COURSE PARTICIPANTS
Alexander Behse
Alexander Behse was born and raised in Germany before settling in Auckland, New Zealand a little over a decade ago. After having studied a German B.A. in Media Technical Engineering, he completed an MA in Producing at University of Technology Sydney (2002) and followed up with the prestigious Masters in Euro- pean Audio-Visual Management from Media Business School in Ronda, Spain (2005).
He is now one of NZ foremost feature documentary producers having achieved landmark milestones such as producer of the #3 Doc of all times at the NZ Box Office ‘POI-E: The Story of our Song’ (a Sony Pic- tures release). He produced the award winning, Hulu released feature doc ‘Kim Dotcom: Caught in the Web’ (which upon its release became #1 independent doc at the iTunes charts in the US,Canada and Germany). His latest production is NZ’s first HBOmax Original film: There is no I in Threesome. Other titles he’s produced include ‘My Year with Helen’ (Executive Producer) by Dame Gaylene Preston; the US/Canadian doc ‘Stuffed’ by Erin Derham (EP); and the festival darling Ever the Land. Prior to these landmark productions, Alexander produced programming in the art and indigious space (Allan Baldwin: In Frame; The Flight of Te Hookioi; Road to the Globe, and factual series Te Radar’s Chequered Past and the Best Factual Series winner ‘Radar across the Pacific’.
Alex Reed
Alex Reed is a creative producer who works across documentary and drama. She started her career working for five years with Ken Loach on films including Land and Free- dom, My Name is Joe and Bread & Roses and since then has written, researched or produced over twenty factual and drama projects commissioned in New Zealand. In 2019 Alex produced multi-award winning web series, Jessica’s Tree and returning to film she co-produced Leanne Pooley’s so- cial impact film The Girl on the Bridge and genre-bending feature, There’s No “I” in Threesome (HBO Max Original). She’s currently in post-production on David Farrier’s new feature documentary, in production on prime time television series, Unbreakable and has several co-production projects on her development slate.
Anahera Parata
Anahera joined the industry 15 years ago as a teleprompter operator for M āori Television’s reo Māori programmes and has worked her way up to be an award winning producer and director. During that time she also studied in Hawai’i majoring in Fine Arts.
Anahera, who proudly states that Māori is her first language, received the Te Puoro Ataata Toa NZ On Air Best Music Video award for hip hop group SWIDT’s song Bunga which addresses New Zealand’s’ insecurities towards Pacific communities. These themes are common within Anahera’s work. In 2017 Anahera gained funding from NZOA for her own personal feature documentary which is currently in post production.
She produced Stand Up Girl (drama series, 2017), Holding Court With Steven Adams (docu series, 2019), Yellow Roses (film, 2019), Line Produced & Produced the international leg - The Tender Trap (tele feature, 2020), has been a fixer and local producer for various international films & documentaries and currently works as a line pro- ducer for South Pacific Pictures.
![Gwen-headshot1-reduced-768x768[1702].jpg](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dea9f9f1a03274eeac68fd6/1624482970266-PG1ANTERSDQ7JMBIF3S8/Gwen-headshot1-reduced-768x768%5B1702%5D.jpg)
Gwen Isaac
Gwen Isaac is an award-winning feature documenta- ry director with has created series IP and content for the USA and UK’s leading broadcasters. Her docu- mentary practice takes in character-led narratives, social justice issues and transnational feminism. She launched Daughter this year with producing partner, Phillida Perry, an independent screen production company that takes femme-led factual stories to in- ternational audiences. Gwen teaches screen produc- tion at Toi Rauwhārangi, Massey University’s College of Creative Arts, Wellington, Aotearoa.
Letisha Tate-Dunning
Letisha is a creative producer with a deep understanding of narrative. Producing in both London and New Zealand for the past 7 years, she has worked on uncovering stories from the farthest corners of the globe. She has produced short documentaries internationally for the BBC and CNN and has filmed in 13 countries around the world. Locally, her work has screened on NZ Herald, Stuff, Māori Television, RNZ and more. Her and Charlotte Evans’ short documentary ‘OK Chlöe’ was selected by The New Yorker and Short of the Week, as well as a raft of film festivals. In 2018 her docu-series
‘We Speak Music’ screened at Sheffield DocFest and BFI London. She has just wrapped production on a local story for a Netflix Original international documentary series and is in development on several projects.
Mandi Lynn
Auntie Mandi? Am I Fat? This question, asked by a 5-year-old changed the trajectory of my life. Up until that point, I was a multi-award-winning master photographer running a successful photography studio that specialized in making women look “damn good”. I realized that I was culpable in creating the culture that had led to my niece’s question and I needed to make amends. Ghost Nets of Venus is my directorial debut. It is a short-form documentary that follows my journey to create an artistic counterpoint to the toxic effects of Instagram/Photoshop culture on our youth. But really I am just a side character in the film because as I was shooting it I discovered the deep layers of trauma that our mothers were battling in a sometimes futile attempt to have that trauma not spread to the next generation.
My quest as a storyteller/now accidental philanthropist is to find out what can be done to stop the trauma from spreading. I do this through our charitable trust, Every Body is a Treasure Trust. Where I teach visual storytelling as a tool to develop self-compassion.
Mhairead Connor
Mhairead Connor is an award-winning producer with credits in documentary, feature film, short film, interactive content and AR gaming. With a particular focus on speculative-fiction and folk-history her production company Little Wolf has multiple projects in development. They include sci-fi action film WEB with writer/director Christian Rivers, supernatural-horror feature BREATHE with Stephen Kang and an interactive-documentary on baby farmer MINNIE DEAN, the only woman ever executed in NZ. She lives in Wellington and loves punks, nerds and weirdos.
