Creating an unlikely community event on Aotea Square, Waves interacts with the surrounding architecture and feels like a moving painting.

Waves is a timely and urgent reminder for the city that the forces of nature are greater than us all. Smaller islands in the Pacific may no longer exist in the next fifty years. The conversation between nature and civilisation runs deep.

A mesmerizing and hypnotic audio visual experience.

Concept and direction: Florian Habicht
Cinematography: Sam Peacocke
Music and sound: Marc Chesterman
Creative consultant: Teresa Peters

Made with the support of Creative New Zealand 

As a filmmaker, Florian Habicht is celebrated for his social sensibility and as an orchestrator of community experience. His recent documentary James & Isey has been a hit at the NZ box office and is currently screening in cinemas throughout Aotearoa.

Florian studied filmmaking at the Elam School of Fine Arts and Binger Filmlab, Amsterdam. He is an innovative and prolific filmmaker and his films have been distributed in over 18 countries. His hybrid NYC romance Love Story opened the New Zealand International Film Festival in 2011. When Love Story screened at the London Film Festival, Jarvis Cocker of the British group Pulp invited Florian to make a music film about Pulp and their last concert in hometown Sheffield. Pulp: a Film about Life, Death & Supermarkets premiered at SXSW and opened Sheffield Doc/Fest in 2014. It won Best Music Film at the NME Awards in 2015. Florian’s film Kaikohe Demolition 2004, a portrait of a small struggling town with a big heart, is one of New Zealand’s most entertaining and loved documentaries. TVNZ OnDemand Pulse is currently streaming four of Florian’s films.

Other career highlights include winning the Best Decorated Bicycle Award at Paihia Primary School in 1982.