Our House (Quarters)

'Our House' is a short film written and directed by Jessica, and is one of four short films that comprise the collaborative film project 'Quarters'. The collective project includes films by; Ian Hammond (The Depth of Place), Richard Larsen (On the Edge of a Frozen Sea) and Rowan Pierce (Bethankit). 'Quarters' grew from the four artists’ responses to New Zealand Film Commission guidelines, which state that any film funded by them will be on a ‘New Zealand subject’. The four used this as a provocation to create four different perspectives on the concept of Aotearoa as ‘home’, “...we hoped that this project would help to expel the myth of a homogenised national identity, whilst building an understanding of difference as an inherent if not essential component of this country.” - Quarters collective Jessica’s response, 'Our House', looks at the intangible home that comes through the recollection of places and people that are no longer with us. The short film follows a young woman. As she collects the last bits and pieces of a family home as her memories and old family stories start to manifest in the rooms around her. With a focus on her Māori and Pākehā whakapapa, Jessica looked at personal recollections as well as stories and more distant historical events facing her ancestors. Quarters screened at the Wellington City Gallery as part of the 2010 New Zealand International Film Festival.