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River of Freedom began streaming on December 13 and within 24 hours was the 4th most watched movie in NZ on iTunes, after Barbie, Denzel Washingtons The Equalizer 3 and Taylor Swift’s Eras.
The documentary is “a unique and visceral account of the under-reported and divisive furore that erupted in NZ over its Covid policy,” says Journeyman’s CEO, Mark Stucke who secured worldwide rights. It is now available to rent or buy on Apple TV, Vimeo and YouTube with Amazon to follow.
River of Freedom was distributed independently and reached #10 at the NZ Box Office in its third week, nudging Oppenheimer out. Despite being ignored by mainstream media and major theatres the documentary was the most watched film in the country on 21st September. Audiences travelled from far and wide, with ticket sales compared to Barbie and Oppenheimer, even Lord of the Rings.
New Zealand's primary media platform, Stuff, finally sent a reviewer to see the film in it's third week: Graeme Tuckett reported "It took me a week to get a ticket. The film sold out its Wellington screenings for five straight days. The Thursday afternoon session I got into was also a sell-out."
River of Freedom is an intimate journey into New Zealand’s 2022 Freedom Convoy and Parliament protest - an uprising against Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s severe No Jab, No Job mandatory Covid-19 vaccination regime, one of the harshest worldwide. River of Freedom lays out the reasons behind the uprising - who the people were, why they were there and what happened.
The film is written, produced and directed by Gaylene Barnes (Seven Rivers Walking) and produced by Jared Connon (Pearl) and Julian Arahanga (Songs from the Inside). Robin Monotti Graziadei (The Book of Vision) is executive producer, with cinematography from Co-producer Mark Lapwood.
The production was entirely crowd-funded, with no government or lottery money.
“Of the ten cinemas that screened River of Freedom during week one, we had four screens,” says Matt Bell of Focal Point Cinemas. “After 11 days, we've taken $30,700 gross box office. It was our top movie at all four sites for two weeks running, which is pretty good for a documentary.”
But many cinemas still hadn’t come on board. "It’s actually performing, but there are so many parts of the country where people can't get out and see this movie, because it’s not in their neighbourhood".
On 21st September, in its third week, River of Freedom reached #1 at the Box Office on only a small number of screens. Larger theatres took notice and started booking the film. Where it wasn’t screening, many locals contacted the cinema and posted requests on social media. In one town locals created a change.org petition for their theatre to show it.
“The people are so nice and they're thanking me for showing it,” says Paul McPhail from the St James Theatre in Gore, where some audience members have travelled from as far as Queenstown, 167 km away. “If I'd have known this info back then I would have behaved differently.”
In Methven, about an hour out of Christchurch, Cinema Paradiso has been in a bad way financially since Covid. “We were looking at maybe closing the cinema at the end of the ski season,” says owner Richard Sheppard. “We just didn't have people coming to the movies despite having lots of mainstream and New Zealand movies playing.”
Ticket sales have been amazing,” he says. “It's probably one of the biggest movies I've had here, on par with Barbie and Oppenheimer.
“River of Freedom opened up the doors and got people walking through again,” agrees wife Kristina. “They've clapped at the end of every session and come out and said how wonderful it is. We've had several members of the public hugging us and thank us for screening it. People from all walks of life have come along and been deeply moved.”
“I’ve heard comments that ‘everyone should see this movie’,” agrees Matt Bell. “At the end, people are not in a rush to get out of the cinema. They let it breathe a bit and the lights come on and they slowly leave as opposed to the mad rush out the door. I’d ask them how they found it, get into conversations. Most people have a story as well.”
And the audience were bringing back friends and family to show the side of the protest that mainstream media did not – the heart. One person has seen it 9 times. In total the film played for 10 weeks, Rialto Cinema in the main city of Auckland screening it for 8 of those.
“I’m really proud of the success of our film in New Zealand and how it touched audiences,” says director and editor Gaylene Barnes. “What an opportunity for people the world over to experience New Zealand at its worst… and at its best.”
