GURL
Short Film
GURL is a 2020 New Zealand short film directed, written and produced by Mika X. The film premiered at the New Zealand International Film Festival as part of the "Ngā Whanaunga Māori Pasifika Shorts 2020" selection curated by Leo Koziol and Craig Fasi. GURL tells a story of Carmen Rupe experience in the context of being both Maori and LGBT: "The infamous Māori Drag Queen Carmen 'Gurl' finally accepts her-true-self when she falls in love with a fading rugby star on an ill-fated night in New Zealand 1975." This short film is a prequel to the feature film "The Book of Carmen" which has been in pre-production since the release of GURL.
Plot
GURL is about night of the life of Carmen Rupe. While she is working the streets in the evening of K road, Carmen lives in a fantasy as a younger transgender woman "Gurl", working as a sex worker, waiting for her White Knight to take her away. When the white knight isn't what he makes out to be, Gurl escapes a violent. While she collects herself, an unexpected person comes to her aid, A dying All Black. The two spend an evening together as they fall in love.
Cast
Jay Tewake as Gurl / Young Carmen
Jackie Clarke as Sapphire
Brady Peeti as Gypsy
Regan Taylor as Ed
Aaron Ward as White Knight
Mika X as Carmen
Rosanna Raymond as Mystik Maiden
Ramon Te Wake as Mystik Ra
Amanaki Prescott as Mystik Ama
Amanduh La Hoare as Lofty Queen
Danielle Hayes as Terracotta Blade
Whetu Fala as Whaea
Richie Cattell as Rugby Lad
Credits
Releases
The film premiered at the New Zealand International Film Festival at ASB Waterfront Theatre on 26 July 2020. The film was also available to watch online until 2 August. The film was screened in the first weekend of August at Rialto Cinema Tauranga, Monterey Howick Cinemas in Auckland, Regent cinema in Dunedin, Len Lye Centre in New Plymouth and Roxy Cinema in Wellington.
The public source identifies “GURL” as short Film. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around GURL, Short and Film.
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Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q97317463. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2020 and 1975.
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This entry incorporates text from “GURL” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.