Soldiers Road
2018 · 3m · New Zealand
Directed by Louise Pattinson
Genres: coming-of-age, documentary
Tones: contemplative, tender
A portrait project helps expelled young Māori reframe how they see themselves and their futures.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
It's competent social-practice filmmaking, sure, but there's nothing here that actually *unsettles* you—just affirmation dressed up as portraiture. The premise does the heavy lifting; the film itself is too genteel to push back.
Pattinson situates this firmly within the documentary-as-intervention tradition, and the restraint—letting the subjects' own framing speak—feels like a considered formal choice rather than budgetary constraint. The pacing honors the contemplative space these young people need.
What makes this work isn't the worthy premise but the decision to let the subjects' own words and silences carry the weight—there's a trust in the portrait form itself that transforms a simple three-minute structure into something that actually lands emotionally and shifts perception.