Biographies
Michael Brook – Executive Manager
Michael’s career in the film and television industry has spanned over twenty years. The first half of his career was in the production and post-production fields, with a particular focus on animation and visual effects. This included stints at Vid-com, Images, Electric Pencil and being a partner in animation and vfx company Pencil Shavings.Over the past ten years, Michael has organised film festivals, curated moving image related exhibitions and screening programmes and has been a guest lecturer at the University of Auckland. Before coming to Film Auckland he was Manager, Auckland Operations for the New Zealand Film Archive, an office which he established.
Michael is also an active moving image artist and is a founder of Unguarded Intersection, a collaborative group that specializes in exploring new and innovative ways of presenting moving image through large scale public installations.
Pete Rive - Film Auckland Chair
Pete Rive has worked in the Film and Television industry for twenty years across a range of industry roles from producer and director to post-production supervisor. He founded Auckland-based post-production facility, The Original Cut, in 1993. Prior to this, Pete freelanced and worked for TVNZ, South Pacific Pictures and Screentime Communicado. His credits include: New Zealand at War; Neil Finn music documentary Live at the Saint James and post production work on Anne Geddes TVCs destined for the US market. Pete has a BA in English and Politics at Auckland University, a MA(hons) in Political Studies and a Post-graduate Diploma in Broadcast Communications. He is currently a PhD candidate with Victoria University's Digital Design School, researching knowledge transfer and creative collaboration in the virtual world, Second Life. His company, LaunchSite, is a consultancy specialising in virtual worlds and is a reseller of virtual reality for the VR studio de pinxi based in Belgium. Pete's wife Sarah works with him at The Original Cut. They have two children, Sophia and Lucia.Harry Harrison - Deputy Chair
Harry Harrison is a location scout and manager, co founder of red locations, a location scouting & management company. Over the years Harry has been involved with a wide range of international and local feature films and television dramas such as 30 Days of Night, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, and Spartacus; Blood and Sand, The Man Who Lost His Head, Spies & Lies and Mercy Peak and Outrageous Fortune. Originally from Scotland Harry settled in New Zealand in 2000. Harry has been actively involved with Film Auckland for over 5 years through the Film Auckland Local Authority Group. He has a Masters Degree in Social Anthropology from London School of Economics and Political Science as well as a background in Project Management that has seen him work in Edinburgh, Glasgow, London and India.
Garry Little - Secretary
Garry Little is the Managing Director and founder of Digipost, New Zealand's first Component Digital Film and Television Post Production Facility. His background in electronics engineering saw him work in sound, film, and video editing around the world, including TVI (London) and ABC Television (Sydney). On his return to New Zealand in 1977, Garry worked briefly as an editor for TV2, then as Senior Editor/Operations Manager of New Zealand’s first video post facility, Vid-com, until he left to establish Digipost in 1990. David Rowell - Treasurer
David Rowell has worked in the Film Industry since 1985. His focus is Production Finance, and he has worked on many US, Canadian, New Zealand, Australian, and French productions for major US studios including Paramount, Disney, Columbia Tristar and 20th Century Fox. A graduate of Simon Fraser University (BBA, Finance and Economics) in Vancouver, David's principal expertise is in production accounting, cost analysis and estimating. David is also a Partner and Director of Studio West, a motion picture production facility in West Auckland.Paul Charles Carran
Paul Carran has a wide range of experience at all levels of the industry. He is the founder and CEO of production service company, Film Factory and development and financing company Global Entertainment Fund Limited.He has practiced as an entertainment lawyer, corporate and tax film financier and executive producer for New Zealand and international productions and currently operates Film Factory, a successful production services company operating in NZ and Fiji. Paul holds three law degrees and has worked in the film industry in London, Europe, New York and Los Angeles. He has been involved in over 50 feature film and television movies, series or programmes. He has provided services on the following US productions: Ready To Run, Zenon: The Zequel, Her Majesty, Atomic Twister, Global Ecochallenge, Blood Crime, Murder in Greenwich, Lucy, Raising Waylon, Deceit, Emmy nominated Ike-Countdown to D Day, Fatal Contact-Bird Flu in America, Mick Jagger pilot Knights of Prosperity.
He visited China and Korea in 2007 and is developing several projects, including co-production Asia/New Zealand movies.
Graham Dunster
Graham grew up in London, and has had an extensive background in the media working for HTV (formerly Harlech Television) STV (Scottish Television) and TTT (Tyne Tees Television), all in London’s West End, and Gibson Group in New Zealand.
