May 29, 2026 • 11 mins
Set in a run-down Wellington villa in 2003, Caterpillar follows three women living separate lives under one leaky roof.
Sixteen-year-old Cassie is all bravado and vulnerability, drifting into risky territory as she searches for belonging. Her mother Maxine, 52, is a formidable single parent and filmmaker on the brink of a long-awaited breakthrough, finally offered a greenlight—if she can land a star. Holding everything together is Huia, Cassie’s grandmother, 80, whose life has been defined by quiet service to family and a private obsession with raising monarch caterpillars, dreaming of one day witnessing the legendary butterfly migration in Mexico.
Director Chelsie Preston Crayford joined Matt Heath and Tyler Adams on the show to chat about her new film Caterpillar.
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from News Talk zed B.
Follow this and our Wide Ranger podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
News talk EDB New Zealand film Caterpillar is in cinemas now, A.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
You're right, we did ask that you bring a family
member to the meeting today.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Have you spoken to your daughter? It's pretty clear it's
progressing rapidly. Hold on.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
What happened to you?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
It is a stunningly beautiful film and it looks at
relationships between mothers and daughters and how those evolve over time.
It is getting rave reviews and we are joined now
by writer and director Chelsea Preston Crayford. Very good afternoon
to you, Chelsea.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
Hi, how are you joining? Tyler?
Speaker 5 (00:58):
He's doing very good and so am I now, Chelsea,
obviously this movie is is very personal. Can you tell
us about your inspiration for writing it?
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Well, it's set in two thousand and three in Wellington,
and it may surprise you to learn I also grew
up in Wellington and two and three. It's a work
of what I would call auto fiction, so it's sort
of set in the world of my life growing up.
I grew up in a house with my mum, and
my grandma. And the film follows these three generations of women.
(01:34):
It's multi protagonist, and we follow these three women at
three pivotal life stages as their families going through a
massive change kind of unbeknownst to them, and they're all
all of their needs are smashing up against one another.
So it's inspired by my life Wellington growing up. There's
(01:54):
lots of two thousand and three bangers like Stellar. We
have Scribe and there with Savage, We've got Concord Dawn.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
It's yeah, it's pretty to go back to that time.
Speaker 5 (02:10):
So tell us about the three characters, the three generation
main characters, who they are.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
So we've got Cassie, who's sixteen going on twenty six.
She's either rampantly overconfident or wildly and secure, nowhere in between.
She's spiraling the whole time, trying her luck with sort
of she's got really thin eyebrows and she's kissing the
waters with boy races and badly homemade bongs. And then
(02:40):
we've got Maxine, she's in her fifties. She's a trailblazing
feminist filmmaker on the verge of a big breakthrough. And
then we've got Yeah, I don't know if you can
think of any parallel. And then we've got Huya, who
is eighty and she's been the domestic glue of their family,
(03:01):
but she's starting to feel her mind playing tricks on her,
and she's starting to realize that she's she's not going
to be you know, things aren't going to be how
they are for much longer. And this is kind of
the catalyst for the film.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Sound like incredible characters, Chelsea. So the monarch butterfly is
a recurring element in this film. How did that come
into the story?
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Well, my dad actually like because the film, because the
film is auto fiction, so it feels really you know,
obviously there's a lot of stuff that draws from real life,
but not much of the story actually happened. The overall
sort of emotional arc of it happened. My grandmother had dementia,
(03:46):
and obviously we had to learn how to hold her
instead of her holding.
Speaker 4 (03:51):
Us, which is really the arc of the story.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
But the main character who is she She loves monarch
butterflies and that my grandma never was a monarch person.
My dad was a monarch person. And one day I
went to his house and he had been on this
crusade trying to save these caterpillars from paper wasps. And
he gave me this twenty minute speech about this massive
(04:20):
kind of crusade he'd been on all day, and then
he said, at the end of its life is a
hostile thing sometimes, and I was like, well, this is
going in the movie.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
This is a great line.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
It's a great metaphor that sort of runs through the film.
Speaker 5 (04:38):
So, you know, auto fiction, you're obviously working through real
life grief and using art to do that. Would you
recommend that as a way as a pass to deal
with grief?
Speaker 4 (04:50):
Absolutely?
