Back River Road

A film about a single mum and her kids, it’s got love and teenage angst with a performance by Ray Woolf as a bumbling undercover cop trying to score. Some excellently funny moments with a feel good factor.

Back River Road, New Zealand, 2001

Producer/director/script: Peter Tait
Director of photography: Wayne Gardiner
Camera: Tony Strong
Sound design: Wiremu Karaitiana
Editor: Derek Hall
FInal sound editor: John Mackay
Sound operators: Paul Olsen, Gunther Andraschko, Denis Mateparae
Camera assistant: Marlls Andraschko
Costumes: Dhaj Sumner
Props: Brent Sumner
Production assistant: Grace Evett
Wranglers: Gary Sumner, Johnny Sumner
Credit edit: Chris Todd
Poster: Frank Greenall
Publicity: Caroline Sayle

With: Te Rangi Ruparupa (Marty Yeats), James Raharaha (George), Calvin Tuteao (Joe), Ray Woolf (Ray Fox), Rachel Vinac (Rachel), Lena Andraschko (Linda Yeats), Josie Thomson (Ann Yeats), Fraser Srmith (Uncle Jack), Ray Kenny (Jungle), Richard Weatherly (Santa tutor), Dhaj Sumner (Judy), Peter Tait (Dept Inspector), Billy Kristian (Police Agent)

And featuring: Santa trainees: David McCaw, Karl Wakelin
Santa kids: Moritz Andraschko, Rourke Olsen, Caitlin Tait, Michael Finn Tait
Aerobics class: Dhaj Sumner, Gloria Yerkovich, Cath Sorraghan, Grace Evett, Theresa Adams, Angela Daun, Gerlinde Andraschko, Brent Sumner, Chantelle Cummins
Student dancers: Diane Vette’s Class, Taipa School
Gumboot dancers: Brent Sumner, Nano Mandela, Gerlinde Andraschko, Ginny, Susan Caruso
Kapa haka: Nga Uri o Mamaru te Kura Takiwa o Taipa

Made with the assistance of Te Ahu Tangata, Community Employment Group, Department of Labour

DV, 75 minutes, PGR–Contains course language and drug use

“A film about a single mum and her kids, its got love and teenage angst with a performance by Ray Woolf as a bumbling undercover cop trying to score. Some excellently funny moments with a feel good factor. Very strong effort. I was captured early and that was maintained throughout.” — Nick Grant, Onfilm Update 211, 29 October 2001

“While Lord of the Rings is grabbing centre stage, a low-budget flick filmed in the remote Far North shows you don’t need a multi-million dollar budget to make a movie. Armed with loads of local talent and just $17,000, Taipa filmmaker Peter Tait has managed to make Back River Road, a coming-of-age film about the choices facing young people today. The idea for the movie came to Peter while relief teaching at Taipa College, where he met fifth form students Te Rangi Ruparupa and James Raharaha, who he reckoned would make natural actors. Peter borrowed $2000 to rent a camera and buy tapes and began recruiting locals who had ‘always wanted to make a movie’. ‘There wasn’t money to pay wages but everyone gave their time freely because it was the kind of experience which didn’t come by very often.’ The Community Employment Group recognised the training opportunities being provided and came up with the film’s $17,000 budget. What the actors in the sleepy seaside town of Taipa – which has less than 100 residents – didn’t get in wages, they got in food. ‘I mainly used my garden to feed everyone. If you can’t pay people, it’s good to feed them well. Farmers would sometimes donate sides of lamb and, on those days, I’d set up a scene and then rush inside to put the roast on,’ laughs Peter. With his two kids and wife also in the movie, there was some shared childcare. ‘I would have the baby in the backpack during my wife’s scenes, which meant if the baby grizzled, I’d be calling out directions way down the road to keep the baby from becoming part of the soundtrack.’ Initial screenings of Back River Road were held at The Swamp Palace, the local cinema in Oruru, whose owner also had a small part in the movie. ‘It was bigger than Titanic up here,’ says Peter. ‘My great hope is that young people get to see this film. When you hear about the Far North, it’s often about poverty, drugs and unemployment but we dream up here’.” — Michelle Archer

“Back River Road was made for under $20,000 using local crew, none of whom had worked on a film before.... very few of the cast had ever done any acting .... I came up with the idea while I was relief teaching at the local area school. I took my camera down and was trying things out with some kids who were learning the road code. Thought they seemed natural for the camera. I wrote a script around these two teenagers.... around my partner Josie who's a dancer.... and did my best to use elements of Carlos Saura with Ken Loach with John Sayle with Jim Jarmusch. Not so easy when there's so little experience amongst cast and crew. But I filmed it all in the Far North… The first screenings up here at the Swamp Palace were riotous affairs. The fact that the grumpy projectionist was in it playing a grumpy Santa Claus tutor made it all the more peculiar to the place. (Some of the scenes were filmed in and around the Swamp Palace). For the first 7 days people were being turned away from the cinema… that first season made it all worthwhile.” — Peter Tait

Screenings: Back River Road screened with Kitchen Sink on 28 September 2005. It was chosen by award-winning writer-director Michael Bennett who selected "a bunch of film pairings that feature some of our best actors both in front of and behind the camera." In this case actor/director Peter Tait, who starred in Kitchen Sink.