Paora Maxwell: On being committed to Māori broadcasting…

Paora Maxwell is the Chief Executive of Māori Television, and a former General Manager of Māori and Pacific Programmes at TVNZ. He began his TV career as a director on children’s shows Play School and 3:45 LIVE!. Maxwell also ran his own company Te Aratai Productions for 15 years.

In this ScreenTalk, Maxwell talks about:

• The arduous production schedule on kids show Play School
• His grandmother’s worries about the way the doll Manu was treated on the show
• Making maximum use of the resources on 3:45 LIVE!, and discovering a piece of Milli Vanilli's hair
• How Radio Wha Waho was inspired by real people 
• Why pre-school show Tikitiki is one of his proudest achievements 
• Working with entertainer Mika, who reminded him of Graham Norton
• Being a change agent as Head of Māori and Pacific Programmes at TVNZ
• Successfully doubling the duration of news show Te Karere
• Taking the responsibility of being CEO at Māori Television seriously
• How he deals with public criticism

This video was first uploaded on 7 March 2016, 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, Camera and Editing – Andrew Whiteside