Alumni

Marina is a New Zealand Samoan Geordie with a commitment to the stories of Samoan both in NZ and at home. Her first year short Granda won the audience award at Pollywood and went on to screen in competition at the Hawaiian International Film Festival. Marina was also the director of the Oceania portion of the Ser Un Ser Humano documentary series that was part of a collaboration between international film schools set to premiere at San Sebastian 2011.

After completing her MA in Screen Production focusing on documentary, Ghazaleh was awarded a Fulbright award which she is using to help continue her studies in writing and directing at the School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Her thesis film Iran in Transit, filmed in New Zealand, Canada, the US and Iran, tracing how three cousins, all born in Iran but now living in diaspora, feel about a sense of "homeland". Her films was shortlisted for the Geoff Evans Memorial Award. Ghazaleh was also a summer scholar for the department and assisted Annie Goldson on her latest acclaimed documentary Brother Number One.

Ghassan’s dramatic short Super Super was invited to screen at the 2010 Beirut International Film Festival. Since his graduation, Ghassan has been employed full-time as a director for Al Jazeera in Lebanon.

Jack is a Kiwi-Malaysian filmmaker who spent the majority of his student allowance on making short films and a low-budget musical feature. As part of his BA(Hons) Jack wrote Empty Swan Song, which screened at the NZ International Film festival and went on to be nominated for a short film award at the Shanghai International Film Festival. He now works professionally as a television editor while continuing to develop new projects.

Mei wrote and directed the short film Love and Luksaah for her MA thesis project which was invited to screen at the 2009 NZ International Film Festival, and went on to become a finalist at the Asia Film Awards the same year.

Lyn has most recently produced an award-winning feature documentary with director Briar March. There Once was an Island: Te Henua e Nnoho is about the impact of climate change on a small Pacific community. This film is currently screening world-wide in festivals and won the 2010 Grand Prix at FIFO for Best Documentary. Lyn also lectures in Digital Media at the University of Auckland Business School, has written for several magazines as well as serving as a content administrator for nzherald.co.nz. the internet home of NZ’s biggest newspaper.

James completed a MA through the Department of Film and Television Studies to formalise his documentary skills and provide a theoretical basis for his craft. To date he has directed two award-winning documentaries (Tanim and Pacific Solution) and a number of commercial projects. He currently has a large, long-term documentary on Polynesian voyaging started during his studies and subsequently funded by NZonAir, Te Mangai Paho and Creative New Zealand. In illustration of the cross-media potential the modern filmmaking paradigm he is now also editor of New Zealand Geographic magazine commissioning world-class writing and photography for one of the country's most popular titles.

Michael’s graduation short film The Big Happiness picked up the Best Student Film at the 2009 Show Me Shorts Festival and went on to play at the NZ International Film Festival. He has gone on to work as a director of fashion films and music videos, winning Best Group Video for the Midnight Youth promo Cavalry at the Juice TV Awards in 2010. Michael currently lives in London where he continues to direct music videos.

Kirsty graduated in Documentary Directing in 2007 and went on to win Best Short Documentary and Best Emerging Filmmaker at the 2006 DOCNZ International Documentary Festival for her thesis film, Black and White. This film was screened at more than twenty international festivals during 2006 and 2007.

Paul’s thesis project, 'Morningside' screened on TVNZ. Follow-up short film 'Honky Tonk' screened on Maori TV, Rialto Channel and gained official selection at the New Zealand International Film Festival in 2007. In 2005 he began Flicks.co.nz - a film review website - which has grown to become the leading film publication in New Zealand and is about to launch overseas. Paul is currently managing director of Flicks.co.nz and has just finished making a twenty minute short film (directed, co-wrote), to be released in 2011.

Leo’s graduation film Cargo was selected for the 2007 Venice Film Festival, BFI London and received post-funding to blow-up to 35mm for the NZ Film Commission, was nominated for Best Short Film at the Qantas Screen Awards, and sold to the Rialto Channel. Off the back of this work, Leo received Pod Funding for a new short starring Emily Barclay, which has recently screened in competition at Berlin. He was awarded the 2009 Script-to-Screen Writer's Scholarship to work with Christine Vachon at Killer Films in New York, and currently earns a living as a commercials director.

Chris was one of our Producing Majors whose thesis film, Embers, was selected for the New Zealand International Film Festival 2006, Cinemanila International Film Festival (In Competition) and Show Me Shorts (where it won Best Student Film and Atlab Best Technical Contribution). Following production and development roles in the New Zealand screen production industry, Chris moved to Tokyo where he worked as Development Executive at 100 Meter Films. This included running the 100 Meter Films feature slate as well as developing, promoting and running the J-Pitch co-production workshop series for Japanese feature film producers alongside the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and UNIJAPAN. Chris returned to New Zealand to work as a writer and script editor on A Thousand Apologies – New Zealand’s first Asian primetime sketch comedy series. Following business development roles in a leading New Zealand law firm, Chris joined the New Zealand Film Commission as a Development Executive in mid-2010.

