A portrait of Fiona Kidman.

Join us for our Film Talk x DEGANZ screening of The House Within. After the film, enjoy a Q&A with Dame Fiona Judith Kidman, moderated by a member of the Directors and Editors Guild of Aotearoa New Zealand.

Rialto Cinemas hosts 'Film Talk' screenings in partnership with the DEGANZ. These events provide filmmakers and film buffs the opportunity to meet and discuss the most interesting aspects of filmmaking, including directing, acting, producing and storytelling.

Find out more about the film below, then secure your seat by booking tickets now.

Synopsis

The House Within is a documentary film about the internationally celebrated New Zealand writer Dame Fiona Kidman. It examines the way in which life and fiction collide and how, with time, they become inescapably braided together. The film paints an intimate portrait of Fiona’s fascinating and often tumultuous life. It probes the inner world of a truly maverick writer who has overcome innumerable obstacles to establish her voice, and place, in the world of literature on a global scale. Fiona speaks for the first time about the private pains and losses in her life and art, and how these experiences were fundamental to the creation of the fictional worlds which have moved us so deeply.

Q&A Speakers

DAME FIONA KIDMAN - Dame Fiona Kidman grew up in Northland and began a library career in Rotorua after leaving school. She is the winner of many awards, grants and fellowships and is now one of New Zealand’s leading contemporary novelist, short-story writers and poet, with much of her fiction focusing on how outsiders navigate their way in conformist societies. Along with her writing, she has worked in media as a journalist, radio producer, and as a radio, film and television scriptwriter. She now works wholly as a writer and occasional teacher of writing. (Source: The Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi)

REBECCA TANSLEY - Rebecca is an award-winning filmmaker with a strong interest in the arts. Her feature documentaries Crossing Rachmaninoff and The Heart Dances have screened at festivals around the world, in cinemas throughout NZ and on platforms such as Netflix, Disney Plus and HBO. Her film of NZ Opera’s production, Semele, won Best Entertainment Programme at the NZTV awards while her short film of the same year, The Finding, enjoyed many international festival selections. Her second opera film, The Strangest of Angels, premiered at NZIFF and won Special Mention for Extraordinary Artistic Achievement at the 60th Golden Prague Festival. Rebecca is currently in post-production on Tenor: My Name is Pati, a feature documentary about international opera stars Pene Pati and Amitai Pati, of Sol3 Mio fame.