Over the past decade film-maker Colin Hodson has been a mainstay of the New Zealand digital feature film movement.

Hodson's first digital feature Shifter (2000) was wholly improvised and shot for the cost of the dv tapes. Shifter was described by the Vancouver International Film Festival as "a self-contained slice of in medias res existence, capturing the spaces in-between with unpolished exactitude". His subsequent films OFF. (2002) and .ON. (2006) portray young urbanites in flux; drifting through worlds of drugs and transient acquaintances.

In recent years he has also made a number of short non-narrative video works, two of which are featured in the 2008 Artist’s Film Festival. Exhibitions Manager Mark Williams spoke to Hodson about working between genres and his current feature project developed at the Binger Filmlab, Amsterdam 2005/2006.

Is there a common thread between your narrative film works and your video pieces in The Artist's Film Festival?
Interesting question - I wondered that myself and realized both my digital features and the video pieces are filmed in a similar way - immediate, raw situations, 'turn-it-on and go' - they capture things as they unfold without too much contrivance - random elements that occur in the shooting become part of the piece (ie: the couple with the baby in Palace)

Both genres/disciplines use the aesthetic of real time - What are some of the differences between the two?
Perhaps the main difference is that I feel the camera operator is the protagonist in the video works, someone who is unseen but who is the central presence in those works, whereas in Shifter and .ON., action revolves around a filmed character, and the character behind the camera is more peripheral.

Where were the video works in the AFF filmed?
I was at the Binger Filmlab in Holland developing a feature film in 2005, and we had a great workshop with Arne Bro - head of the TV & Documentary Department at the National Film School of Denmark. A process he put us through was getting us to film video diaries - often at the end of a grueling day when we thought our mental faculties were exhausted. He would analyse our work the next day, and point out the elements in our work that were a common thread - he was pointing out the visual and aural language we would use that was arising from us unconsciously - our voice - and how consistently we used it, despite our exhaustion. I continue once in a while doing these exercises - I have a whole lot of short works that have come out of this process - it is immediate and satisfying to be making this stuff given that my next feature project is taking a while to develop.

What benefits did you gain from living and working in Holland?
What I gained from being at the Filmlab was finding the throughline in all the work I do - from Narrative features to other sorts of artwork - and spending a year with filmmakers from all over the world with their own strong visions - it was hugely stimulating, challenging and fun.

You recently shortened OFF to 60 minutes. How did it improve the film?
.OFF. became .ON. - I screened it for the first time in Holland - the new cut is punchy - I think I got a bit of distance from the project and didn't hold back in cutting it down - take no prisoners. .ON. is the directors cut!

Tell us about your current project?
The Dog, (working title) is about a woman and the extremely raw relationship she has with her boyfriend - this relationship gets worse when she gets a promotion. She seems bent on a path of destruction - as the film proceeds, events from her past become illuminated - she gets an insight into this and an opportunity to change her direction. It is still at screenplay stage.

Colin Hodson’s works Palace and Snow are included in the exhibition The Artist’s Film Festival. The exhibition continues to May 17.