Good move by chess movie

A documentary about a genius chess player won the top prize at the inaugural DOCNZ New Zealand international documentary film festival, announced last night.

Jim Marbrook won Best Feature Documentary for Dark Horse, his portrait of Genesis Potini, a Gisborne speed chess player with severe bipolar disorder.

Roseanne Liang won Best Medium Documentary for Banana in a Nutshell, an autobiographical account of her frustrations at wanting to marry a white man, and her conservative Hong Kong-born parents' reservations.

Best Short Documentary went to Richard Sidey for his landscape documentary, Aeon, which portrays perspectives and experiences of time within Wellington City.

The awards, which drew 30 New Zealand finalists, ran with the festival, a showcase of local and international documentaries that screened at the Academy Cinema for two weeks until yesterday. DOCNZ plans to introduce an international competition next year.

Last night, special mention also went to two films in each category: Children of the Migration (Lala Rolls) and The Promise (Leanne Pooley) for feature-length documentary; Tanim and Pacific Solution (both by James Frankham) for medium-length documentary; and Another Man's Treasure (Sandor Lau) and Alexander (Janna Sicely) for short documentary.

The winners took away cash prizes, electronics and clothing.

The festival launches in Wellington today with a week-long season at the Paramount and the winning films screening in a showcase on Sunday. See the International Documentary Festival New Zealand website (link below) for a schedule.