Otago Girls High School history pupils Hannah Port, Mei Mackay, Elena Piere and Courtney Simpson (all 17) will be interviewed on Maori Television before their short film, The Women's War, is broadcast during Anzac Day commemorative programmes tonight.
The film was joint winner in the rangatahi (year 9 to 13) category, with Gisborne-based Mentoring Maori Youth Through Film's Tumatauenga: Te Hokinga Mai.
The pupils' film outlined the experiences of three young women - a nurse, a farmer's wife and a mother - during World War 1.
Elena said the pupils acted in, produced and edited the film themselves, and tried to make the screenplay "as realistic as possible''.
The film-making process was rewarding but labour intensive. Research was carried out as an extracurricular project and filming took about two weeks. Digital editing, completed on the school's media-class equipment, took about 30 hours. The final version was just five minutes
long.
The film was shown during school assembly last Friday, when a plaque dedicated to Frances Anderson was unveiled. Miss Anderson was a former school pupil who died in Egypt while working as a nurse during World War 2.
History teacher Sandra Spence will accompany the pupils to Auckland for the main screening at the Anzac Short Film Festival.
The pupils, and winners from the children's and open Anzac short film festival categories, will be interviewed during the live broadcast by filmmakers Ainsley Gardiner and Tearepa Kahi.
Film festival winners will receive awards and prize packs, which include professional camera kits, books and movie tickets.
