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Ellen is Leaving
Short Film (Full Length) – 2012
In this short film, a young woman (Tai Berdinner-Blades) attempts to find a new love for her boyfriend before departing overseas. Director Michelle Savill and writer Martha Hardy-Ward take the common Kiwi experience of the big OE and give it a melancholic and touching treatment, with just a touch of silliness. Ellen Is Leaving not only captures the bittersweet sadness of moving abroad, but also the experience of being a 20-something flatting in Wellington. The short enjoyed overseas festival success, winning Best Narrative Short at North American festivals South By Southwest and San Francisco in 2013.
I am interested in New Zealand’s fascination with the OE and how many of us have had relationships end due to travel. The choices that are open to us, in this time, in this place, at this age, is a type of relationship cancer of the young adult generation.– Director Michelle Savill, in a 28 July 2012 interview for website Admit One
Key Cast & Crew
Tai Berdinner-Blades
Jack Sergent-Shadbolt
Andrew Stroud
Martha Hardy-Ward
Michelle Savill
Desray Armstrong
Produced by
Paint-by-Numbers Collective
Acknowledgements
Made in association with the NZ Film Commission's Fresh Shorts programme
Music
Features songs by Bachelorette, The Plot Club (including Michelle Savill), Jeremy Liss, The Plot Club, The Gladeyes and Happy Trendy
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