The video for the Hot Grits song Headlights had the distinction of being the first music video banned by TVNZ since 1987, but that didn’t stop it winning the Radio Active Handle the Jandal award for best non-funded video last Thursday in Wellington.
Radio Active 89FM's Handle the Jandal is the annual competition for Do-It-Yourself New Zealand filmmakers to create music videos for local bands and artists. All videos must be completely self-funded and may only use New Zealand music. A record 122 entries were submitted for the awards this year, with fifteen being chosen for the finals.
Headlights is the first video ever to be made for Auckland based 11 piece afro soul band The Hot Grits and features on their debut album ‘It’s too Drunk to be this Early’ released on Monkey Records mid 2008.
The video was made by The Downlow Concept and features children drinking milk and going out on the town, behaviour which TVNZ apparently took issue with. Unsurprisingly, the clip also won an award for Best Exploitative tactics.