Ōtautahi / Christchurch
City Manager
Your Ōtautahi / Christchurch City Manager is Alexander Jones (AJ).
Alexander Jones
Alexander "AJ" Jones has been the Christchurch City Manager for 48Hours since 2018, and in that time has encouraged, nurtured and championed hundreds of teams.
Outside of the competition, AJ works as a filmmaker himself for his own guerilla crew One Dollar Genre, producing one short film per month. He also keeps up-to-date with the industry through his movie-based podcast Cult Popture and his day job cutting celebrity interviews as the social media video editor for Letterboxd, the NZ based global social media platform for movie lovers.
AJ is obsessed obscure movie factoids, deepcut genre analytics and of course niche filmmaking communities like this one. His desperation to see Ōtautahi take out the grand prize means he'll do whatever he can for whichever team.
Isabel Lutz
Isabel Lutz (she/they) is an exciting new face in the Ōtautahi performing arts and filmmaking community, having moved from Germany to Aotearoa a few years ago. In that time Isabel has worked on several movies and TV projects both in front of and behind the camera. Isabel is also heavily involved in Christchurch community theatre.
Isabel is assisting AJ in Christchurch this year.
Contacts
Email AJ
Call AJ - 027 289 4736
Heats
All heats in 2024 will be screened online so teams can watch all entries.
Christchurch City Finals
Date / time - Thursday 27th June, 7pm
Venue - Hoyts EntX, 617 Colombo Street, Christchurch Central City.
Judges
Vanessa Wells
Vanessa Wells is a filmmaker and theatre practitioner with over 20 years in the arts industry. Her documentary work has been shown in festivals around the world and she's known for her collaborative multidisciplinary approach. Exploring the educational genre has sent Vanessa to Antarctica several times and has resulted in her creating everything from content for Sesame Street, to documentaries. Vanessa is currently editing "The Climate Canary," a feature film on climate change and the Antarctic. Beyond actually making stuff, Vanessa is co-vice president on the board of WIFTNZ, volunteers with LandSAR and is rather fond of spaniels.
Kira Josephson
Kira is an actor, choreographer and intimacy director based in Ōtautahi. She is a proud member of Equity NZ and serves as Secretary of the Equity Board. Kira’s recent screen credits include “Jane” in Power Rangers Dino Fury and Cosmic Fury [Seasons 28, 29, 30], “Bec” in Kid Sister, and “Ava” in M3GAN. She choreographs regularly at The Court Theatre, including their productions of Something Rotten, Little Shop of Horrors and Dance Nation (all of which she also performed in). Other Court Theatre credits include The Girl on the Train, Legally Blonde, Chicago, and Jesus Christ Superstar. Kira also works as an intimacy director, most recently on several projects in the Rainbow Theatre Weekend as a part of Christchurch Pride. Kira loves films, and always has an ongoing movie challenge (recent achievements include watching all the films in the AFI Top 100, and the entire filmography of Matthew McConaughey – both fantastic uses of her time).
Masen Ma
Masen is a screen production tutor with a background in post-production. Masen has been teaching at the New Zealand Broadcasting School for over 20 years and currently manages the second-year degree students of the Screen Production Stream. He has been a regular Christchurch judge for 48Hours since 2006, and for his sins he has enjoyed (been forced to watch) hundreds of these films…
Erin Harrington
Erin Harrington a senior lecturer in English and Cinema Studies at the University of Canterbury, an arts and film critic, and the editor of the popular theatre review blog Flat City Field Notes. She has been a 48Hours judge since 2016, and is a previous best actress nominee for a film in which she was covered in gross spider bites. She’s also a massive genre fan and the author of the book Women, Monstrosity and Horror Film: Gynaehorror.
Te-Whare-Rangi Mihinui
Te Wharerangi has been involved in the Christchurch screen industry for over thirty years. In 1998 Te Wharerangi founded ASA (Archetype Screen Arts) charitable trust. The Trust paired NZBS (New Zealand Broadcasting School) graduates with community organisations enabling graduates to build their work histories while also generating affordable media products for Canterbury charitable organisations. From 2009 to present day Te Wharerangi continues to work as a freelance director, Director of Photography and editor. 2015 marked a significant change in career path having stepped in front of the camera. Te Wharerangi is now an actor and voice artist represented by GCM (Gail Cowan Management) however continues to freelance in advertising, short and feature films as a 3rd and 2nd assistant director.
Kirk Pflaum
Kirk had been working as a Camera Operator and Director of Photography in New Zealand for twenty years. Some of my work has been seen at film festivals, at cinemas, and national and international television networks. I’ve even had a few awards bestowed upon me from the New Zealand Cinematographer’s Society over the years too, as well as winning Christchurch 48Hours in 2008 and being a National Finalist that year. In his spare time Kirk likes to write screen plays, shoot film photography and develop prints in the dark room, and go camping with his dog in the middle of nowhere.
Ruth Agnew
Having demonstrated an early aptitude for offering uninvited opinions, Ruth found a legitimate outlet for criticism as a theatre, film and book reviewer for publications such as The Press, Stuff, Takehe, Family Times, What’s Up Christchurch, Playmarket Annual, Theatreview and Flat City Field Notes. She also fictionalises parts of her life in script form as a playwright and performs as an actor for companies including Proudly Asian Theatre Company, Top Dog Theatre Company, and Canterbury Young Shakespeare Company. In her spare time Ruth enjoys teaching young people Speech and Drama.
Andrew Gunn
Andrew Gunn writes wherever he can - for TV, film, books, print and at andrewgunn.substack.com. His screenwriting credits include many children’s TV shows, Shortland Street and the feature films Kiwi Flyer, 3 Mile Limit and Kiwi Christmas.