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Yellow Roses

An elderly Maori woman who pines for the company of her husband enlists the services of a Michael, a male escort in the hopes of reliving the companionship of her 50 marriage.

  • Paula Jones
    Director
    https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4520877/
  • Paula Jones
    Writer
    Waru - (Mere)
  • Anahera Parata
    Producer
    https://www.imdb.com/name/nm9052144/
  • Vicky Haughton
    Key Cast
    "Hine"
    https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0369357/
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Runtime:
    16 minutes 36 seconds
  • Production Budget:
    35,000 NZD
  • Country of Origin:
    New Zealand
  • Country of Filming:
    New Zealand
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Venice
  • Aspect Ratio:
    Scope 2.39:1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • NZIFF - Nga Whanaunga shorts
    Auckland
    New Zealand
    July 21, 2019
    World
    Offical selection - Nga Whanaunga Shorts
  • ImagineNative Film Festival
    Toronto
    Canada
    October 24, 2019
    Official selection
  • Vladivostok IFF PACIFIC MERIDIAN
    Vladivostok
    Russian Federation
    September 15, 2019
    official selection
  • Arlington Film Festival
Director Biography - Paula Jones

Paula is a mother and a grandmother and a New Zealand Māori film-maker. She is also the Director of Whitiora Productions Ltd. Paula has been writing documentary, shorts and feature film scripts for the last 20 years and achieved a Masters in Screenwriting at AUT in 2016.

She wrote and directed “Mere” which is one of the eight vignettes in the Internationally acclaimed feature film WARU. She has just completed a NZFC funded short film called “A Matter of Time” (a social commentary about 5 young people) which is also being submitted to film festivals.

Paula’s early documentary works all focus on social issues. Her most recent doco work is a web series, Pai in Palestine about a female Maori artist, Paitangi Ostick who travelled to Palestine to share Maori culture with local Palestinian artists. Presently she is in pre production for a funded Web series that she wrote and will direct (I DATE Rejects) and has development funding from NZFC for her first feature , Sins of the Mother, that she will also write and direct.

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Director Statement

Yellow Roses was inspired by the stories my Mum told me when she worked in the kitchen of a secure alzheimer's facility.

Older people get terribly lonely and yearn to be touched. So I got to thinking, how would someone, that loved her husband so much it hurt, enjoy a bit of companionship without being unfaithful. How could she keep her dignity and her privacy, and get exactly what she needed..

Ring an escort.

The need for love, being touched and being needed does not dissipate as you age. It's about being sensual without being sexual, about physical love being felt and appreciated and yearned for and about the loss of the “being” mourned. I want the audience to feel Hines loss and to understand her need to feel a connection to her husband, one last time through young Michael.

Over time the young escort grows fond of Hine and it was her unrequited love for her husband that made him decide to make a completely selfless decision.