Pluck

PLUCK by Kirsty Griffin and Vivienne Kernick. This perfect 26-minute documentary feels like the most Kiwi film ever, it’s impossible to imagine it coming from anywhere else on Earth as it conjures every emotion in its short running time. Jean Neshausen, from Thames, was taught to weave korowai as part of a breast cancer fundraiser and since then she’s made dozens. Now her breast cancer is back and the prognosis is no good. She realises that she’s never made a cloak for her own daughter and that time is running out. But the weka feathers she needs can only be found on Chatham Island (they are a pest there but protected here, who knew?!) and her oncologist is advising her not to travel. So she travels anyway and, by golly, I can’t remember ever seeing the Chathams on a big (or small screen) before. It’s an imposing landscape, beautifully filmed by Griffin herself, but the film – as it is throughout – prioritises the human beings and what great characters they all are. I Loved It! - Dan Slevin RNZ