Leanne Pooley talks Topp Twins

Produced for ScreenTalk by NZ On Screen.

See more about The Topp Twins on their website. Topp Twins.

Annie Collins on ScreenTalk

Whilst working at NZ On Screen as Director of ScreenTalk I interviewed editor, Annie Collins who has worked on some of the most important documentaries and feature films to come out of New Zealand. Her groundbreaking work on Patu helped to politicise her which led to many years of anti-racism work in the eighties.. She went on to work on many other documentaries including my doco on the sex industry in NZ, A Double Standard. She has a rigorous editing process and is an inspiration to work with.

Her feature film work spans films by Gaylene Preston, Peter Jackson and Robert Sarkies.



You can see excerpts of many of the films mentioned on NZ On Screen.

Gordon Crook

I'm currently working on a documentary about Wellington artist, Gordon Crook.
He has an amazing body of work, from drawings and collage to large paintings, tapestries and banners.

He came to NZ in 1972 after teaching art and design at the Central School of Art in London and also St Martins School of Art - now a merged entity known as Central.

He has been in Wellington since then and exhibited regularly ever since. He continues to work in his studio in Te Aro and you can see his latest work, Smoke, on the MaryNewton Gallery website.

Michael King, A Moment in Time on Maori TV

Well, Maori TV finally came to the party and screened my doco, Michael King, A Moment in Time. This initially screened at the 2007 International Film Festival in Auckland and Wellington and it was great to see it on at a prime time of 8.30.

You can watch an excerpt of this on NZ On Screen.


We had a lot of positive response and happy to say it is also now available from The Film Shop, a new online initiative by Simon Reece at The Dub Shop in Wellington. You can purchase many other NZ titles, particularly documentaries from the site.

DOCNZ

I had an amazing week at the Expanding Documentary conference and the DOCNZ Summit. I was asked to be a judge also, and the winning films can be found at the DOCNZ website...congrats to all those who made it. Although I couldn't attend every part of the Summit I met all the international guests and many of the locals...in particular Leanne Pooley who was very outspoken in the forums and very entertaining. She has just finished The Topp Twins documentary which screens on TV at Easter. More deatils available at her website Spacific Films.

This year the summit had a strong German flavour with representation from the Goethe Institute and a new film scholarship announced for Berlin...Julie Hill won that this year...also reps from the French/German Television arts/culture channel, Arte and Leipzig Doco Festival.

ITVS was again presenting their projects and funding through the Independent Lens brand and invited NZ filmmakers to submit ideas in the future.

There was a lot of discussion about new media platforms and the economic recessions effect on the industry - but ultimately the passion for documentary was very evident and filmmakers were pitching and networking their little butts off to get their next project off the ground.

There are some fantastic docos in the festival so make sure you check it out.
DOCNZ

DOCNZ

DOCNZ is about to start - so for the next 5 days its 'what is the state of documentary in New Zealand'.....watch this space and check out our new company, GoGo Media featuring interviews with international guests, local luminaries and excerpts of doco projects coming up....