HOME SWEET HOME - A Silent Feature Film

“High Cost of Living!” - New Zealand Herald,  
 

“Rent Restriction law to end” - The Auckland Sun, 

“Roof taken off house! Effort to evict tenant!” - New Zealand Herald,

Sound like familiar headlines in your morning doom scroll? They're actually all from the 1920’s. 

Feeling nauseous? Like we are stuck in a dystopian time loop?  If the 1920’s are coming back around, what better way to highlight the absurdity of the housing crisis than through the lens of a slapstick silent film…

Home Sweet Home is a silent feature film about a passive-aggressive millennial renter with the pipe dream of owning a home of his own. When his frustration comes to a head, he kicks out his problem flatmate, only to be struck by instant karma, sending him on a cursed odyssey in and out of flats across Auckland, experiencing the brutal absurdity of the housing crisis in slapstick comedy fashion.

Set in 2025 Auckland, with a black and white aesthetic of 1925, Home Sweet Home depicts a world at risk of repeating the mistakes of the past. Already partly shot, Home Sweet Home is intended to be released during election year 26’ and will encourage audiences across Aotearoa to interrogate our nation's overriding capitalist view on housing.

My name is Conor Bowden, I’m a filmmaker originally from Ōtautahi and I’ve been making films on the smell of an oily rag for the past 15 years.  I make films primarily on smartphones, telling heightened, funny tales of humans living in close quarters. My most recent short, The Flat, screened at Academy Award accredited film festival Short Shorts Film Festival and Asia and serves as a proof of concept for Home Sweet Home.

Aside from filmmaking, I work as an Editor with most recent credits including the Lionsgate series Dark City - The Cleaner and Acorn TV’s Under the Vines. I am the writer, director and star of Home Sweet Home, which I promise isn't an opportunity for shameless self-promotion, but more a hat tip to the comic greats of the silent era.

Along for the ride are my Associate-Producers, hot off their low-budget independent feature Untitled Sports Team Horror Film, Annabel Kean and Callum Devlin of Sports Team. Kerri Roggio (Brokenwood Mysteries) is onboard as Editor and the cast features a collection of local actors and past flatmates of mine including Justin Rogers (Coco Reo Māori), Tim Earl (Ash vs Evil Dead) & Rhiannon McCall (Viva La Dirt League).

I've been filming Home Sweet Home for the past 2 years, keeping costs low by shooting entirely on my phone and in my flat. However in order to have the film wrapped and edited within the next year I need financial support.

The majority of the $15,000 will go towards paying my very small crew a liveable wage to work on the remaining 10 days of filming. In this cost of living (corporate greed) crisis, doing this work for free is not fair on them. I'm not paying myself, to be clear. I of course will be paid in adoration and glory once the film in released.

Other costs include special FX, props and moving van hire (for all the moving in the film). If we happen to exceed the donation target I have dreams of paying for a score to be composed for the film, to be played as live accompaniment at special screenings throughout election year.

The genesis of this project came from being at my wits end as a renter. After spending over a decade renting flats in Auckland, experiencing a lucky dip of questionable and down right illegal tenancy behaviour I had become disillusioned. 

From paying a fortune for a room with permanent indoor-out door flow (a missing 1 square meter window pane the landlord refused to replace), to avoidant property managers who ghost quicker than tinder dates, to the inevitable surrender and move which drains the bank account with the double rent paid and predictable email scuffle over the bond. I reached a breaking point when I was staring down the barrel of a potential 4th flat move in the space of 1 year. I felt like I was stuck in a silent comedy from the 1920's, where the protagonist despite all of their efforts, ends up with a pie in the face at every turn. It was time to create an artistic channel to vent my frustration.

I'm making this film to highlight the utter absurdity of our Housing systems in Aotearoa and what better time to do this than during the 2026 election year, when housing will likely be a hotly debated. 

I have big and small dreams for the film. Maybe it's shown on a projector screen in community halls, with a pianist accompanying it. Or maybe it gets to cinemas and theatres with special screenings featuring a live orchestra. Either way, the film will exist to encourage discussion leading up to the election and remind people that housing is first and foremost a human right for all.

"But Conor, aren't you creating a very black & white (excuse the pun) depiction of what is a complex social issue?"  Well, it is intended as satire, but within that, I promise there will be plenty of nuance. It's, a cinematic experience and with that, much like the silent comedies of the 20s, its purpose is to entertain. And if it can, create some change for good.