Te Moana-a-Toi / Bay of Plenty
City Managers
Your Te Moana-a-Toi / Bay of Plenty City Manager is Tom Paton.
Tom Paton
Tom Paton cut his teeth in filmmaking back in his hometown of Wellington. He was bitten by the 48Hours bug in 2006 and never looked back!
2024 is his 10th year in the role of regional manager for the Gisborne/Napier region.
It comes with a welcome challenge as he is takes on the new role of Bay of Plenty regional manager.
He is honoured to bring his filmmaking experience and expertise to two thriving filmmaking communities, he is ready to facilitate filmmaking success in these regions.
Contacts
Your main point of contact for the Bay of Plenty region is Tom Paton.
Email Tom
Call Tom - 022 428 8751
Join the BOP 48Hours Facebook Group
Heats
All heats in 2024 will be screened online so teams can watch all entries.
Bay of Plenty City Finals
Date / time - Friday 14th June, 7pm
Venue - United Cinemas Bayfair, Bayfair Shopping Centre, 19 Girven Road, Mount Maunganui.
Judges
Paula Whetu Jones
Te Aitanga a Māhaki, Whakatōhea, Ngāti Porou
Best known for her social issue documentaries, Gang Girls, Street Kids, Lost Boys and Silent Soldiers, and docos in Palestine. In 2016, she side stepped over to writing and directing short films, graduating to drama and comedy series and feature films, including the acclaimed, WHINA, which she co-wrote and co-directed.
Her latest work is a comedy series SPINAL DESTINATION, set in a Spinal Unit, based on her experience in the Spinal Unit and an evangelical church drama, TESTIFY , which she also co-wrote and co-directed for Warners.
At the moment she is working on her feature film script which is in development, a commissioned script writing and a historical drama series in the writing/development stage. She is also in the final stages of a self funded doco that has been 18 years in the making following paediatric cardiac surgeon Dr Alan Kerr and his wife who have been travelling to Palestine for 20 years to work with Palestinian children.
Collaboration has been essential and she has been fortunate to be supported by those who value her voice, which is a marginalised one and not often celebrated. She mentors a number of writers, encouraging them to never give up and believe in themselves no matter what their background.
Jonathan Hawke
Jonathan Hawke likes to remember that his team was a finalist in the very first 48Hours in 2002. Or was it 2003? Mostly, he prefers to go with the vibe over the detail.
Other film career highlights include:
• Replicated over 100 times as an elf in Peter Jackson’s Fellowship of The Twin Kings.
• Being solicited by Keifer Sutherland (for being a very handsome man) on the set of The River Queen.
• Getting fired as PA to producer from Hollywood B-grade film Without a Paddle.
In his spare time he likes the internet and some of the things on it, and has worked as Executive Producer and General Manager for digital agencies such as Unit9 (https://www.unit9.com/) and Resn (https://resn.co.nz/) since the noughties.
Find him on Link-o-rama.
Ross Churchhouse
Ross has been part of the cinema exhibition landscape for over 2 decades working with Berkeley, Reading and Hoyts cinemas to now own his own theatre CATHAY CINEMAS in Kerikeri and is a shareholder and director of LIDO CINEMA HAMILTON. Film has been a fascination for Ross since an early age across many genres including the classic films of the 40' though 70s', the heyday of 80's kitsch, the rise of the episodic blockbusters of the 90s and 2000's. Ross is an advocate for New Zealand film and was a former founding member and Chairperson of the Vista Foundation. Ross continues to work with young kiwi film makers in a consultancy role and also developed the Matariki Film Festival Kerikeri in 2023 to promote content by Maori filmmakers, actors, directors and producers which is expanding into Hamilton in June of 2024.
Anton Steel
Anton Steel is a film maker, with over 25 years of directing and storytelling experience in Drama, Documentary, Commercial and Web Content.
He has released 2 feature films theatrically. His 2nd feature film “Taking Back Our Beach” was released nationwide in cinemas in October 2023 and was the top film at United Cinemas Bayfair that month. His debut feature film as Writer/Director, an ensemble eco-comedy, The Z-Nail Gang (IMDB rating of 7.8) was nominated for Best Independent Feature Film and Best Supporting Actress in the 2015 New Zealand Film Awards and was the supreme winner of the 2015 Trustpower community awards.
Nicola Peeperkoorn
Nicola started out in the trenches of no-budget filmmaking, lost count of how many shorts she made once it hit triple digits (10 48-hour films at least). She moved onto features with Crackheads & Turn of the Screw, and documentaries, The Chills & Six60 – all which won some awards. Somewhere in there she worked in production accounting on cool projects like Hunt for the Wilderpeople and Ash vs Evil Dead and was nominated for a WIFT Woman to Watch Award. After a brief foray in mental health advocacy, for which she won a Lifekeepers Award, she is returning to the creative sector to do all the things – just not all at once. This time around she will be launching her production company Red Tree Creative in Whakatāne, and since she can’t participate in the 48 this year she is super excited to watch the BOP filmmakers films and get to know everyone in her new region!
Gary Davies
Gary is an award-winning kiwi filmmaker who jumped in at the deep end - writing, directing, shooting, producing and editing the horror-comedy feature FLATMATES WANTED which, despite having no budget, obtained NZ-wide DVD release via Vendetta Films in 2007.
His short films and feature screenplays have taken part in and won accolades at festivals and competitions around the world. Gary's recent Bay of Plenty short horror film BE QUIET has picked up a number of awards on the festival circuit, and received glowing praise from industry peers.