Morgan Leigh Stewart
Morgan’s first feature DEATHGASM premiered at SXSW in 2015. Later that year K Rd Stories – a se- ries about New Zealand’s most iconic street was re- leased. Morgan has also worked for screen industry organisations in Australasia including the Melbourne International Film Festival, The Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Screen Auckland, Film Auckland, 48Hours, Doc Edge, and The New Zealand Film Awards.
In 2019 she attended the Berlinale Talents, and Mor- gan has been included in Script to Screen’s presti- gious FilmUp mentorship program for 2020.
Recent projects through her company The Hot House include Morgan Leary’s Bird’s Eye! For Loading Docs 2019; Jodie Hillock and Yamin Tun’s short film Blood and Gold; We Rock! with Morgan Leary for Doc Edge’s Rangatahi Film Fund 2020; Rachel Ross’s Number Two and the upcoming NZFC Catalyst He Kauahi funded Green.
In 2021 Morgan will produce Albularyo – an episode in TVNZ’s upcoming supernatural anthology series with Mia Maramara and Hweiling Ow. To be screened in prime time on TVNZ 2 in the first quarter of 2022. Current projects in development include Operation: RAMBU! A feature doc spawned from Rajneel Singh and Steve Austin’s 2019 Loading Doc of the same name; The Witch Doctor a supernatural crime series with Hweiling Ow and Mia Maramara; Workmates with writer Sophie Henderson, and directors Curtis Vowell and Michelle Savill; Blood and Gold – a gritty western from Jodie Hillock and Yamin Tun; and Rachel Ross’s first feature Exhale, as well as a slate of genre features with MHM Productions, and other long form projects with artists, filmmakers, and creatives from around New Zealand and the world. Morgan’s focus is on strong stories, creative collaborators, and projects that understand and respect their audiences.
Ngaire Fuata
Ngaire has more than 30 years’ experience in television production and more recently film. She’s one of the founding Directors of SunPix, Producers of the Pacific Islands programme Tagata Pasifika, and the primary digital platform tpplus.
Ngaire’s production experience expands across scripted factual to drama, having Produced award winning short films “Ma” and “Liliu” and co-produced Tusitala Media’s 26:29 supernatural anthology ep- isode for TV2. She was also EP on the webseries Misconceptions and Soul Sessions, and currently has three feature projects in development.
Ngaire is a Pacific Music Awards Trustee and a mem- ber of the Film Auckland Board.
Phillida Perry
Phillida Perry is a writer and producer with a successful business and legal background. Phillida recently established ‘Daughter’, a production com- pany dedicated to female empowerment stories with filmmaker, Gwen Isaac. In 2020, they created award winning short film Siouxsie & the Virus. Now they are developing S&TV into a feature documentary with Alex Reed, lead producer. Phillida is in post-production on Kunst, a short film that celebrates 10-years of shared art experiences by an all women art buying collective. She is also completing a creative writing thesis at Waikato Uni- versity.
Sam Snedden
Sam Snedden graduated from Toi Whakaari in 2006. His theatre credits as an actor include Life is a Dream, Private Lives, Backstory, The Pride, The Only Child, The Book of Everything, The Blind Date Project, Perplex (Silo Theatre), Rabbit (Circa The- atre), Yours Truly, Mojo (The Basement Theatre) Guardians (Bats Theatre) and Once on Chunuk Bair (Auckland Theatre Company). His film and television credits include Shortland Street, Westside, Fresh Eggs, Legend of the Seeker, Spartacus, Golden Boy, The Educators, Inside, Baby Done, The Keeper and Six Days.
He ran Auckland’s Basement Theatre from 2011- 2017, and was instrumental in transforming it from a struggling theatre to a thriving, well supported artist development hub. Since leaving the Basement he has worked with The New Zealand Comedy Trust, Te Pou Theatre, Massive Theatre Company, ONEO- NESIX, The Auckland Fringe Festival, The Big Idea and dozens of independent artists advising them on strategy and fundraising.
He has worked extensively as a theatre producer and director. His directing credits include Abigail’s Party, Fix, The Opening Night Before Christmas, 28mm, Burn Her, Essays in Love, Ladies Night and the up- coming Night of the Living Dead.
Ursula Williams
Ursula has a knack for telling intimate stories about issues and people on the outskirts of society. As Head of Production for VICE New Zealand she pro- duced and directed a number of award-winning doc- umentaries. Her most recently released doco, De- portees of Tonga: Gangsters in Paradise, has so far been viewed by over eight million people worldwide and is currently a finalist for Best Feature Video at the 2020 Voyager Media Awards. The Zealandia se- ries at large has been picked up by networks all over the globe and viewed collectively by nearly twenty million people.
Her first short documentary film, The King, won her the inaugural Bright Sunday Emerging Pasifika Di- rector Award at the 2016 Wairoa Maori Film Fes- tival, as well as taking out the Best Short Audience Award at the NZIFF and showcasing at the Sydney Film Festival in the same year.
In 2020 she won Best Podcast at the Voyager Me- dia Awards (she was executive producer) for He Ka- kano Ahau. Other recent award nominations include Best News Video, Best Feature Video, Best Editorial Feature and Best Team Video at the New Zealand Voyager Awards 2019 for ‘Zealandia’. She is current- ly finishing directing two six part series with TVNZ and NZoA.
