HEAD SOUTH
New Zealand / 2024 / 98 min / DCP / Comedy drama

Director : Jonathan Ogilvie

Script : Jonathan Ogilvie
Cinematography : John Christoffells
Editing : Julie-Anne de Ruvo
Music : Shayne Carter
Production : Antje Kulpe, Jonathan Ogilvie

Cast : Ed Oxenbould (Angus), Marton Csokas (Gordon), Trendall Pulini (Jamie), Stella Bennett (Kirsten), Roxie Mohebbi (Holly)

Rotterdam Festival Opening 2024
Introduced by Jonathan Ogilvie

Christchurch, New Zealand 1979. Angus, alone for a fortnight with his world-weary father, is drawn into the underground post-punk music scene. Desperate to fit in with this magnetic but fickle subculture, Angus distances himself from his true friends and fabricates his musical abilities. Caught out by his own deceit he must become the musician he pretended to be. With the support of his friends, especially the talented Kirsten, Angus navigates self-doubt, derision, harmful behaviour and a family tragedy to take the stage for the first time.

Jonathan Ogilvie

Whilst living in London in the 80s, Jonathan worked on the crew of several feature films including Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket. This experience cemented his desire to become a filmmaker. He graduated from the Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS) in 1990.
He wrote and directed The Tender Hook (starring Hugo Weaving and Rose Byrne) which was released in 2008 by Icon Films and was nominated for five AFI awards and an AWGIE award for Best Feature Screenplay and has made numerous short films that have screened at major film festivals and have sold internationally. Despondent Divorcee and This Film Is A Dog were both selected for Official Competition at the Cannes Film Festival. This Film Is A Dog also won Tropfest.
In 2007 he made Emulsion, which screened at the Brisbane International Film Festival, Cinema des Antipodes in Cannes, Saint-Tropez Antipodes Film Festival and Ozflix in Toronto.
From 2009–2014 Jonathan was a Directing and Screenwriting Lecturer at AFTRS.
In 2018 he was awarded a PhD from Macquarie University for his thesis The Cinematics of Surveillance and his screenplay Lone Wolf. Lone Wolf was filmed in Melbourne in 2019. It premiered at the Melbourne International Film Festival in 2021. Head South is his last film set in New Zealand.