A documentary about the 2017 Golden Shears is taking a unique perspective on the sport by following five women competitors on their way to the big event.
Shear director Jack Nicol spoke to The Country's Jamie Mackay about why he chose to make a documentary on one of New Zealand's top rural sporting events.
"What we wanted to do was show off the shearing world and the shearing community in a way it's never really been seen before...just sort of show off how awesome Kiwi shearers really are."
Nicol says Shear features a range of abilities including women who are well known in the shearing community such as Emily Welch and Jills Angus Burney along with up-and-coming woolhandler Pagan Karauria.
Nicol hopes the documentary will illustrate how difficult it is to make it in the shearing world, saying "shearing a sheep is much harder than a lot of people, (particularly from the cities), understand."
