KO WAI MĀTOU
About us
Te Waka is how NZFC understands itself.
The waka is not decoration. It was chosen because it describes something real about how this community makes films: shared purpose, shared effort, shared direction, and a crew that only arrives together. No one rows a waka alone.
Every project is a waka. A vessel with a purpose, a crew working in unison, and a journey to complete. The waka carries everyone who contributes to it.
NZFC is the kāinga. The community that builds and sustains each waka, and the place where a project is conceived, resourced, crewed and launched. Without the kāinga there is no waka. Without the waka the kāinga has nothing to carry into the world.
The filmmaking process is the haerenga, the journey. Haerenga are not linear and they are not predictable. They ask for navigation, adaptation, trust in the crew and the vessel, and a willingness to change course without losing the destination. The haerenga begins when a project is conceived and it does not end at the final cut. The stories carry on after the project closes.
KO NGĀ UARA
Our values
Seven values shape how NZFC works and how it holds itself to account. They are drawn from the Film Collaborators Pou, the twenty-four pou that form NZFC's cultural and operational framework.
Kotahitanga
is unity and shared purpose. NZFC works as a coordinated collective, and alignment comes before action.
Manaakitanga
is care, respect and safety. Every interaction begins with care rather than evaluation.
Whanaungatanga
is relationships and connection. NZFC is not a workforce, it is a whānau, and long-term relationships come before transactional production cycles.
Kaitiakitanga
is guardianship. NZFC is a guardian of people, place, story and resources, including te taiao. Nothing and no one is treated as disposable.
Rangatiratanga
is sovereignty and creative authority. Narrative ownership stays with the people who originate it, and no production structure overrides that.
Auahatanga
is creativity and innovation. Safe environments make bold artistic risk possible, and creativity here is a collective act.
Wairuatanga
is essence, spirit and presence. Creative work is not only technical or commercial. It carries wairua, and NZFC holds that with care.
HE AHA AI
Why we exist
The screen sector in Aotearoa New Zealand has kept people out for a long time. Not always deliberately, but reliably. Access depends on who you already know, what you can already afford, and whether someone will take a chance on you. Talented people give up before they start.
NZFC exists to change that. It is a collaborative filmmaking community open to everyone in the screen sector: professionals, graduates, hobbyists and first-timers.
NZFC also takes a position on how films get made. It stands against extractive production models, against authorship that concentrates creative ownership with the people who already hold power, and against structures that treat participants as resources rather than people with mana. Those models dominate the industry here and elsewhere. NZFC was founded to offer something different.
Storytelling as a collective act
The story comes from the crew. Every contributor shapes the work, whether they are visible or invisible, paid or volunteer, experienced or learning. The credit reflects that. No one person can claim a story a collective built.
Accessibility as a design principle
Accessibility is not an accommodation NZFC makes when asked. It is how projects and processes are designed in the first place. That means actively supporting disabled people to take part, enabling people from underrepresented communities to participate safely, and removing barriers rather than expecting people to navigate them alone.
TŌ MĀTOU HĪTŌRIA
Our story
New Zealand Film Collaborators began in 2018 as a Facebook group, an informal filmmaking network, a production collective, a meetup community and a 48Hours team. From the beginning, we wanted to build something more accessible than the traditional pathways into screen production, a community production house where people could find collaborators, learn by doing, share skills and resources, and turn ideas into films regardless of how much money, experience or industry access they already had.
The journey from grassroots collective to formal organisation took much longer than we expected. Between 2018 and 2024 we explored different legal structures, including remaining an informal collective and attempting to establish NZ Film Collaborators as a company. In June 2024, New Zealand Film Collaborators Limited was formally registered, but that structure ultimately did not become the organisation we were trying to build. Along the way we encountered the realities of volunteer capacity, cost, COVID disruption, finding the right governance people, understanding charity and incorporated-society law, and explaining a model that did not fit neatly into either a traditional production company or a film-funding organisation. We made mistakes, learned from them and kept rebuilding.
In 2024 we began forming a proper governance group around the kaupapa, and over the following two years we worked towards a structure that better reflected what NZ Film Collaborators had always been intended to become. In March 2026, New Zealand Film Collaborators became an incorporated society, giving the community an organisation capable of carrying the vision forward. The legal structure is relatively new; the kaupapa is not. What exists today is the result of eight years of experimenting, filmmaking, community-building and learning what kind of infrastructure an accessible community film studio in Aotearoa actually needs.
Ā MĀTOU MAHI
What we do
NZFC operates nationwide. Our primary activity is bringing filmmakers and screen practitioners together and building the shared infrastructure a community needs to make films: the people, the tools, the knowledge and the support. We work across arts and culture, education and training, and community development, and everything we do is open to the public, from seasoned professionals to people making their first thing.
Running now
- Running now
The national community.
Filmmakers and screen practitioners connecting across the motu through NZFC's online spaces and local gatherings.
- Running now
The volunteer programme.
Open recruitment into portfolio roles across research, funding, brand, communications and community. The volunteer form is always open.
- Running now
Governance and strategy.
A volunteer board building the constitution, policies and operating model that will carry NZFC's mahi.
In development
These are scoped and prioritised, not yet operating. NZFC will say so on this page until each one is live.
- In development
The gear library.
A shared equipment resource for members, covering what is needed, how it is sourced, and how access is managed fairly.
- In development
The collaborative production process.
The end-to-end process for NZFC to run a community film production, from brief through to completion.
- In development
The founding film.
NZFC's first collaborative production, and the first pilot of that process.
- In development
The skills programme.
Capability building for members, focused on filmmaking craft.
TŌ MĀTOU POARI
Our board
NZFC is governed by a volunteer board.
| Name | Role |
|---|---|
| Jonathon Davies | Chair and Founder |
| Lucas William Grant-Mackie | Secretary |
| Vacant | Treasurer |
| Jesse Gonzales | Board member |
| Myra Moller | Board member |
| Symon Te Mananui Choveaux | Board member |
| Marlon Mark James | Board member |
Ō MĀTOU KŌRERO WHAKAMANA
Our registration
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Legal name | New Zealand Film Collaborators 2018 Incorporated |
| Trading name | New Zealand Film Collaborators |
| Legal structure | Incorporated society |
| Charity registration number | CC64264 |
| NZBN | 9429052893728 |
| Registered since | 27 February 2026 |
| Balance date | 30 June |
| Areas of operation | Nationwide |
| Registered address | 436 Lake Road, RD 1, Horsham Downs, Taupiri 3791, Aotearoa New Zealand |