

Details
Popularity · Search interest now
Based on TMDb activity
Incoming Editorial TeamVerified
Be Merry is a documentary film in which filmmaker Gwen Isaac returns to Russell, a Far North New Zealand town, to examine the life of her mother Merry, an artist whose story became local folklore. The film releases on 2 August 2026.
Be Merry is scheduled for release on 2 August 2026. Theatrical and streaming platform details have not yet been confirmed.
No streaming platform has been announced for Be Merry at this time. Distribution information is expected closer to the August 2026 release date.
Be Merry is directed by Gwen Isaac, who is also the film's subject. Isaac grew up in Russell, a town in New Zealand's Far North, and returns there to examine her mother Merry's life and legacy.
The film follows filmmaker Gwen Isaac as she revisits her 1980s childhood in Russell, New Zealand, to investigate the life of her mother Merry, an artist whose story became part of local folklore. The documentary explores the boundary between family legend and fact, and how that inheritance shapes Isaac's own motherhood.
Be Merry is a documentary. Its subject matter centres on personal and family history, memory, and intergenerational identity, grounded in a specific regional New Zealand setting.
Be Merry releases on 2 August 2026. The documentary follows Gwen Isaac, a filmmaker who grew up in Russell during the 1980s under the influence of her mother Merry, an artist whose life acquired the quality of local legend. Returning to her Far North hometown, Isaac attempts to separate documented fact from family mythology while also reckoning with what she has carried from that upbringing into her own experience of motherhood. Further platform and distribution details have not yet been announced.
Sign in to join the conversation.