Geoff Steven: from making features to commissioning television...

Interview – 2008

Geoff Steven has made experimental films, features, and documentaries. He has also commissioned many productions as a television executive at TVNZ and TV3.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Steven talks about:

Capturing history with documentary Te Matakite o Aotearoa - The Māori Land March
Forming the Alternative Cinema group in the early days of the Kiwi film renaissance
Making experimental film Test Pictures
Getting funding for his first feature Skin Deep from the Iterim Film Commission
Rushing second feature Strata into production to take advantage of a funding scenario, which "just didn't work"
Working as an independent documentary producer, and encouraging new channel TV3 to make local shows
Becoming TV3's Commissioning Editor
Building up local production at TV3, and establishing documentary slot Inside New Zealand
Switching networks to spend 12 years as Commissioning Editor at TVNZ
Aiming to commission programmes that balanced quality and popularity
His current work with the World Heritage Project

This video was first uploaded on 27 November 2008, and is available under this Creative Commons licence. This licence is limited to use of ScreenTalk interview footage only and does not apply to any video content and photographs from films, television, music videos, web series and commercials used in the interview.

Interview - Clare O'Leary. Camera and Editing - Leo Guerchmann

The documentary thing was alway a major part of my brief: tell local stories, but not local stories that people should watch — local stories that people want to watch.

– Geoff Steven on the philosophy he brought to his work commissioning documentaries for television

Geoff's Full Profile