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Yeah, I've done that in short films as well, of
you know, taking something.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
I mean, the film is about grief, but.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
It's also massively about love. It's about how to love
each other even when all of your needs are colliding
and your all very different. And yeah, I think art
is a really important way of kind of taking these
(05:19):
universal human experiences that are hard and turning them into
something that can be cathartic, that can connect us, and
also that can be really funny, Like hopefully the film
is all so funny. It's got it's got this kind
of teenage Shakespeare production that runs through it, and this questionable,
(05:42):
maybe slightly creepy drama teacher running through it. That's quite
cringey and also very a real two thousand and three
throwback to a certain type of guy. And yeah, so
I think art's a really important way to do that.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Was that the key here when you've got the you know,
part of the movie is around dementia, and dementia for
a lot of people can be a bit of a
taboo thing. And I'll say this, Chelsea that my nana
had dementia as well. But when you mentioned human there,
Nana was the first one to make lights of some
of the things that were going on when she had
that dementia. So is that part of I suppose breaking
(06:23):
open what can be difficult for people to broach even
if they are experiencing it.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
And I think, like you know, with storytelling, I think
if you want.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
People to be able to cry, you have to be able.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
To make them laugh, you know, sort of. And that's
what we.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
Do as New Zealanders as well.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
That's what we're so good at. Is like, some of
the hardest times of my life, or you know, the
most dire moments are also the funniest. It's just kind
of what we're good at.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
It's how we cope. And that's life, isn't it. It's
all of it. It's the light in the shade.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
We're talking to writer and director Chelsea Preston Cranefurt about
her new film Caterpillar in Cinemas.
Speaker 5 (07:07):
Now we'll speaking of life. There's been a lot of
your life acting. You're an actor of note, How does
that How does that work as a director, How does
that influence your directing style? Coming from an actor's perspective.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
It's interesting, isn't it. I mean I wouldn't know. I
wouldn't know necessarily, like.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
I just did my best.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
But it definitely like I had a lot of I
guess understanding of the actors, and you know, they really
like we have the casting. This is the thing is
like the film has had the most amazing reception. We've
had phenomenal reviews. We've got five stars in the Herald,
(07:50):
four stars of the Listener. We've had like incredible audience responses.
And it's clear, as you say, Tyler, that this is
like a really universal experience going through something with an
aging family member, and many of us have experience dementia
as well. And the cast, I mean, the characters are also,
(08:13):
you know, really obviously were very personal to me, and
the cast A Nation who played Cassy, the youngest character,
Martin dust Ador who played Maxine the filmmaker, and then
Lisa Harrow, one of our absolute icons in New Zealand,
(08:36):
playing Huya. They gave their whole selves to these roles.
It really was quite an extraordinary experience, particularly with Lisa,
because Lisa was grieving her husband Roger at the time,
and obviously this film was a vehicle for my grief
for my grandma, and so we had this quite incredible
(08:57):
exchange Lisa and I where we held space for each
other's grief, and I think that comes through in the movie.
You know a lot of people are coming out up
moved and hopefully it's uplifting as well.
Speaker 5 (09:13):
So you worked on this project for a very long time,
So what's it been like. So what's the feeling finishing
it and releasing it with so much work gone into
it and then getting such an amazing response.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
It's pretty wild. It's been eight years since the sort
of first germ of the idea to now it being
in cinemas and all New Zealand. You know, that's not
an uncommon timeline. Like all New Zealand films are such
a labor of love. And this is the thing that
(09:49):
I think that people don't realize is the amount of
time that they stay in cinemas is informed by the opening.
Speaker 4 (09:57):
Few weeks box office.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
So if people don't get out. You know, we live
in this age of streaming now where everything's available all
the time, that's still not necessarily true of our New
Zealand stories.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
You actually have to get out there.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
If you want to see them and you want them
to stick around, you have to get out there and
see them as soon as you can. Because I can
tell you Star Wars will be in the film in
the cinemas in a month, but the New Zealand films that.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
Are there at the moment won't necessarily be It's a.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Brilliant error at the moment. Absolutely, Chelsea, thank you very
much for having a chat with us, and congratulations. As
you say it is getting rave reviews, it looks to
be an incredibly beautiful and also personal film, So congratulations
and thank you very much for jetting with us.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
Yeah, get out there and go to the movies and
take your mom and take your daughter.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
And you know absolutely that's what I'll be doing one
hundred percent. Chelsea, thank you very much for the film
is called Caterpillar. It is in cinemas right now. Make
sure you go see it. It is a stunningly beautiful film.