In 1989 he set-up Auckland Actors. The agency has been fortunate to be involved with most of the successful NZ films and television dramas since then, providing half the core cast for the first series of Shortland Street. Becoming an actors agent has given Graham the opportunity to work with innumerable talented individuals across the industry and to represent many actors and actresses, some of whom have been fortunate to go on to reap national and international acclaim. Amongst these are Lucy Lawless, Karl Urban, Erik Thomson, Antony Starr and Jodie Rimmer. Graham was privileged to be working with Keisha Castle-Hughes at the start of her career and experienced the Oscar madness surrounding her nomination.
Alex Lee
Alex Lee is an entertainment lawyer/filmmaker/creative entrepreneur/arts and cultural advocate. Previously, also an on-screen TV presenter in Hong Kong, Alex has produced and directed various documentary and dramatic films. Most recently, he produced an independent feature film, The Last Magic Show, which won awards in New Zealand and Los Angeles and has been picked up by Arkles Distribution. He also runs Tsunami Actors & Talent, an actors agency as well as Tamarillo Films Limited, his production company. Alex also co-founded the Documentary New Zealand Trust which runs DOCNZ Festival and Summit, the largest annual international documentary film festival and industry summit in the Southern Hemisphere, the Asia NZ Film Foundation and the Oryza Foundation for Asian Performing Arts. Alex taught Production to the postgraduate film and TV students at the University of Auckland. He also sits on the National Executive of the Screen Directors Guild of New Zealand. Alex is passionate about story telling as well as New Zealand's screen industry and its talent. Currently, he is developing new screen projects as well as cross over projects that embrace new and emerging media. Auckland is his city of choice.Peter Parnham
Until recently Peter Parnham was the Managing Director of Panavision NZ Ltd. Peter has now established his own consultancy, Paraphrase. He brings to the Film Auckland Board a wealth of business experience and a particular interest in the strategic development and expansion of the industry in a sustainable and managed way.
Roimata Macgregor
Producer Roimata Macgregor has worked in the New Zealand film industry for over 30 years. In the mid-1970's Roi started work with the then-new production company, Silverscreen Productions (Wellington). For a brief sojourn in the 80's she worked as location, casting & production manager for a very successful German stills photographer in Europe. She returned to New Zealand and production managed a feature film Among The Cinders for John O'Shea and then returned to Silverscreen as a Producer. She moved to Auckland and set up the Silverscreen office here, raising several noteworthy Directors. Roi is currently freelance and has worked on several local productions as Producer and two offshore productions as Line Producer.Clayton Tikao
Clayton is a freelance Location Manager and Location Scout and has worked on a number of Feature Films, TV Drama's, TV Commercials and Stills Shoots and runs his own company, Filmscouts NZ. He has an extensive knowledge of locations in the Auckland region as well as the rest of New Zealand. Clayton has a business degree from Massey University and is actively involved in his Iwi/tribe (Ngai Tahu).
Cristina Casares
Cristina Casares is an Animator/Director/Producer with more than 16 years experience in the industry. She is Director and founder of La Luna Studios, an animation company established in New Zealand in 2005. She has work in different facilities around the world including USA, Chile, Argentina and New Zealand.Starting in USA, she worked as a Production Manager at The Pixel Factory and was involved in the production of animated video games, TVC and Theme Park rides for Disney and Universal Studios.
In 1997 she was recruited by Chilefilms Group in Latin America as a Production Coordinator between Argentina and Chile where she was also in charge of setting up the first motion capture facility in Latin America. She has also been involved in stereoscopic productions.
In 2002 she relocated to New Zealand and worked at Huhu's Studios in animated TV Series (“Littlebrook Farm”, “Buzz and Poppy”, "Secret Island", “The Future is Wild” and “Hermie and Friends”). She is now producing her own feature film “The Magic Shoes” which is the first major animated feature film to be co-produced between New Zealand and Italy.
Beginning in 1993, she studied Art Direction at one of Argentina’s most recognized art schools, the Superior School of Creative Advertisers, as well as taking intensive courses in 3D animation at the Argentine Computer Graphics School. Following that Cristina specialized in 3D character animation at the prestigious Vancouver Film School, Canada. She was also CEO of Kelly Park Film Village, responsible for the overall project development and international business and relationships.
She is also founder and a Board Member of CDC Auckland (Creative Digital Content Auckland). CDC has been formed to represent the animation, games and visual effects industry in Auckland in line with the New Zealand Digital Strategy and the Minister of Economic Development objectives. She is a member and Animation Mentor of WIFT. She is also a founder and member of Women in Animation New Zealand.
She has also been chosen as an Industry Expert in Colab New Zealand.
She has always been involved in education and has designed a Graduate Diploma in animation which has been running at La Luna Studios since 2005 training an average of 5-10 students per year. She has also lectured animation as well as writing the Animation curriculum for the Media Design School. She is currently on the NZQA panel to develop a Bachelor Degree of Animation for New Zealand.
