Costa Botes
1960 (63 года)Costa’s first feature film, Saving Grace (1997), was selected for competition at Valladolid, Asia-Pacific, and Fantasporto Film Festivals. He documented the making of Peter Jackson’s epic trilogy Lord of the Rings trilogy from 1999 to 2003 with a matching trio of feature length documentaries. These were released in a limited edition DVD box set in 2006, and later included in the definitive blu-ray collection released in 2011.
Costa established his own production company, Lone Pine Film & TV Productions in 2005 to make independent documentaries. These have included Struggle No More (2006), a biography of NZ’s greatest unknown band, and Yes That’s Me (2008) about a blues musician with manic depression. He photographed, produced and edited the documentary, Lost In Wonderland in 2009, mentoring its young director, Zoe McIntosh. This premiered at the NZ Film Festival and won awards for photography and best documentary the following year at the Qantas NZ Film & TV Awards. Costa wrote and produced another film for Zoe, a 35mm short called Day Trip (2010). This was selected to screen at numerous international festivals including Tribeca, Clermont Ferrand, and Hawaii. It won the Signis Award at Espression En Corto in Mexico, and best short film at the Montreal First Peoples Film Festival. Costa's next documentary feature, Candyman: The David Klein Story (2010), was about the eccentric American candy genius who invented Jelly Belly jellybeans. It premiered at Slamdance and Hot Docs in 2010, and won the Director’s Choice best documentary award at the Rincon Puerto Rico Film Festival. He followed this with two documentary features: Daytime Tiger (2011), a film about mania; and The Last Dogs of Winter (2012), about a man fighting to preserve rare Inuit sled dogs from extinction. The Last Dogs of Winter had its world premiere as an official selection at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Act of Kindness (2015), a documentary about a young New Zealander’s experiences in post-Genocide Rwanda won the Best Editing award at the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival.
Costa also wrote and executive produced another short dramatic film for director Zoe McIntosh. The World in Your Window (2017) has screened at many top international festivals and won awards at Clermont-Ferrand, Tokyo, Melbourne, FlickerFest, Vancouver, Prague and Tahiti. His most recent work, Angie (2018) premiered at the NZ International Film Festival. It was described by one critic as a “deep, dark, daring wonder”. Another critic wrote, “Costa Botes has been making films for over 30 years: ANGIE is his best yet. He has always had a deft hand when it comes to emotional material. He has the ability to melt into the beautifully framed background and let the subjects speak, his flawless editing weaving a narrative spell”.
The Last Dogs of Winter
Costa Botes
Costa Botes takes us far, far north of his native New Zealand for this magical documentary about man's four-legged friends. Brian Ladoon is an eccentric, lone-wolf Canadian who has dedicated his life to saving the extinction-threatened Qimmiq - a species of canine used by local Inuits for centuries as hunting-hounds but now abandoned in favour of motorised skidoos. The snowy wilds of remote northern Manitoba make for a stirringly picturesque backdrop for footage of the rugged but irresistibly cute Qimmiq, not to mention the polar bears who occasionally amble by. Doing their best to make an impact among such furry scene stealers are the crustily ornery Ladoon and his unflappably laid-back younger Kiwi assistant, former teen-TV pinup Caleb Ross.
The Last Dogs of Winter
Candyman: The David Klein Story
Costa Botes
David Herman Klein, Bert Klein
Candyman tells the amazing true story of David Klein, an eccentric candy inventor from LA, who came up with the concept of Jelly Belly® jellybeans. These colorful beans became a pop culture phenomenon, revolutionized the candy industry and were personally endorsed by Ronald Reagen. However, David's eccentric personality and peculiar sense of business led him to leave Jelly Belly just as it was about to explode and grow into a billion dollar enterprise. Is there room for eccentric genius in the modern corporate world? The film tells how Klein may have lost his beans, but kept his soul.
Candyman: The David Klein Story
Bad Taste
Peter Jackson
Terry Potter, Pete O'Herne
A team from the intergalactic fast food chain Crumb's Crunchy Delights descends on Earth, planning to make human flesh the newest taste sensation. After they wipe out the New Zealand town Kaihoro, the country’s Astro-Investigation and Defense Service (AIaDS) is called in to deal with the problem. Things are complicated due to Giles, an aid worker who comes to Kaihoro the same day to collect change from the residents. He is captured by the aliens, and AIaDS stages a rescue mission that quickly becomes an all-out assault on the aliens’ headquarters.
Bad Taste
Saving Grace
Costa Botes
Kirsty Hamilton, Jim Moriarty
Grace is a homeless teenager. She befriends an unemployed carpenter and he invites her to share his flat. She moves in and to her surprise a delicate relationship develops. He helps her repair her shattered self-esteem and she begins to feel loved and secure. But then she discovers his secret - he tells her he is Jesus Christ.
Saving Grace
Yes That's Me: Dave Murphy Plays the Blues
Costa Botes
After 35 years of playing, one of New Zealand’s most accomplished Blues troubadours had still never recorded an album. Some of Dave Murphy’s friends decided that had to change. This film documents the creation of his first long playing record.
Yes That's Me: Dave Murphy Plays the Blues
Nigel Gavin: A Job with the Circus
Costa Botes
Nigel Gavin
Nigel Gavin ran away with a circus when he was fifteen. Many years later, he is still performing incredible feats. This concert recording features a mix of original compositions and stunning freeform improvisations, mostly played on Gavin's bespoke Laurie Williams guitar; but also on a unique 11 string Glyssentar guitar that needs to be heard to be believed.
Nigel Gavin: A Job with the Circus
Struggle No More: The Windy City Strugglers Story
Costa Botes
Their music has been described as deep blues from way down under, as if the Mississippi River had gorged its way through the center of the earth and come home in...New Zealand of all places. They are the Windy City Strugglers. This film offers a funny and passionate look at 40 years of obscurity and great music.
Struggle No More: The Windy City Strugglers Story
Catching the Tide: Sam Hunt's Cook Strait
Costa Botes
Originally made for NZ television in 1988, this one hour documentary is now something of a time capsule or historical piece. It's also a record of a peerless performance by one of this country's greatest poets.
Catching the Tide: Sam Hunt's Cook Strait
Day Trip
Zoe McIntosh, Costa Botes
A gang member wakes up one morning and decides he needs a day off. Inspired by a newspaper advertisement he impulsively decides to take a short ferry trip between islands. With his tattooed face, black leather clothing, and prominent gang patch, the gangster is a fish out of water when he arrives in the idyllic small port town of Picton. The experience he has there will change his outlook on life forever.
Day Trip
Stalin's Sickle
Costa Botes
Stacey Adams, Jim Macfarlane
It is 1962. New Zealand is emerging from the austerity of the 1950s into a new age. Daniel is a nine-year-old Catholic boy, an only child given to colourful imaginings. He discovers that an old man who passes the plate in church bears a striking resemblance to the great Russian dictator, Joseph Stalin. Daniel starts to believe that the old man really is Stalin, come to take over New Zealand. Daniel takes it upon himself to give Stalin a fright and send him on his way. He hits on a method of doing so after finding where the old man lives and spying on him. Stalin is banished, but events take a strange twist, leaving Daniel with an even worse threat to deal with.
Stalin's Sickle
Kathmandu Blues
Costa Botes
A vivid first person look at the annual blues festival held in Nepal. The film features many performers but also shows the city and country, including a hair raising bus trip and a visit to the elephant breeding centre at Chitwan National Park.
Kathmandu Blues