Lost Boys of Taranaki
Kelsten, Quba, Danye and Bailey are in their mid teens, and are prime contenders for jail. This documentary follows their progress completing a seven week START ( Supporting Today's At Risk Teenagers) programme for young people who have already entered the criminal justice system. A hike into the beautiful and daunting Taranaki bush sees the group start to realise their potential. But for these mostly fatherless Māori teenagers changing ingrained behaviours will be a lifelong challenge. The START Taranaki team know this only too well.
Matthew Saville
Actor/director Matthew Saville is of Kiwi and South African ancestry. After studying acting and writing, his play Kikia te Poa won acclaim. Alongside acting roles, Saville created kid's show Kune's Kitchen. His directing debut — short film Hitch Hike — thumbed its way to film festivals in Durban and Finland. Surreal man-in-the-mirror follow-up Dive won Best Short at the Show Me Shorts Film Festival, and screened at Telluride in 2014.
Cherie Bradshaw
Cherie Bradshaw began an acting diploma at Auckland's South Seas Film and Television School in 2009. By then the one-time model had already acted in Go Girls and played secretary to the deluded politician in comedy The Pretender. Bradshaw worked as a production assistant on The Apprentice, won attention for 48 Hour short The Hitch-Hikers Wife, and acted in movie thriller Desired. She died in Melbourne on 27 October 2012.
Julia Parnell
Producer Julia Parnell’s CV boasts a diverse range of credits — from comedy (Wayne Anderson: Singer of Songs) to sport (Wilbur: The King in the Ring), music (The Chills - The Triumph & Tragedy of Martin Phillipps) and te ao Māori (Restoring Hope). Parnell’s production company Notable Pictures is behind a run of award-winning short films (Dive, Friday Tigers), plus long-running mini-documentary series Loading Docs.
Lloyd Phillips
Producer Lloyd Phillips won an Academy Award in 1981, for short film The Dollar Bottom. South African-born Phillips was raised in New Zealand, where his first feature, Battletruck, was shot. He went on to establish a globetrotting Hollywood career, working on The Legend of Zorro, 12 Monkeys, Inglourious Basterds and Vertical Limit (also shot in New Zealand). Phillips died of a heart attack on 25 January 2013.
Robyn Paterson
Robyn Paterson won attention in 2012 for directing award-winning film Finding Mercy, in which she headed back to her Zimbabwe birthplace to find a best friend from childhood. Feature documentary In the Zone followed in 2018, which explored a man's efforts to transform educational outcomes for disadvantaged youth in Auckland and Chicago. Paterson has worked in numerous roles: from directing factual TV shows (Grand Designs, Attitude) to writing (The Simon Eliot Show, Facelift) and casting. She has also faced the camera as a Queer Nation presenter and occasional actor, and is a published author.
Calvin Tuteao
Local blockbuster Once Were Warriors launched Calvin Tuteao's screen career in 1994. Although a small role – he was paid $800 over two days, to play gang leader Taka – Tuteao found unexpected fame when his heavily tattooed face featured in the film's promotional posters. More widely recognised as Doctor Victor Kahu from a four year stint in the core cast of Shortland Street, Tuteao went on to play New Zealand Natives rugby legend Joe Warbrick in award-winning short film Warbrick, and star in the 2010 telemovie dramatisation of Witi Ihimaera's novel Nights in the Garden of Spain.
Marty Williams
Cinematographer Marty Williams has aimed his camera at everything from landscapes to South Auckland Shakespearians The Black Friars. Williams was a prolific shooter for arts shows The Gravy and The Living Room, and shared a Best Cinematography Qantas Award for maverick lawyer documentary Lost in Wonderland. Sometimes credited as Martyn Williams, the South Seas Film and TV School graduate also framed gang member short Day Trip, and has done acclaimed work on adverts (often collaborating with director Mark Albiston) and music videos (Phoenix Foundation, Little Bushman).
Aidee Walker
At Hamilton Girls' High School Aidee Walker was part of band Handsome Geoffrey, which won the 1998 Smokefree Rockquest. Acting soon took centre stage. In her final year of acting studies at Unitec, Walker was cast in horror film The Locals. Following an extended, on-off role on Outrageous Fortune — as the feisty Draska Doslic — she was nominated for comedy How to Meet Girls from a Distance. She has also written, directed (and often acted) in a run of shorts, and helmed two episodes of Westside while seven months pregnant. Her short Friday Tigers won two awards at the 2013 NZ International Film Festival.