CAST Helen Moulder, Renee Lyons, Bryony Skillington | DIRECTOR Alyx Duncan | WRITER Michele Powles | PRODUCERS Lani-rain Feltham Michele Powles | EXECUTIVE PRODUCER Emma Slade | DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY Adam Luxton | EDITORS Adam-Luka Turjak, Margot Francis | PRODUCTION DESIGNER John Harding | ART DIRECTOR Dan Blanshard | MAKEUP & PROSTHETICS DESIGNER Carly Marr | PUPPETEER & PUPPET DESIGN Paul Lewis | CASTING Yvette Reid | SOUND DESIGNER Adam-Luka Turjak | 1st AD Lisa Prestt | MUSIC Voices NZ | COMPOSERS David Griffiths, Gillian Whitehead, Sarah Belkner (née McCallum) | Post Production Sound and Picture Services by Park Road Post Production | PRODUCED BY Junkyard Universe Films, In association with the New Zealand Film Commission, A Red Tree House and Landing Space collaboration
SYNOPSIS Feeling like she has been left to wilt and die in a retirement home, HILARY, 70s, wilful to the end, tries to escape by climbing the fence. She falls and discovers a puriri moth. As it flutters around her, she sees the giant, majesty of nature. Captivated, she becomes obsessed with getting outside again but her daughter and carers keep her locked in her room for her own safety. Fixated by the virulence of life outside her window, she begins to hear the deep beat of nature calling her. When the moth reappears, she tries to jump out the window to follow it but is thwarted by her carer. Stuck, lost and alone during a stormy night, she stills herself. Finally, she communicates directly with nature and rather than trying to get to it, invites it in. As dawn breaks, she has transformed into a tree.
DIRECTORS NOTES Growing Still is a love letter to all of us navigating the reality of mortality. When my father passed away recently, I was struck by how the slow labour of dying mirrored birth - with courage, surrender and grace. Our protagonist Hilary’s journey in the film carries that same spirit of opening to the unknown. It feels uncanny that we made this film before i was witness to the real process in my own life.
In our film Hilary chooses to embrace the next phase in her existence. She isn’t a passive victim within the battle of mortality. Rather she is fighting to move beyond the restrictions of her body and transcend into a new realm.
Watching as my dad recognize that battle, I appreciate the positive take on Hilary’s journey. She experiences something outside the walls of the nursing home that sustains and changes her. The home is no longer a place that keeps her safe from the dangers of life, but becomes a prison that’s holding her back from experiencing a greater truth.