cross-generational and which address the issues which affect us all. Their methods are ensemble-based and they
shoot in real locations.

Directors' statement (yes, there are two of us)

WE HAVE BEEN working together as a co-writing/ co-directing team for many years. We both came from very different backgrounds in terms of our
cinema experiences. Andrea's parents, culturally understimulated in a small town in the early 70's, set up a film society at which, more often than not, the
Bosshard family (children in pajamas) were the only audience. Thus Andrea was exposed to some of the important films of world cinema at a young age -
Nanook of the North, Battleship Potemkin, Salt of the Earth ("We want the formula!") - and sometimes as a treat, she even saw them backwards! Shane,
meanwhile, was catching the train with a mass of unsupervised Upper Hutt kids to go to matinee sessions at the Regent in Naenae, as much for the thrill
of being part of an anarchic audience rolling jaffas down the aisle as it was for seeing Herbie Rides Again.

What brings us together in our filmmaking pursuits, is our interest in telling character-based stories, stories sourced from our communities where big
themes play out in modest circumstances,  stories that explore the human condition and have the power to move and touch us. Without extensive crews,
large lighting set-ups, copious amounts of equipment etc. -  all the trappings that are taken as the norm within the Hollywood model - story and
performance are for us, our greatest resource and asset. This is where we have chosen to put our energy as filmmakers - into sharpening our abilities to
tell a story through characters who bear the stamp of authenticity and truthfulness.

A New Way of Scripting
Hook, Line & Sinker evolved as a logical step from our first feature Taking the Waewae Express, and is on every level, a more ambitious film. Like Waewae
Express, we developed the screenplay through a process pioneered by reknowned British director, Mike Leigh (Secrets and Lies, Vera Drake,
Happy-go-lucky). As far as we know, no other filmmakers in New Zealand are using this method.

It is a highly disciplined improvisational process that results in the rapid and efficient development of detailed characters and narrative through the
collaboration of actors, writer and director. The actors source their characters from observing people around them. Actors love it because they are able to
fundamentally shape their characters; as writers we love it, because of the wealth of narrative possibilities and great dialogue it produces, and as directors
we love it, because it creates such layered  performances. Our films have no goodies or baddies, only people (often mis-guided) operating from a position
of doing their best as they understand it. 

Sustainability
Developing a sustainable and prolific filmmaking model is central to our Torchlight Films philosophy whereby the returns from one film feed into the budget
of the next. This necessitates two fundamental strategies - firstly, the budgets of our films must be modest, and secondly, we must take on the
responsibility of self-distribution. Self-distribution is crucial in order to maximise box office returns to us the filmmakers, rather than passing on the
responsibility to an independent distributor. We are also becoming increasingly aware how important it is to develop strong long-term relationships with
the exhibitors, those people who make their living by putting audiences and films together. We first embarked on self-distribution (on a micro-level) with
our first feature Taking the Waewae Express using it as a test model and proof of concept. We continue to build on this strategy with Hook, Line & Sinker
and have discovered an explosion of digital cinemas across the country making it possible for independent filmmakers to distribute their films on a scale
not possible even two years ago.

Links

Eleven interesting questions

Bios of cast and crew

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HOOK, LINE & SINKER/HOME       WHERE TO SEE IT       CAST & CREW       11 INTERESTING QUESTIONS       VIDEO INTERVIEWS      HOW WE MADE THE FILM