This Way of Life

Dir. Tom Burstyn
New Zealand, 2009, 84 mins.

In this stunning documentary, director Tom Burstyn follows the Karena family and their hardships and happiness for four years. Set against the breathtaking backdrop of the Ruahine Mountains in New Zealand, the audience is brought into their way of life, a not-so-fine balance between nomadic and material freedom and consequential disaster.

Peter Karena and his wife Colleen raise their six charming children – first, in a dilapidated house that had been passed down by family, and then, in a series of makeshift squats. What stands true at the heart of this family is their pursuit of true happiness and their love for one another. The honesty of the film’s storytellers is powerful enough to make us “city folk” ponder what it truly means to be a “parent,” not to mention, a “family.”

This Way of Life was by-far my favorite documentary at VIFF. The film was immaculately edited and deeply intimate. Burstyn captured the rugged beauty of the New Zealand’s countryside and really made the audience care about the Karena clan.