Your listening to News Talks EDB back very surely.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
For more from News Talks EDB. Listen live on air
or online, and keep our shows with you wherever you
go with our podcasts on on radio
You're listening to a podcast from News Talk zed B.
Follow this and our Wide Ranger podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
News talk EDB New Zealand film Caterpillar is in cinemas now, A.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
You're right, we did ask that you bring a family
member to the meeting today.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Have you spoken to your daughter? It's pretty clear it's
progressing rapidly. Hold on.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
What happened to you?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
It is a stunningly beautiful film and it looks at
relationships between mothers and daughters and how those evolve over time.
It is getting rave reviews and we are joined now
by writer and director Chelsea Preston Crayford. Very good afternoon
to you, Chelsea.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
Hi, how are you joining? Tyler?
Speaker 5 (00:58):
He's doing very good and so am I now, Chelsea,
obviously this movie is is very personal. Can you tell
us about your inspiration for writing it?
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Well, it's set in two thousand and three in Wellington,
and it may surprise you to learn I also grew
up in Wellington and two and three. It's a work
of what I would call auto fiction, so it's sort
of set in the world of my life growing up.
I grew up in a house with my mum, and
my grandma. And the film follows these three generations of women.
(01:34):
It's multi protagonist, and we follow these three women at
three pivotal life stages as their families going through a
massive change kind of unbeknownst to them, and they're all
all of their needs are smashing up against one another.
So it's inspired by my life Wellington growing up. There's
(01:54):
lots of two thousand and three bangers like Stellar. We
have Scribe and there with Savage, We've got Concord Dawn.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
It's yeah, it's pretty to go back to that time.
Speaker 5 (02:10):
So tell us about the three characters, the three generation
main characters, who they are.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
So we've got Cassie, who's sixteen going on twenty six.
She's either rampantly overconfident or wildly and secure, nowhere in between.
She's spiraling the whole time, trying her luck with sort
of she's got really thin eyebrows and she's kissing the
waters with boy races and badly homemade bongs. And then
(02:40):
we've got Maxine, she's in her fifties. She's a trailblazing
feminist filmmaker on the verge of a big breakthrough. And
then we've got Yeah, I don't know if you can
think of any parallel. And then we've got Huya, who
is eighty and she's been the domestic glue of their family,
(03:01):
but she's starting to feel her mind playing tricks on her,
and she's starting to realize that she's she's not going
to be you know, things aren't going to be how
they are for much longer. And this is kind of
the catalyst for the film.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Sound like incredible characters, Chelsea. So the monarch butterfly is
a recurring element in this film. How did that come
into the story?
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Well, my dad actually like because the film, because the
film is auto fiction, so it feels really you know,
obviously there's a lot of stuff that draws from real life,
but not much of the story actually happened. The overall
sort of emotional arc of it happened. My grandmother had dementia,
(03:46):
and obviously we had to learn how to hold her
instead of her holding.
Speaker 4 (03:51):
Us, which is really the arc of the story.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
But the main character who is she She loves monarch
butterflies and that my grandma never was a monarch person.
My dad was a monarch person. And one day I
went to his house and he had been on this
crusade trying to save these caterpillars from paper wasps. And
he gave me this twenty minute speech about this massive
(04:20):
kind of crusade he'd been on all day, and then
he said, at the end of its life is a
hostile thing sometimes, and I was like, well, this is
going in the movie.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
This is a great line.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
It's a great metaphor that sort of runs through the film.
Speaker 5 (04:38):
So, you know, auto fiction, you're obviously working through real
life grief and using art to do that. Would you
recommend that as a way as a pass to deal
with grief?
Speaker 4 (04:50):
Absolutely?
