“Using a personal voice and poetic style of film-making, writer/director Peter Wells looks at his life through pansy-tinted glasses as he makes the journey back to his childhood in the poignant autobiographical documentary PANSY. Charting the voyage of a man who later became an outspoken New Zealand gay artist, it looks back at the complications of his past and a period of time when it was compulsory to be straight. He also recalls the loss of his only sibling, brother Russell, to HIV Aids in 1989.
Born in the moralistic 1950s, in a seaside suburb of Auckland, Peter became a leading New Zealand writer and filmmaker. The first author to publish a work of gay fiction under his own name, he also made a series of films, along with Stewart Main, which kicked off gay film-making in New Zealand. His films include ‘A Death in the Family’ and the visually stunning feature film ‘Desperate Remedies’.
Peter’s first book ‘Dangerous Desires’ won the NZ Book Award and was an international literary success. The Niki Caro directed film ‘Memory and Desire’ was based on this story.
PANSY explores the people, places and experiences that shaped Peter Wells as a man and an artist. A mixture of documentary, home movie, poetry and contemplation, it is an affectionate look back at a New Zealand past many people will recognise.” (TVNZ Publicity)