TEDDY - award-winning gay short film

ABOUT THE FILM-MAKERS

Producer Andy Jalfon (left) and writer/director Christopher Banks (right) and have been recognised internationally for their achievements, including extensive exhibition/distribution for their body of work to date.

Christopher Banks wrote, produced, directed, edited and scored his debut feature Quiet Night In. It played to festival audiences in Toronto and the UK in 2005, followed by an Australasian DVD release in 2007. His work as a reporter and director on the award-winning Queer Nation series has recently been chosen as one of a handful of episodes from the show’s nine-year run to be showcased by the NZ On Screen web project.

Since graduating from the New Zealand Film Academy in 2005, Andy Jalfon has produced and directed behind-the-scenes series for two of New Zealand’s most popular and successful programmes, Shortland Street and Dancing With The Stars. He was the Content Producer during the development of the first online catch up service in the southern hemisphere, TVNZ Ondemand, which has won the internationally-recognised Content+Innovation Award. He was also an integral part of the multi-million dollar project for the redesign and launch of the new TVNZ entertainment site. His production company produces a variety of films for a range of platforms, from on screen to online.

Their first production together, the short film Teddy, was completed in early 2009. So far, it has won two awards, and become the first New Zealand film to be nominated for the prestigious Iris Prize for short film-making in the UK. It has played to sold-out audiences in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch as part of the Out Takes Reel Queer Film Festival; and internationally to audiences of thousands at some of the world’s largest GLBT film festivals, including Toronto, New York, San Francisco, London, Tokyo and Los Angeles, where it has garnered high praise from filmgoers and festival directors alike.

Their second production, Communication, was released onto the film festival circuit earlier this year, and has won two international awards - including Outstanding Short Film at the QBliss Creating Change Community Awards in the United States. Other QBliss award-winners included “Precious” director Lee Daniels, “Tales Of The City” author Armistead Maupin, and N-Sync star Lance Bass.

Their latest film, The Colonel’s Outing, builds on the bittersweet mix of emotion which captured the hearts of audiences for Teddy and Communication, portraying a relationship between two men in the twilight of their lives in a way which few have cared to acknowledge or celebrate.