Robyn Scott-Vincent

Robyn Scott-Vincent is a producer and director of factual television, who has made over 50 primetime documentaries, and over 350 episodes of Attitude, an acclaimed series on people living with disabilities. Attitude – made by Scott-Vincent’s production company of the same name Attitude Pictures – was created to ensure that "the people themselves were the main strong voice, allowing the viewer to take a walk in someone else’s shoes". In 2014 she was named a Member of the Order of New Zealand Merit for services to both television and disabled.

Scott-Vincent grew up in Auckland, and spent her summers with family in Taranaki, Gisborne and Mt. Maunganui. Beginning her professional life as a journalist, she worked in print journalism for over two decades, including news reporting for the Auckland Star and NZ Herald. As a staff writer of The New Zealand’s Woman’s Weekly, she developed longer-form feature articles.  

Moving into television, Scott-Vincent naturally became a news reporter, but her gambit also came to include sports, current affairs (Holmes) and children's programming. Much to her surprise, she fell into on-camera presenting. As a reporter in the final days of regional show Top Half, she enjoyed the "luxurious creativity" of being able to come up with her own story ideas.

“I was mistakenly given an on-camera audition for TV reporting,” she said in 2023. “I utilised my print news background initially but people around me observed that I had a passion for deeper human interest stories, and that I connected to people on a simple human level. I started doing more background pieces. I clearly remember how satisfying it was to have more time. I could represent people as they wanted to be represented. That experience set me up for documentary making.”

She began directing and producing her own documentaries in 1992, forming RSVP Productions after the initials of her name. Many of her early documentaries had a connection to news stories, such as Knights of the Sky which followed rescue helicopter pilots she had previously filmed for the news, and Unborn Addicts that came out of the Aaron and Lorraine Cohen trial. Scott-Vincent often juggled both producer and director duties, as on Smith - Brown which explored families in the New Millennium, and The Truth About Men on the changing male role in society.

During this busy era in the early 2000s, she somehow time to gain a degree from the New Zealand Broadcasting School, under the personal supervision of journalist Paul Norris. “I had considerable experience when I did my degree but opted to do it as ‘personal growth’ if you like, working late into the night when my three sons were little.”

Scott-Vincent’s one-off documentaries played in the Documentary New Zealand strand for TV One, and on Inside New Zealand for TV3. RSVP were highly prolific in their work, and by the time they rebranded to Attitude Pictures in 2005, had produced over 50 titles. The name changed coincided with the launch of their series Attitude, which better reflected her professional values; “because it’s not all about me, it’s about presenting the lives of others … and attitude perfectly sums us up as a company”.

The series Attitude first began with a magazine-style format, and went on to include hundreds of episodes, shot all around the world. Scott-Vincent found that the disinterest from mainstream media in stories involving the disabled meant there was treasure trove of positive angles waiting to be covered. Attitude aimed "to advocate on behalf of the disabled community, to ensure issues are aired and addressed. Our goals are to inspire people living with a disability to get out and live life to their fullest, to provide strong role models for our young people, and to inspire change."

“What appealed to me about Attitude was it would be going back to those journalism things of standing up for others and advocating, but I also knew that there was a massive number of fantastic stories. This is a community that had been ignored by news media … and the ability to actually impact people’s lives, support families and make a difference was a huge.”

As well as the hugely successful Attitude, the company produced many stand-alone documentaries. Two Women and a Baby (2004) explored one woman's experience of infertility and trying to become a surrogate, which was followed by companion documentary Two Women and Two Babies – Scott-Vincent described Lisa Bainfield's story as among the most amazing she has followed. Her time making Mothers Behind Bars also had a big impact on her life.

“Mothers Behind Bars captured my heart in a way no other story truly has. These were women who were mostly first time offenders who arrived in prison not knowing they were pregnant. Their sentences were so much greater because a majority had their babies taken from them at birth. The tragedy was coming to understand how hard it was for these women to ever clear their name in society.”

As well as telling the stories of marginalised communities, Attitude Pictures often explored the experiences of children and young people. Scott-Vincent’s 2006 documentary Boys Go Bush followed 70 fourth form boys during a six-month outdoor education programme, whilst The Girl Who Didn't Grow, completed the same year, was about a girl living with primordial dwarfism. Inspired by her brother who had won a scholarship to Auckland Grammar, Scott-Vincent spent over a year persuading the school's board to let her make documentary Grammar Boys, and later made films on three further schools.

In 2013 Black and White, her documentary on Kiwi Paralympic cyclists, won the Special Jury Award at the Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union awards. Attitude Pictures's ongoing coverage of disabled athletes won the attention of the International Paralympic Committee, and ultimately they were made official media partners, delivering the coverage of the 2016 Paralympics in Rio De Janiero and collaborating with TVNZ to get the footage back to New Zealand. Attitude has also supplied content to the United Nations and the Australian Government. “It was a huge coup,” she reflects in 2023. “We felt like the little train that could.”

In conjunction with her production company, Scott-Vincent is one of the founders of the Attitude Awards, and in 2013 launched website AttitudeLive.com, which uses captions and special typefaces to showcase programmes and resources relating to disability. Scott-Vincent has also authored books as companion pieces to her documentaries. She wrote Susan Devoy, Out on Top (1993) then co-authored Cindy, Breaking the Cycle (2002), after commanding two Cindy's Diary documentaries about a businesswoman's battles to overcome morbid obesity. Her 1995 documentary Kirsa: A Mother's Story, was based on Robyn Jensen's book, about the disappearance of her daughter.

Giving voice to the under-heard has been a driving force for Scott-Vincent in her career, as it has been for the team of Attitude Pictures. “Across the years I have been fortunate to mentor and work alongside many amazing young directors, editors and camera operators. The vast majority have been totally invested not in their own careers but it the overall vision to support disabled people to their own stories. This has been really gratifying.”

A number of those on the Attitude team have experience of a disability, including presenter Tanya Black, ex paralympian Curtis Palmer, Attitude longtimer Dan Buckingham, and Jai Waite, who edited the award-winning Black and White.

The mission is also highly personal for Scott-Vincent; her son Harrison had a learning disability and dealt with prejudice throughout his life. He died of leukaemia in 2005, the same year the Attitude series first went to air. Robyn Scott-Vincent’s stories made a significant impact on those they centred, and in turn, their stories impacted her own life; “Every documentary I  have made has served to shape me.”

Sources include
AttitudeLive website. Accessed 21 April 2016 
'Attitude marks new milestone' (Press Release). Loaded 18 July 2012. Accessed 9 June 2014
'Stories with attitude' Human Rights Commission website. Loaded 19 June 2011. Accessed 9 June 2014
'Attitude Pictures Ltd' Special Olympics New Zealand website. Accessed 9 June 2014
'Kiwi documentary wins Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union Award' (Press Release) Loaded 28 October 2013. Accessed 9 June 2014