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Yeah, I've done that in short films as well, of
you know, taking something.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
I mean, the film is about grief, but.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
It's also massively about love. It's about how to love
each other even when all of your needs are colliding
and your all very different. And yeah, I think art
is a really important way of kind of taking these
(05:19):
universal human experiences that are hard and turning them into
something that can be cathartic, that can connect us, and
also that can be really funny, Like hopefully the film
is all so funny. It's got it's got this kind
of teenage Shakespeare production that runs through it, and this questionable,
(05:42):
maybe slightly creepy drama teacher running through it. That's quite
cringey and also very a real two thousand and three
throwback to a certain type of guy. And yeah, so
I think art's a really important way to do that.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Was that the key here when you've got the you know,
part of the movie is around dementia, and dementia for
a lot of people can be a bit of a
taboo thing. And I'll say this, Chelsea that my nana
had dementia as well. But when you mentioned human there,
Nana was the first one to make lights of some
of the things that were going on when she had
that dementia. So is that part of I suppose breaking
(06:23):
open what can be difficult for people to broach even
if they are experiencing it.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
And I think, like you know, with storytelling, I think
if you want.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
People to be able to cry, you have to be able.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
To make them laugh, you know, sort of. And that's
what we.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
Do as New Zealanders as well.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
That's what we're so good at. Is like, some of
the hardest times of my life, or you know, the
most dire moments are also the funniest. It's just kind
of what we're good at.
Speaker 4 (06:57):
It's how we cope. And that's life, isn't it. It's
all of it. It's the light in the shade.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
We're talking to writer and director Chelsea Preston Cranefurt about
her new film Caterpillar in Cinemas.
Speaker 5 (07:07):
Now we'll speaking of life. There's been a lot of
your life acting. You're an actor of note, How does
that How does that work as a director, How does
that influence your directing style? Coming from an actor's perspective.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
It's interesting, isn't it. I mean I wouldn't know. I
wouldn't know necessarily, like.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
I just did my best.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
But it definitely like I had a lot of I
guess understanding of the actors, and you know, they really
like we have the casting. This is the thing is
like the film has had the most amazing reception. We've
had phenomenal reviews. We've got five stars in the Herald,
(07:50):
four stars of the Listener. We've had like incredible audience responses.
And it's clear, as you say, Tyler, that this is
like a really universal experience going through something with an
aging family member, and many of us have experience dementia
as well. And the cast, I mean, the characters are also,
(08:13):
you know, really obviously were very personal to me, and
the cast A Nation who played Cassy, the youngest character,
Martin dust Ador who played Maxine the filmmaker, and then
Lisa Harrow, one of our absolute icons in New Zealand,
(08:36):
playing Huya. They gave their whole selves to these roles.
It really was quite an extraordinary experience, particularly with Lisa,
because Lisa was grieving her husband Roger at the time,
and obviously this film was a vehicle for my grief
for my grandma, and so we had this quite incredible
(08:57):
exchange Lisa and I where we held space for each
other's grief, and I think that comes through in the movie.
You know a lot of people are coming out up
moved and hopefully it's uplifting as well.
Speaker 5 (09:13):
So you worked on this project for a very long time,
So what's it been like. So what's the feeling finishing
it and releasing it with so much work gone into
it and then getting such an amazing response.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
It's pretty wild. It's been eight years since the sort
of first germ of the idea to now it being
in cinemas and all New Zealand. You know, that's not
an uncommon timeline. Like all New Zealand films are such
a labor of love. And this is the thing that
(09:49):
I think that people don't realize is the amount of
time that they stay in cinemas is informed by the opening.
Speaker 4 (09:57):
Few weeks box office.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
So if people don't get out. You know, we live
in this age of streaming now where everything's available all
the time, that's still not necessarily true of our New
Zealand stories.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
You actually have to get out there.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
If you want to see them and you want them
to stick around, you have to get out there and
see them as soon as you can. Because I can
tell you Star Wars will be in the film in
the cinemas in a month, but the New Zealand films that.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
Are there at the moment won't necessarily be It's a.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Brilliant error at the moment. Absolutely, Chelsea, thank you very
much for having a chat with us, and congratulations. As
you say it is getting rave reviews, it looks to
be an incredibly beautiful and also personal film, So congratulations
and thank you very much for jetting with us.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
Yeah, get out there and go to the movies and
take your mom and take your daughter.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
And you know absolutely that's what I'll be doing one
hundred percent. Chelsea, thank you very much for the film
is called Caterpillar. It is in cinemas right now. Make
sure you go see it. It is a stunningly beautiful film.
Your listening to News Talks EDB back very surely.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
For more from News Talks EDB. Listen live on air
or online, and keep our shows with you wherever you
go with our podcasts on on radio
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