Earthly Shadows

Earthly Shadows is a short film adaptation of the award-winning story by Fiona Kidman; one of Aotearoa’s most celebrated literary voices.

Following the success of his documentary The House Within, director Joshua Prendeville is now bringing Kidman’s precise, emotionally charged writing to life in a short film.

Set within a single meeting, Earthly Shadows examines what happens when art, identity, and power intersect. It explores the uneasy space between intention and perception; where the desire to do good can become entangled with prejudice, and where cultural frameworks shape not only the work itself, but how it is judged.

This is a film about pressure; social, political, and personal and the uncomfortable truths that surface when that pressure can no longer be contained.

This project is led by a team of filmmakers with a strong track record of creating bold, character-driven work within Aotearoa.

Director Joshua Prendeville and producer Victoire Madérou previously collaborated on the documentary The House Within which had a sellout run at NZIFF before its theatrical release nationwide, as well as the short film Our Party which starred Davida McKenzie and Thomasin McKenzie. Both projects were supported by successful Boosted campaigns, made possible through a community of engaged and passionate supporters. Producer Ashleigh Roworth brings a strong track record in New Zealand filmmaking, with a focus on performance-driven, visually assured work. She recently produced a short film as part of Jane Campion’s A Wave in the Ocean film school which screened at the Venice Film Festival, an experience that further developed her commitment to rigorous, actor-focused storytelling.

We will be working with a group of exceptional actors and experienced crew, many of whom are longstanding collaborators, to create a film that is both intimate in scope and ambitious in its ideas.

The Team:

Director: Joshua Prendeville

Producer: Ashleigh Roworth & Victoire Madérou 

Screenplay: Joshua Prendeville 

Story by: Fiona Kidman

Cinematographer: Bill Bycroft

Composer: Jessica Meier & Alex Meier

Editor: Bella Walker

Production Designer: Grace Acheson

Costume Designer: Daisy Marcuzzi 

Sound Designer: Jessica Meier

Sound Recordist:  Nic Widfeldt

Hair & Makeup: Amy McLennan

Colourist: Dave Gibson

1st AC: Anna McIntosh

2nd AC: Erin McNamara

Gaffer: Rob Kerr

Grip: Alex McKenna

Stills Photographer: Lewis Ferris

We are raising funds through Boosted to support a vital portion of our production budget.

All contributions will go directly toward shoot-related costs, including cast, crew, locations, and essential equipment. Our shoot is scheduled for May this year, and your support will play a crucial role in making it possible.

One of the most rewarding parts of our previous Boosted campaigns was discovering the incredible community of people who actively support local filmmaking. The generosity of these supporters helped bring The House Within and Our Party into the world, and those projects simply would not exist without that collective backing. For those who have supported our work before, we hope this campaign feels like a continuation of that shared journey. Independent filmmaking in Aotearoa increasingly depends on individuals who believe in the importance of telling our stories. In a time when arts funding can be uncertain to say the least, that support is both vital and deeply appreciated. Every contribution helps us continue developing our work and pushing it forward, and we’re enormously grateful to everyone who chooses to be part of that process.

Every donation, no matter the size, makes a meaningful difference.

At a time when conversations around identity, representation, and belonging are often marked by division or hesitation, we hope this film contributes something more nuanced: a space for reflection, confrontation, and understanding.

The process of developing and funding artistic work is something familiar to anyone working in the arts. It is a space shaped by competing intentions; creative, institutional, and personal, where ideas are constantly being negotiated, reframed, and evaluated.

Earthly Shadows turns its attention to this environment, exploring the tensions that exist beneath the surface: questions of authorship, authority, and who gets to speak and be heard.

The film unfolds in real time, within a single location, creating a contained, pressure-cooker environment. This formal constraint allows us to focus intensely on performance, gesture, and the shifting dynamics between characters. Balancing moments of discomfort with flashes of dark humour, the film resists easy categorisation as either tragic or comic. Instead, it aims for something closer to real life; where contradictions coexist, and where meaning emerges through behaviour rather than explanation.

At its core, Earthly Shadows is concerned with power: how it operates socially, culturally, and interpersonally. It engages with themes of class, sexuality, gender and ethnicity not as abstract ideas, but as lived realities that shape how we see each other and ourselves.
 

Our goal is to continue building a body of work that contributes to a distinctly New Zealand cinematic voice; one that is confident, outward-looking, and capable of resonating on the world stage.

The film will be shot in Wellington, with the generous support of local cast, crew, and creative talent; adding to the ongoing growth of our screen industry.

Beyond its production, Earthly Shadows is intended as a conversation piece. We want to make a film that lingers; one that invites audiences to question, reflect, and carry its tensions with them beyond the screening.

We believe that cinema has the capacity not only to represent the world, but to challenge how we understand it.

With your support, we can create something precise, provocative, and deeply human; an adaptation that honours Fiona Kidman’s work while bringing it into a contemporary cinematic language.

We would love for you to be part of that journey.