Spotlight: 'Head South' Is Streaming Now On AroVision

Revisiting and reimagining Canterbury's formative post-punk era of the late 1970s, Head South is the touching and genuinely funny coming-of-age comedy / drama film starring Ed Oxenbould, Marton Csokas, and Stella Bennett aka BENEE in her screen acting debut, who also worked with composer Shayne P. Carter on the rawkus Original Motion Picture Soundtrack.

Written / directed by Jonathan Ogilvie — drawing on his experiences growing up in Ōtautahi Christchurch during the '70s and '80s — produced by Antje Kulpe and shot by John Chrisstoffels (The Terminals), the film depicts the big dreams and deflated everyday life of high school student / punk rock bassist-to-be Angus (Oxenbould), who hatches a hopeful plan with pharmacy worker / guitarist Kirsten (Bennett) to play their first gig. Chaos, blown speakers, awkward sexual encounters and heartbreak ensues, keen eyes will also spot a cameo appearance by Roy Montgomery as the 'Suave Man'.

Head South premiered at Whānau Mārama New Zealand International Film Festival in 2024 and is now exclusively available to stream via AroVision. You can support local independent filmmaking, take in a lovingly crafted depiction of a crucial period in Aotearoa's noisy underground music culture and receive a handy discount using the code X79KBK08JUWN — here's the official lowdown...

AroVision is proud to partner with indie film distributor Forum Films and the film-makers for the exclusive digital presentation of Head South, the acclaimed rock ‘n’ roll coming-of-age film proudly made in Aotearoa.

Set in a vividly re-created Christchurch of 1979, and crafted with loving detail through the auto-biographical lens of writer-director Jonathan Ogilvie, the film is hilariously sardonic and endearingly shambolic in the spirit of the times, and the music of its post-punk subculture.