The Advisory Board
The Documentary New Zealand Trust Advisory Board advises on DOCNZ, it’s purpose, and it’s future. The Advisory Board is composed of distinguished and knowledgeable professionals.
The Advisor Board guides and supports the DOCNZ Board in meeting its aspirations. The Advisors are ambassadors of DOCNZ and promote and expand the sphere of influence of the DOCNZ. They are primary partners of the DOCNZ’s strategy.
Annie Goldson, Advisory Board Member
Annie Goldson
Annie Goldson has been producing and directing award-winning documentaries, docudramas and experimental film/video for 20 years in the United States and New Zealand. Her recent titles include Punitive Damage, released in cinemas in 1999 (major broadcast sales include HBO-Cinemax, ABC-Aust, ARD (Germany), WTN (Canada) and TVNZ) and Georgie Girl, released in 2002 (sales to Channel 4 (UK), POV (PBS), CBC, SBS, Canalplus and TVNZ). Both titles have also garnered major awards in film festivals (see details below).In 2004, Annie completed Sheilas: 28 Years On, a history of second-wave feminism in New Zealand which she directed with Dawn Hutchesson and recently produced Pacific Solution: From Afghanistan to Aotearoa which won runner-up Best Documentary at the inaugural Documentary Film Festival and will be broadcast on TVNZ later this year.
She is currently producing and directing a music/World War 1 documentary, Elgar’s Enigma, for TVNZ’s Artsville. Goldson is also a writer and has published articles in books and journals such as The Listener (NZ), Landfall, Screen, Semiotext(e), Social Text, and others. She received a Marsden grant from the Royal Society of New Zealand to complete a book on human rights documentary, After the Fact: Documentary, Human Rights and International Law, which is now under contract with Temple University Press.
Annie has also been director of the biannual New Zealand International Documentary Conference held at the University of Auckland in 1996, 1998 and 2000, and she was part of the organising committee of the recent event, Expanding Documentary (2002). She received her PhD in Film and Television Studies from the University of Auckland and is currently Associate Professor at the Department of Film, Television and Media Studies at that institution.
See Also
Ewa Bigio, Advisory Board Member
Ewa Bigio
Ewa Bigio is the Founding and Managing Director of Smiley Film Sales www.smileyfilmsales.com, the film sales division of Smiley World Media Ltd (formerly known as Smiley Film Distribution & World Sales Ltd ). As the driving force of the agency Ewa has established Smiley Film Sales as a leading independent film sales agency both locally and internationally. Within its portfolio of films, Smiley Film Sales represents a number of Academy Award® winning and nominated films exclusively for worldwide sales. Smiley licenses its films to diverse buyers in Europe, North America, Oceania, the Middle and the Far East.
A former lawyer and graduate of Auckland University Law School, Ewa’s varied business background encompasses real estate and the fine arts. Coming on board DOCNZ in its inaugural year Ewa was responsible for devising a marketing strategy which would build interest for the fledgling festival within the business sector. The festival is well supported by the local community and has forged successful partnerships which Ewa has brokered with a variety of local businesses. These have included property investment group, St Lawrence, TVNZ, New Zealand Listener, Lucire, Staples Rodway and Saatchi & Saatchi which culminated in a critically acclaimed advertising campaign that the festival ran in 2005 and 2006.
A creative thinker, Ewa has tapped into her resources in the business and film worlds and applied her entrepreneurial flair in building unique partnerships and synergies for the non–profit organizations that she has served.
In 2006, Ewa helped launch and chaired the festival’s first major industry initiative, the DOCNZ Pitching Forum which was a launching pad for 12 local and international projects; a number of which have successfully obtained funding as a result. Since then, Ewa has invested energy into building international interest in the Pitching Forum and Summit, encouraging a number of high level TV commissioners to participate in subsequent years. The Forum, which is highly regarded, has been seen by local industry group, WIFT as a catalyst for re-examining the local documentary funding landscape.
Ewa is a frequent visitor to international festivals and markets and has been a past guest of Holland Film to IDFA in Amsterdam, AIDC in Australia, Docusur in Spain and RIDM in Montreal. Articles written by Ewa have been published in Documentary and she is also a guest reviewer on the US based film review website Documentary Film Online. Ewa has been profiled in: The New Zealand Herald The Business in their ‘Success’ column; ONFILM and Her Business.
She is married and is a mother to three children: Isabelle 12, Stefan 6 and Nicholas 4, and has enjoyed juggling the challenges of motherhood whilst managing a busy and demanding career.
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