Samoa, 30 September 2009 at 6:48am NZDT myself and Samuel Richards were awoken to an 8.1 earthquake and subsequent tsunami. We abandoned our television commercial task we were there for and rushed to the effected area to help. We had an 18 hour lead on journalists and media arriving and sold footage to TVNZ. When they arrived we didnt like their doom gloom portrayal and their media immediate effect on tourism with cancellations. We made this video, donating the media to Reuters for a significant donation to Samoan Red Cross and tsunami recovery.

 

The Portal Project.Turalei, South Sudan, 2015. Samuel Richards invited me to join him back packing across South Sudan in a random act of kindness. Samuel would donate a self contained outdoor cinema to a group of impoverished orphans in the North of South Sudan. Not wanting to express our journey as a ‘white priviledge’ story of us, Samuel created this short video as representative of our trip.

 

Copied from Samuel Richards Youtube page: Promotional preview of a documentary following two intrepid suburban explorers as they trace the length of Auckland’s largest river system, following the route of an ancient Maori portage. Following a group of filmmakers and their canoe, tracing an ancient waka portage through what is now modern day urban West Auckland. The Whau portage was used by Maori to move their waka between the Manukau and Waitemata harbors, the river travelled through Te Wao a Tiriwa “the great forest of Tiriwa” and their waka were dragged the short distance to Karaka Bay, now known as Green Bay and was an extremely important trading route of old. Of course nowadays The Great Forest Of Tiriwa is the modern day urban sprawl of West Auckland, the Whau River has become little more than a giant storm water outlet, polluted and largely forgotten. Today the Whau is lucky to be glimpsed from a speeding car or the window of a bus. This documentary is about becoming personal with the Whau and letting her tell her story as she guides a group of filmmakers along the path of an historic Maori portage through what is now a modern urban environment. Much more than just a documentary, Wai Tahurangi is an opportunity to relink viewers with some sense of their affinity with our land, a chance to help others rethink attitudes to our incredible hidden urban ecosystems and forgotten environments. A great insight into a little piece of our backyard, where she came from, and who she is.

 

Stranded in Koh Phangan, Thailand, for nine months during COVID, we created “Our Happiness Journal”. A social experiment dedicated to all things happy & it’s meaning; sharing 100% happy, non-commercial happiness.

Click the image or here to go to Our Happiness Journal interviews

And here for “The General Grant, where it is’nt” Our Hollywood award winning documentary (Not humanitarian)