PACK RAT

At a rural New Zealand paddock party, a fifteen-year-old girl fights to keep her place among the pack of boys she has grown up with. As day turns to night, she falls into a power game with the pack's alpha - but it is the wrestle within herself that proves to be her hardest challenge.

Pack Rat was awarded He Kauahi Catalyst funding and support from the New Zealand Film Commission. Pack Rat premiered in October 2024 at New Zealand’s only Oscar®-qualifying festival, Show Me Shorts, where it won Best Screenplay. At the Australian Cinematographers Society Awards Pack Rat won GOLD in the Short Films category.

Role: writer, director, editor

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

Inspired by my adolescence growing up in the rural Far North of Aotearoa, these remembrances and experiences served as the basis for Pack Rat's story, narrative, and characters. Like the protagonist, I was very close to a group of boys, yet I was also kept slightly on the outside of the pack. Pack Rat is a nostalgic and cathartic love/hate letter to this time in my life — a beautifully messy, awkward, insecure age, negotiating belonging and acceptance.

FESTIVALS & AWARDS

Show Me Shorts Film Festival (New Zealand) - Best Screenplay, winner!
Australian Cinematographers Society Awards - GOLD, winner!

TEAM

In Association with THE NEW ZEALAND FILM COMMISSION

Producer JOHNNY LYON
Casting Director STU TURNER, CATCH CASTING
Cinematographer RYAN ALEXANDER LLOYD
Production Designer GLENN BLOMFIELD

PARK ROAD POST PRODUCTION
Sound Effects Editor + Re-Recording Mixer ALEXIS FEODOROFF
Dialogue Editor + Re-Recording Mixer TIM CHAPRONIERE
Colorist MATTHEW WEAR

CAST

Baby Teeth DEEDEE COMET
Louie CALEB CAMERON-LEE
Holden NICO MOY
Chops MAKEA UPU
Dyl MATTY ROCKEL
Curt BEN OLLIVER
Nat GEMA WHITFORD-JOYNT
Gemma EMILY PATTERSON