The Unionist reports Nicky Hager’s book The Hollow Men has been made into a film and will be screening as part of this year’s New Zealand International Film Festivals.
The 98 minute documentary is directed by Alister Barry, whose previous work includes the excellent In a Land of Plenty and Someone Else’s Country, and is reported to include new material:
Nicky Hager told The Unionist this afternoon that viewers would see new material in the film.
“For someone who has read the book they will get it brought to life in pictures, and they will get some new information which I dug out for the film.”
“I think that the book is a once-off rare opportunity for people to see how politics really works, and the film will take this to thousands more people, which makes it hugely valuable,” he said.
According to this NZPA report the idea of the film had been with Alister Barry for some time and he had wanted to take a look at political tactics and spin-doctoring. After Brash’s Orewa speech he decided to look at National, and with the release of Hager’s book “suddenly the research side of things was taken care of.”
Barry says the documentary uses “miles” of archive footage with fresh interviews with academics and journalists and included the rise of John Key as a sub-plot. “You see in the film the emergence of this other person coming in behind Don Brash,” he says.
The film opens in Wellington on July 20.
