"Mr Organ is a black hole and I've fallen in," quips journalist and filmmaker David Farrier midway through his latest feature documentary, as he plays a bizarre cat-and-mouse game with the titular and litigious Michael Organ.
David Farrier Photo: David Farrier / Instagram
The documentary, Mister Organ follows Farrier following Organ, and Organ following Farrier, over three years - from headline-hitting clamping of cars in Ponsonby to the Disputes Tribunal in Whanganui.
Farrier says he has put five years of his life into a 90-minute documentary that is troubling, at times funny and a study of the psychological warfare one individual can play with many people's minds, sometimes with tragic consequences.
Mr Organ focuses on Farrier's investigation into Bashford Antiques car-clamping tactics in Ponsonby, which led him to an individual named Michale Organ, and ultimately paying $3000 in the Whanganui Disputes Court.
"I'd written about this crazy clamping in Ponsonby, you know?" Farrier says.
"Bashford Antiques and Michael Organ charging $750 for half an hour car parking. It was ridiculous. It went to Parliament.
"So, when the store shut the old Bashful Antiques signs were sort of left disposed on the front of the store. The shop was shut, and I took them home to take a photo of them for my final Spinoff article and then sort of threw them under the house.
"Bashford Antiques then went to the Disputes Tribunal, saying no, those weren't thrown away. Those were incredibly precious to us. They're worth about $3000 and we want our money back."
When demanded to return, the signs went missing from his house, Farrier says.
"I couldn't give them back when they demanded them back and so I went to court and ended up paying $3000 for them."
And came face to face with Michael Organ.
Farrier says the making of the film and being in Organ's orbit was a strange place to be.
"The film was about a number of victims of Mr Organ, and I was, you know, I wanted to tell their story, and that's what I've done," he says.
"Unfortunately, in doing that I got sort of sucked into his orbit, which is just an incredibly disorientating strange place to be."
Farrier says the reason he made the film was to understand someone like Organ, "who could wiggle into someone's brain in a way that became incredibly destabilising."
He says there are moments in the film that are genuinely funny and they kind of make the terrifying standout.
Farrier’s previous films include Tickled and Dark Tourist. Mister Organ screens in New Zealand cinemas from Thursday 10 November.
