Alun Bollinger

Movies

Bright Star
Cinematography
Whetū Mārama is the story of Sir Hekenukumai Ngaiwi Puhipi and his significance for Māori in rekindling their wayfinding DNA, reclaiming our place as traditional star voyages on the world map.   
In Dark Places
Camera Operator
In Dark Places is the gripping story of an innocent man, imprisoned for two decades for a crime he did not commit, and an ex-cop's heroic battle to win him his freedom.
In Dark Places
Director of Photography
In Dark Places is the gripping story of an innocent man, imprisoned for two decades for a crime he did not commit, and an ex-cop's heroic battle to win him his freedom.
The Stolen
Cinematography
The story of a woman who must find her kidnapped son, navigating a world she doesn't know, on the edge of danger with every heartbeat.
The Great Maiden's Blush
Cinematography
Two first-time single mothers - on a girl racer, the other a pianist and gardener - share a post-natal ward room after the birth of their babies and develop a precarious friendship. As they face the challenges of new motherhood, they must confront their pasts and face the truth about their babies' fathers.
River Queen
Director of Photography
An intimate story set during the 1860s in which a young Irish woman Sarah and her family find themselves on both sides of the turbulent wars between British and Maori during the British colonization of New Zealand.
Oyster Farmer
Cinematography
A love story about a young man who runs away up an isolated Australian river and gets a job with eighth generation oyster famers.
The Frighteners
Director of Photography
Once an architect, Frank Bannister now passes himself off as an exorcist of evil spirits. To bolster his facade, he claims his "special" gift is the result of a car accident that killed his wife. But what he does not count on is more people dying in the small town where he lives. As he tries to piece together the supernatural mystery of these killings, he falls in love with the wife of one of the victims and deals with a crazy FBI agent.
War Stories Our Mothers Never Told Us
Cinematography
Seven New Zealand women speak about their lives during World War II: some lost husbands, some got married, some went into service themselves. The director lets the women tell their stories simply, alternating between them talking and archival footage of the war years.
Forgotten Silver
Director of Photography
The life story of Colin McKenzie, a forgotten pioneer of international cinema who was born in rural New Zealand in 1888.
Cinema of Unease: A Personal Journey by Sam Neill
Director of Photography
Actor Sam Neill discusses New Zealand film and his own experiences within and without.
Heavenly Creatures
Director of Photography
Wealthy and precocious teenager Juliet transfers from England to New Zealand with her family, and soon befriends the quiet, brooding Pauline through their shared love of fantasy and literature. When their parents begin to suspect that their increasingly intense and obsessive bond is becoming unhealthy, the girls hatch a dark plan for those who threaten to keep them apart.
The End of the Golden Weather
Cinematography
Family drama set in New Zealand about Geoff Crome, a young boy (Fulford) who immerses himself in his own private fantasy world where he meets Firpo (Papps), a strange being who dreams of being an Olympic athlete. Together, the two begin a close friendship as Geoff attempts to help Firpo realise his dream. However, it is not long until the adult world begins to impinge on his fantasy.
The Haunting of Barney Palmer
Cinematography
The Haunting of Barney Palmer is a fantasy film for children about a young boy who is haunted by his great uncle. Young Barney fears that he has inherited the Scholar family curse; a suite of 80s-era effects ramp up the supernatural suspense. The film was a co-production between PBS (United States) and Wellington's Gibson Group, which resulted in Ned Beatty (Deliverance, Network) being cast. It was written by Margaret Mahy, based on her Carnegie Award-winning novel The Haunting, and an early fruitful collaboration between her and director Yvonne Mackay.
For Love Alone
Director of Photography
Teresa is a spirited young girl chafing under the oppressive attitudes of 1930s society, and her father in particular. She fancies her poverty-stricken Latin tutor Johnathan Crow, without realising he merely considers her a pleasant diversion and nothing more, and eventually follows him from Sydney to London. En route she meets the gentle banker James Quick. Whilst navigating her relationships in London, including with a political poet bound for the Spanish Civil War, she experiences a transformation in her understanding of love. Based upon Christina Stead's best-selling Australian novel.
Came a Hot Friday
Director of Photography
Set in post-war (1949) rural New Zealand, this film traces the efforts of two con men to run a betting scam in a small town (Tainuea) already rife with illegal gambling corruption, and eccentricity.
Vigil
Director of Photography
Toss lives on a sheep farm with her father in New Zealand. When Toss's father dies in an accident, Ethan, an itinerant hunter, wanders onto the family farm and is given a job by her grandfather. Toss's fairly innocent relationship with Ethan is severed when he forms a relationship with her mother.
Making Utu
Cinematography
Making of documentary on the set of New Zealand's first epic Utu (1983), working with little money and dealing respectfully with matters of cultural protocol. Merata Mita discusses complex issues of inter-cultural conflict.
Wildcat: The Struggle for Democracy in the New Zealand Timberworkers' Union
Additional Photography
Delegates and workers discuss the issues that effect the Timberworkers’ Union, the reasons for the formation of the Combined Council of Timber Workers Delegates (CCD) and their industrial action.
In Spring One Plants Alone
Director of Photography
This is the story of Puhi, an aged Maori woman and Niki, her fully grown but wholly dependent son. The world they occupy is not a world of large events but the rituals of everyday life, traditions and interdependence. “In Spring One Plants Alone” documents the minutiae of their very enclosed existence. Filmed over a period of one and a half years, it emerges as a rare, haunting and powerful portrayal of their life together. This is the story of their rituals and of their survival. The small and disconnected instances that we encounter form a lone vision of the rifts and the bond between an old woman and her disturbed son.
Sons for the Return Home
Director of Photography
A Samoan male, Sione, and a Palagi New Zealand female,Sarah, meet while studying at Wellington's Victoria University. A relationship develops quickly, but each finds the other's culture a hard adjustment. Friends and family are not supportive, particularly when she becomes pregnant, although he proposes marriage. She leaves for Australia for an abortion and he returns to Samoa.
Middle Age Spread
Camera Operator
Colin is the deputy principal of a city high school (Avondale College, Auckland) who reluctantly applies for the principal's job on the latter's retirement. Colin's wife, Elizabeth - who is losing interest in him -gives a dinner party. Among the guests is Judy, temporarily reconciled with her husband for the sake of the children. Colin - who has taken upon jogging to combat a spreading waistline - and Judy, gradually enter into an affair.
Nutcase
Grip
Evil Eva and her cronies threaten to blow their enemies sky-high by reactivating the Rangitoto volcano with a nuclear device. However, the goofy gang isn't all bad - they like to break into song and dance while holding the city for ransom. Who will save the city from destruction? Why a talented trio of kids, including a nutcase who has invented an antigravity machine. The police force, zonked out on Eva's drugged coffee, are made ineffectual.
A State of Siege
Director of Photography
Malfred Signal leaves her life of stifling gentility as an art teacher in a South Island private girls' school and decides to live out her dream – painting alone in the remote North. One terrifying night, beset by a prowler, but confronting only her own image at every step, she relives her past.
Dagg Day Afternoon
Director of Photography
A series of sketches about Kiwi extraordinaire Fred Dagg's secret mission to find a "bionic sheep" which has been lost by the government.
Wild Man
Director of Photography
The story of two itinerant con men, the Wild Man and the Colonel, who operate on the West Coast gold mining towns of the New Zealand South Island during the latter part of the last century.
Uenuku
Cinematography
Tells the Māori legend of Uenuku and his affair with the mist maiden Hinepūkohurangi. A story of love, betrayal, and rainbow redemption. Filmed at the Waimarama base.