RIVER OF FREEDOM is a feature documentary film sharing the inside story of the New Zealand Freedom Convoy and the Parliament protest in Wellington during February & March 2022. Captured by professional filmmakers, this film clearly lays out the reasons behind the protest, who the people were, and what happened.
Two years into the Covid-19 pandemic, in a bid to control the outbreak, the government mandated vaccination for all health, disability and education workers, and for close contact venue staff. Some Kiwi citizens took issue with the policy, and in early 2022 thousands of protestors travelled to Wellington in a convoy and occupied parliament grounds to voice their opposition to the vaccine mandates. This documentary looks at the 23-day standoff from an inside perspective, capturing who the protestors were, what they were fighting for, and the subsequent government and police response.
The 2022 Wellington protest was an anti-mandate and anti-lockdown occupation of the grounds of Parliament House and Molesworth Street in Central Wellington during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The occupation spring boarded off the New Zealand Convoy 2022, a mass convoy of vehicles that made its way from the top of the North Island and the bottom of the South Island to Parliament starting on Waitangi Day (6th February 2022) and arriving three days later on 9 February.
River of Freedom (Trailer):
About The Box-Office Success:
We screened our film in New Zealand cinemas from 7 September until 15 November 2023 to enthusiastic crowds in sold-out theatres. We started with 12 cinemas, and through word of mouth, we reached 54 cinemas across the country.
‘River of Freedom’ documentary exposes the brutal COVID tyranny of New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern
The film documents the objections against then-prime minister Jacinda Ardern’s mandatory “No Jab, No Job” vaccination regime. It shows how the New Zealand politicians, when confronted by the protestors, hid in the building; all 120 parliamentarians refused to communicate with them.