Hi,

This post will be annoying for those who don’t live in New Zealand and Australia. In advance, I apologise!

For anyone reading this that does not live in New Zealand or Australia (maybe you live in America, or the UK, or Japan, or Iceland!) I am still working on getting a home for Mister Organ. Stay tuned. This is as annoying for me as it is for you, I promise.

As for Aotearoa and Australia (aka the bottom of the planet) — thanks to all of you who supported this strange lil’ documentary in cinemas.

Somehow Mister Organ ended up being the biggest documentary on Aotearoa screens in 2022, and that was thanks to people like you coming out. I loved my little road trip around New Zealand going to some of my favourite cinemas, and meeting enthusiastic cinema goers and Webworm readers.

Me standing behind counter of The Alice in Christchurch — ‘The Alice’, Christchurch’s (and possibly New Zealand’s) best cinema.

But I also know a bunch of people couldn’t reach a theatre, for a variety of reasons!

If you were in Gisborne, your theatre wasn’t playing it. Some of you were immuno-compromised and shared spaces weren’t a great idea for you. For many, finding the time and space from kids and commitments to go to the movies just wasn’t realistic. Life is fucking busy!

So — this is how you can watch Mister Organ at home — and most importantly, some discounts I’ve set up for the worms.

Subscribe now

Key Mister Organ Release Dates in NZ and Australia (and discount codes):

DocPlay - January 23

DocPlay is a documentary streaming service for New Zealand and Australia.

As a worm, you can get a 45-day free trial of the service — so technically you have lots of time to watch Mister Organ for free, on a loop, for 45 days (as well as a host of other great titles DocPlay have — I wrote about some of my favourites a few years ago).

Here’s the address that’ll work from January 23: https://www.docplay.com/discount/WEBWORM45

(This is valid for new users only i.e not lapsed subscribers. After 45 days billing starts up at $7.99 NZ per month, cancel anytime).

VOD in NZ & Australia - February 8

Pre-order: iTunes / Apple TV.

It will also be on Google Play, Xbox, Fetch (AU), Amazon (AU) + Shift 72 platforms (Academy On Demand, Deluxe On Demand, AroVision, NZFC and Madman AU).

DVD in Australia - February 8

Yes, DVDs still exist and when the world goes offline in 2027 and humanity turns on one another in brutal bloodsport, you will have you trusty Mister Organ DVD to turn to.

Pre-order from Sanity.
Pre-order from JB Hi-Fi.
Pre-order from Madman.

DVD in NZ - February 9

Pre-order from Mighty Ape.
Pre-order from JB Hi-Fi.
Pre-order from Madman — Webworm readers can get 20% off by entering code WEBWORM at checkout.

Blu-ray in NZ & Australia: May 10

More details on this soon. Bookmark this Webworm: webworm.co/p/streamingmisterorgan.

Those are the details I can bring you right now. If you have any questions, fire away in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer them.

A giant thanks to producers Emma Slade and Alex Reed, DP Dom Fryer, soundie Danny Watts, editor Dan Kircher, scorer Lachlan Anderson (score out soon!), and EP Ant Timpson — as well as the host of other people that played a part in this — as well as our supporters at MUBI and the NZFC and good god, the lawyers, our fearless lawyers. Ali and Peter — thank you. I hope to write more on the legal journey one day. It’s wild and weird.

I’ll leave you with a few paragraphs from a review I liked, by Tom Augustine. He got the sort of vibe we were trying to put down:

“One of my favourite quotes about Aotearoa New Zealand comes from one of our finest filmmakers, Gaylene Preston. ‘There’s something that comes out of the land here that’s bloody spooky. I don’t feel it anywhere else I’ve been in the Western world. I feel it when I’m here.’
I remember coming home to Tāmaki Makaurau after a year or so away. Sometimes you don’t realise how you’re impacted by something until you’re in its absence. This place is my home, and I love it and am so in thrall to its beauty. But part of that beauty is this strange, underlying menace, this creeping darkness that feels present even on our sunniest days, which I felt rushing back to me within seconds of leaving the airport.
It’s hard to put a finger on, and yet our finest films, from The Piano to Snakeskin to Out of the Blue, capture this ineffable essence with great skill. New Zealand can be a frightening place, perhaps because of the long-lingering shadow of colonialism. Perhaps it has always been here. But I’ve always felt that this land has a haunted quality, a feeling of connection to something unknowable and spiritual.
This is all to say I felt it again in a place that I had initially felt would be an unlikely source – David Farrier’s excellent new documentary Mister Organ. This unlikeliness isn’t a knock on Farrier, who has been a lively and enjoyable presence on our screen as a journalist and exposer of strange, sometimes sinister internet rabbit-holes for years now.
But somehow, watching at the Hollywood Avondale premiere of the film, I started to feel the tendrils of that darkness creeping in. Years in the making and clearly of great personal cost to Farrier himself, Mister Organ is an outstanding document of a nightmarish everyday sociopath, as frightening as he is initially unassuming.”

You can read the rest of Tom’s review here.

David.

PS: Some stills from Mister Organ:

Me looking through piles of court documents

Mister Organ laughing while gripping antique

Me and Mister Organ on street, as Mister Organ argues

Me glued to my laptop in Whanganui motel room

Me in the bank feeling isolated and shit — A series of stills from *Mister Organ* (DP: Dom Fryer)

Webworm with David Farrier

How to Stream Mister Organ in New Zealand …