TESTIFY
TVNZ 2, Monday, April 8, 8.30pm; Tuesday, April 9, 9pm; TVNZ+ (both episodes), April 8
We all have some kind of church. The one in the opening scene of Testify is a nightclub. It's a little while before we get to the other kind - a big, noisy hall operated by Avow, a megachurch with secrets and money - but they both look and feel like heightened environments.
"They're two very different environments," says series co-director David Stubbs. "But two environments where people immerse and submerge and are led - by either a DJ or a preacher." Both are grounded in their own realities: respectively, Auckland's Karangahape Rd and the young, brown, queer scene that has provided its afterdark energy in recent years; and the big evangelical churches that are part of the lives of tens of thousands of Kiwis.
This story is from the April 6-11, 2024 edition of New Zealand Listener.
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This story is from the April 6-11, 2024 edition of New Zealand Listener.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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