Helena’s graduate film Harry and Peter in Love won 'Best Art Direction' at the 2005 New York Short Film Festival. Her second short, Nothing Special, was selected for film festivals worldwide and nominated for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. She worked as a self-shooting director, with 'Inside the Black Jersey', a notable documentary for 180 Amsterdam and Adidas and was recently featured in Shots Magazine as a Director to Watch. She is currently represented by Ridley Scott's RSA Films in the UK.

Jochen completed a MA in directing and writing in 2002 and immediately began working in post-production. Jochen assistant edited and further honed his skills in VFX and was both a compositor and co-ordinator on the BBC series Maddigan's Quest. Further roles as a VFX Editor on Disney’s Power Rangers led to a major role on Columbia Pictures 30 Days of Night. Jochen also works as an editor of TV dramas like Go Girls and Outrageous Fortune while continuing to create his own projects. Recently his NZ Film Commission funded short, Bridge, played in competition at the Valladolid Film Festival.

Roseanne is a New Zealand Chinese writer and director. Her graduation film Henchman screened at the 2004 London International Film Festival and her subsequent documentary Banana in a Nutshell screened at the Auckland International Film Festival in 2005. SPADA’s New Filmmaker of the Year in 2005 and a WIFT Woman to Watch, her last short film Take 3 won awards at Berlin and Valladolid. In 2011, Roseanne became our first screen graduate to release a feature film, My Wedding and Other Secrets, based on her award-winning documentary.

Ang is the co-writer of the feature film My Wedding and Other Secrets and the TV3 comedy series A Thousand Apologies. In between writing, she works as an Art Director for numerous film and television projects shot in New Zealand.

Kimberley graduated with a MA in producing. Her film Honky Tonk screened at the 2007 NZ International Film Festival. Kimberley went on to production coordinating low budget features before relocating to London and joining Carnival Films. A NBC Universal company, Kimberley worked across in-house drama productions and business affairs before moving to her current position as Head of Production for NBC Universal International TV in London.

Graduates have also had success working on Shortland Street, Asia Downunder, Outrageous Fortune, Power Rangers, Bro' Town and a variety of documentary projects for both TVNZ and TV3. Still others have found employment within the creative infrastructures of South Pacific Pictures, Touchdown/Eyeworks and Great Southern Television.

See staff and student work at the Screen Production YouTube channel.

Festival screenings

• Granda - Dir. Marina McCartney - Pollywood Audience Award 2010 - Official Selection Hawaiian International Film Festival 2010
• Yes Yes – Dir. Maria Reyndal – Film Festival of Iceland 2010
• Empty Swan Song - Dir. Jack Woon - New Zealand International Film Festival 2010 - Official Selection Shanghai Film Festival 2010
• Super Super - Dir. Ghasan Kairouz – Beruit International Film Festival 2010.
• A Thousand Apologies, Lecturer Shuchi Kothari's vision to bring and Asian comedy series to our screens, aired on TV3 to rave reviews in 2009. Numerous students from our program participated in the creation of this series.
• A Glorious Morning - Dir. Adam Luxton - New Zealand International Film Festival 2010, Seattle Film Festival 2009
• The Big Happiness - Dir. Michael Humphrey's - New Zealand International Film Festival 2009 - Best Student Film Big Shorts 2009
• Love and Luksaah - Dir. Mei Chen - New Zealand International Film Festival 2009 - Finalist Asia Screen Awards 2009
• PUA – Dir Melissa Kent – Big Shorts 2009
• Horses - Dir. Garrick Rigby - NZ International Film Festival 2009, Big Shorts 2009.
• Rope - Dir. Adam Luxton - Dir. Adam Luxton - New Zealand International Film Festival 2008
• Driven - Dir. Dione Chard - New Zealand International Film Festival 2008
• Off the Page – Dir. Kate Stevenson – Doc NZ 2008
• Cargo - Dir. Leo Woodhead - Venice 2007, BFI London, Paris, Melbourne, Telluride, Tribeca, Prague, Finalist Best Short NZ Screen Awards 2008
• The Customer is Always Trite – Dir. Greydon Little – NZIFF 2006
• Loose Ends – Dir. Chris White – NZIFF 2006
• Behaviours of the Backpacker – Dir. Sandor Lau – NZIFF 2006
• Embers – Dir. Marc Laureano NZIFF 2006
• Henchman – Dir. Roseanne Liang – BFI London 2004