Local power couple behind feature film
Co-producer and cast member Lance Giles and his wife, writer/director Jordana Stott. PHOTO: SUPPLIED
Today is hugely special for Queenstown couple Jordana Stott and Lance Giles.
That's because their long-awaited first feature film, Forgive Us All, is being released in theatres nationwide today, including Queenstown's Silky Otter.
Described as neo-Western, apocalyptic and horror, it was entirely shot locally last autumn in just 27 days — on Queenstown Hill, Rees Valley Station, Ben Nevis Station and, briefly, Kingston.
And just over their 50% of their crew were locals.
The couple entirely funded the $10million film; Stott wrote the script and directed it, and Giles was the co-producer, with Jared Connon, and took a lead role.
Giles grew up on a Marlborough deer farm and Australian Stott studied film at Gold Coast's Bond University.
After they met they decided to make a feature film, so to fund it they set up a ready-made meal company, Youfoodz, in Brisbane in 2012.
By the time they sold the then publicly listed company in 2021 for $A125million, they had more than 1000 staff.
In that time Stott produced more than 30 TV commercials.
"We did amazing commercials," Giles says.
"It's a really good sort of grounding," Stott adds.
"You've got to be able to understand speed and pace and push through and make decisions extremely fast."
From early on the couple holidayed in Queenstown three or four times a year.
Stott: "And every time we were like, 'why are we going back [home]?"'
Giles: "We spent a lot of time out in the mountains and out in the landscape, and it really inspired a lot of Jordana's writing."
They ended up buying a lifestyle block in Gibbston and moving over.
They intended shooting Forgive Us All in spring '23, but union strikes in the United States meant they couldn't finalise their key cast.
"But I'm so glad because autumn is just spectacular," Giles says.
The couple were thrilled with the calibre of their cast including Australian leads Lily Sullivan, Callan Mulvey and Richard Roxburgh.
Stott: "There was an essence within the cast and crew of just everyone like really pitching in and really giving 100%."
Though the content might sound shocking, it's at heart a heartfelt story about a mother and her grief, they say, and the locations are a character in their own right.
They've already got ideas for future films and series.
"Our goal is to be able to wake up in our own bedroom and go out and shoot," Giles says.
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