Nurse Me

Over a coffee, award winning filmmaker Kezia Barnett and legendary New Zealand choreographer MaryJane O’Reilly, discussed making a film based on one of the dances from the stage show ‘In Flagrante’: brainchild of MJ and Phil O’Reilly. When Kezia first saw the neo burlesque cult hit ‘In Flagrante’, she didn’t just see a new form of theatrical sexual provocation. She saw a filmic opportunity. What particularly caught her eye was a piece called ‘Nurses’ – a short and deeply satiric tribute to nurses. A tongue-in-cheek riff on the well-trodden erotic cliché about women in uniform that traverses between Florence Nightingale and Linda Lovelace. Sassy, irreverent and choreographed by MaryJane O’Reilly (of Limbs renown) the dance is hypnotic, erotic. Perfect for filmic re-interpretation. Back in Auckland, from some years in London directing commercials, Kezia rounded up her A Team of top local filmmakers, formed production company Flim Duende, and working with MaryJane, Phil and producer Rebekah Kelly, pitched a dance film fusion concept to Creative New Zealand. CNZ granted core funding for ‘Nurse Me’, an eleven and a half minute film. Drawing from ‘In Flagrante’s’ cast of classically and modern trained dancers, MaryJane and Kezia choose three for the role. The film was shot over two days at Auckland Wynyard Quarter’s old cement silos, whose haunted concrete countenance was the perfect foil to the fecund Nurses — as both battle weary survivors and symbols of life ephemeral. Beautifully shot by Ian McCarroll and with an evocative score by Mahuia Bridgman-Cooper the result is an astonishing and uniquely original short film that premiered at the New Zealand International Film Festival, 2016. It has screened in a number of festivals around the world and won Best International Music/Dance Film at the New Renaissance Film Festival Amsterdam and Best Cinematography at Discover Film London. MaryJane O’Reilly on ‘Nurses’: “I wanted to repudiate some of the orthodoxies of burlesque female sexuality; that women are capable of being bad, not just coquettish avatars. An excursion into deep fetish, from colonics to inoculations. A tribute to ‘Nurses’ as sex objects, Bond Girls and bodily functions.” INTERVIEW — WE ARE MOVING STORIES http://www.wearemovingstories.com/we-are-moving-stories-videos/2016/5/24/cannes-short-film-corner-nurse-me INTERVIEW — THE NEW CURRENT http://keziabarnett.tv/about/press/

Kezia Barnett: “I’ve always loved film. I’ve always loved dance. I grew up watching Busby Berkeley, Ginger Rogers and Fred Astair film musicals. Dance on film fascinates me. Both dance and film, independently, are emotive mediums, in different ways: together they can be visceral and powerful. When designing shots I like to think of it as choreography, the camera dancing with the dancers — interacting with the dancers to create the onscreen experience: as the camera has on the day of shooting. This is how film dance differs – it curates your point of view to see things from that perspective – to stage – which is effectively one wide shot, and the viewer chooses where they put their own personal camera – their eyes. Each audience member chooses what is close up, where the ‘shot’ moves and what action it follows. I also love that with film you can play with time, lingering on slow motion shots — extending time.”