Daniel Betty on the set of a production in Hawke's Bay.
Daniel Betty on the set of a production in Hawke's Bay.
Hawke’s Bay is emerging as a film destination with new short and feature films produced locally.
Daniel Betty and Tony Keddy are promoting the region’s unique landscapes and developing a multi-million-dollar film studio.
Sam Handley’s film Grateful Grapefruit, shot in Napier, has gained international festival recognition.
There hasn’t been a major feature film shot in Hawke’s Bay since Geoff Murphy’s 1983 film Utu used our landscapes.
But the region is now poised to become a real player in New Zealand’s film scene, with studio proposed, and new short films and feature films coming together.
Actor, producer,director, musician, and board member of Eastern Screen Alliance Daniel Betty says Hawke’s Bay is “really unique” for people looking for filming locations.
The Eastern Screen Alliance acts as a regional film office to promote the region as a screen production destination.
Betty’s role is to show the region off to international “producers and directors and key people” in the film industry.
“We’ve got lots of different landscapes that we can draw on … lakes on private farms, forests, some of the best art deco in the world, cliff tops, valleys, and more sunlight than anywhere else.
Daniel Betty on the set of a production in Hawke's Bay.
“We see the sun first and we don’t see it set, so there’s so much about our region which is amazing for the industry.”
Betty says he has had half a dozen directors “mainly Australians and Americans” come to Hawke’s Bay in 2024 looking for locations to shoot.
Currently, he is acting in a locally made feature with the working title Solitary, which is being written, produced, shot, and edited by paid professional film-makers and crew all based in Hawke’s Bay.
“We’ve been really strategic. The script is written for two main actors, two minor actors. It’s in only three of four locations with a crew of about 10.
“So we don’t want a big crew, we want to kind of work our way through it ourselves in a way that’s manageable, and also financially viable.”
Working with Betty is Tony Keddy, a legendary key grip in the film industry and one of the men set on bringing a multi-million-dollar film studio to Hawke’s Bay.
Both have contributed to Kahurangi Toi Ātea, a new national screen industry training programme which aims to give budding filmmakers on-set experience on film sets.
Keddy is currently shooting the programme’s first feature, a film-adaptation of Joy Cowley’s Holy Days in Canterbury.
Keddy believes “the opportunities are coming” to Hawke’s Bay.
“Up to now it was just if you knew someone you got on the job [on set] and if you were any good you stayed, whereas now we’re actually putting together formal training processes for every role,” Keddy said.
“I think the opportunity to get in [to the film industry] is going to have more structure to it in the near future.”
When asked what locally made films show the talent of the artists working in Hawke’s Bay, Betty replied quickly - Sam Handley’s Grateful Grapefruit.
Reuben Bonner, who plays a worm in Grateful Grapefruit, and director Sam Handley at the 2024 NZ International Film Festival. Photo / Abigail Dell'Avo
Somewhere under the Masonic
Grateful Grapefruit tells the story of a local hypnotist solving residents’ physical and meta-physical problems.
Shot in Napier in 2023 and featuring local cast and crew, the 15-minute film has been selected for a multitude of international film festivals, including being nominated for New Zealand’s Best at the 2024 Whānau Mārama New Zealand International Film Festival.
Handley started out making music videos for Kiwi artists The Tutts and Connan Mockasin and has worked in major feature films.
His office is the basement underneath Napier’s historic Masonic Tavern.
He calls the labyrinth-like structure his “Batcave” which he moves around in to help him “come up with new ideas”.
Handley is currently working on his next film project, which he plans to create and film in his office/historic basement.
A view of Sam Hendley's office in the basement of the Masonic Tavern in Napier. Photo / Sam Hendley
