Papamoa film-maker shooting for the stars

Jonathan Gesthuizen's films are going from Papamoa to the world.

Mr Gesthuizen's short film about love conquering all will be screened at international film festivals after being officially selected for the Tokyo On-Line Lift Off festival, Access Code India festival, Eurofest in St Petersburg, Russia and Action on Film festival in Los Angeles.

Mr Gesthuizen said his film Ice Cold was a love story about a guy and a girl, with the tagline "love conquers all".

It touched on taboo subjects relevant in today's world.

"I sent it off to quite a few festivals and it's been accepted at four of them. I couldn't believe it when I found out about the festivals. The notifications came in the middle of the night because of the time differences. I'm still waiting to hear back from about 30 festivals as well.

"I hope to find funding and make a feature of it. I don't know how good my chances are, but you've just got to give it a go."

He would be heading to the first of the festivals in September and would be taking his two youngest daughters with him.

The film was about 12-and-a-half minutes long, but could be used as is and inserted into a full-length feature film.

It was self-funded and was shot and edited in Australia with actors and crew from the New York Film Academy, Gold Coast, where Mr Gesthuizen studied.

Mr Gesthuizen is no stranger to the film industry, spending 13 years creating documentaries and films for Te Wananga O Aotearoa. In that time, he filmed about 65 documentaries.

Aside from Ice Cold, Mr Gesthuizen has another three films he had begun writing, including one based on his own experiences.

In 1993, Mr Gesthuizen and his brother-in-law almost died in a caving accident.

If Ice Cold did not get funding, he hoped his story about the caving accident would be picked up.

"The LA exposure will be pretty good. Even if I don't get anywhere with it, it's a hell of an experience.

"Being accepted into the film festival is just a toe through the door - now I need to get my leg in there."