FILM MAKER, PERFORMER, CHOREOGRAPHER
“Morag Magnolia shares an extraordinary vision both celebratory and profound”
NZ HERALD
“Brownlie must be our bravest, brightest and zaniest wunderkind " NZ HERALD
Morag has shared her imaginative spirit, concepts and striking visuals for film, fashion, dance theater and live special events. Morag has been on both side of the camera and has performed in short films and many dance-theatre productions.
She began her love of film helping friends make art school films at University. She then studied full-time dance at a Maori performing arts school "Puawai" after she gained a Diploma in contemporary dance at " The Performing arts school of Auckland. She then studied African dance at "The Bagamoyo college of Art" in Tanzania.
Morag returned to make two full length Multimedia shows collaborating with many film makers dancers and animators. Morag made Super-8 stop-frame animations and many experimental little films. She was back to the medium and hooked.
Morag has Produced, Directed and Distributed (and more recently Edited) x 3 Art Council funded short films.
Her current short film "Perfect Storm" was made about, and in and out of Lock-downs in New Zealand. It has had numerous nominations , finalists, selections and a couple of awards. It premiered at the stunning A-list film festival Warsaw in Poland, sharing its premier at the amazing Thessaloniki Short film festival where it won a Cinematic achievement award.
Morag won best female editor at the Toronto Woman's film festival with this film .
Perfect Storm has had over 23 selections and the film has been nominated /finalist many times most often in best live action, cinematography, experimental, and dance and poetic categories. It toured new Zealand in the Nga Whanaunga programme of the NZIFF.
Morag was nominated in the Nokia N.Z film awards for best contribution to short film as Director for her first short film "Mes Mer ... ". This film was accepted to many international film festivals including HOF in Germany and was then distributed throughout Europe by Inter-film. Morag presented the film at the Hawaii International film festival HIFF.
Her 2nd poetic and experimental film "Rover" screened throughout N.Z in the International film festival and also in Germany.
Other roles of interest...
Morag worked as principal choreographer, artistic director, and visuals director for the renowned spectacle that is "World of Wearable art", this took alot of her creative juices for most of 15 years, winning tourism awards and screening on Nationwide Television.
She was invited to be Artistic Director for both Team New Zealand's Americas Cup balls.
Morag has a feature, 2 shorts and some series concepts brewing .