Belief: The Possession of Janet Moses

[Writer/director David] Stubbs relied on the public record, interviews with others — in particular prosecution and defence counsel — and reenactment by a nimble and assured cast to dig behind the sensational headlines of the trial coverage.

– Peter Calder in The NZ Herald, 16 July 2015, page C9

This is a cautionary tale that I hope starts conversations around where spirituality sits in our community, and why many beliefs are still held secret.

– David Stubbs

I don’t believe she died because of a belief in spirituality. I believe she died because of a group dynamic that happened in a certain situation in a house to a family who were desperate to save someone.

– Writer/director David Stubbs on the death of Janet Moses, in an interview with Radio New Zealand, 8 August 2015

Exorcism has connotations to it ... I called it possession because what I believe, and what one of the tohunga in the film says that if it was anything, it wasn’t a mākutu, it was a possession. That’s what the family believed: she had a demon inside of her, which isn’t mākutu. And also, the family saw Janet as their possession...a precious taonga, if you like, that they were protecting.

– David Stubbs in an interview with Radio New Zealand, 8 August 2015