Mates: Documentary maker Costa Botes, left, and Andrew Johnstone at the Cambridge premiere of When the Cows Come Home. Photo: Mary Anne Gill
When award-winning documentary film director Costa Botes asked Andrew Johnstone if he could film him and his cows in Cambridge, Johnstone readily agreed thinking nothing more about it.
Two years on, as he looks at himself on the big screen, it feels like an out of body experience.
“It is like watching a stranger,” he says the day after the Cambridge premiere of When the Cows Come Home featuring his life story.
It is beautifully shot in Fencourt and features Tilly and Maggie, the older cows Johnstone has to keep his younger cows in check.
The movie delves into Johnstone’s past – the tragic death of his sister, his time at a Catholic boarding school in Auckland, his various career choices and the depression which became such a big part of his life.
Until he rediscovered cows at his parents’ farm.
“Learning about cows has been one of the most fascinating and fulfilling things I’ve ever done in my whole life,” said Johnstone after the film’s showing at Tivoli Cinema last week.
“We have completely underestimated them. We think they are only food and nothing else. There’s a hell of a lot going on in a cow’s mind. They have a rich emotional life.”
Farmers train cows to do very complex tasks, he says.
His parents were leasing out their farm and wanted Johnstone to come back home.
“When I moved here the first cow I met was Tilly.” He decided to keep her and he brought in Maggie, a frightened and random cow who became close to Tilly.
They don’t groom each other but they are friends. They graze together and they’re always looking out for each other.
At the premiere Botes told guests – who included Waipā mayor Susan O’Regan, Johnstone’s family and people who talked about Johnstone’s past in the movie – that filming the documentary opened his eyes about cows.
“I thought cows were just numburgers.”
Botes is one of New Zealand’s most unheralded directors. Born in Turkey, to Greek parents in 1958, he grew up in New Zealand. His career took off when he collaborated with Peter Jackson to make the hoax movie Forgotten Silver.
Since then, he has made several stunning documentaries including The Last Dogs of Winter, shot in Canada and featuring eskimo dogs, the rarest breed of dog on the planet.
Four years ago, his documentary on Angie Meiklejohn, who spent time at the Centrepoint commune, won huge praise.
The world premiere of When the Cows came Home was held in Auckland on July 31 as part of Whānau Mārama (the NZ International Film Festival).
The movie starts slowly and 10 minutes into the 104-minute long film, it is tempting to look towards the exit.
But if you do, you will miss the whole point of the movie and you come to realise what an astute and masterful storyteller and cinematographer Botes is. For him to recognise in Johnstone that there was more to him than just cows, is a special trait.
The News came in for a special mention. After we highlighted Johnstone’s efforts a year ago to pick up Sprite bottles and other litter along Fencourt Road, much of the rubbish disappeared, for a while.
It is coming back again and if the movie featuring the beautiful Fencourt countryside does nothing else, it would be nice to see the litter disappear again.
When the Cows Come Home opens at Tivoli Cinema in Cambridge today (Thursday).
