Our Team
The members of The Short Film Otago Trust are:Doug Lilly (Chairperson)
Doug is the Director of Inzight Communications, a Dunedin-based company, specialising in designing websites for the Arts. After an early career in television, theatre and puppetry, he worked as a trade union official in Australia for 20 years before moving to Dunedin in 2002.
Katie Brockie (Secretary/Treasurer)
Katie works as a Researcher at Natural History New Zealand. She has directed a number of short films and worked in film and television for 30 years.
John Crawford
John is the General Manager of Natural History New Zealand and has worked in general management of media companies for more than 20 years. Prior to joining NHNZ, he spent four years as Southern Regional Manager for Radio NZ Ltd, where he was responsible for 11 commercial radio stations. In his role of General Manager at NHNZ, John oversees the operations of all departments apart from production.
Judith Curran
Judith is an Executive Producer at Natural History New Zealand in Dunedin. Judith has produced many hours of award winning documentary films over the past twenty years. Judith's career in television production was launched in Australia where she produced and directed a wide range of highly acclaimed documentaries. Since joining NHNZ in 2001, Judith has been the driving force behind an equally diverse range of programs. Most recently, Judith has series-produced top rating docu-drama Orangutan Island, two 13 part series credited with raising awareness about the plight of this endangered species with audiences around the world.
George Dawes
In 1998 George immigrated from the United Kingdom to New Zealand with his family and from the age of five dreamed of a career in the film industry. He has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Otago and a Master of Science Communication from the Centre for Science Communication. George’s credits include Three Little Pigs: A Curly Tale (2010), a documentary that covers the controversy around pork production in New Zealand and The Assassin (2011), which he produced for Short Film Otago.
Stephen Downes
Stephen along with Robert Sarkies made short film happen in Dunedin when they formed Nightmare Productions together in the late 1980's. Over the course of 10 years a large group of diverse talents evolved around Stephen and Robert producing a string of highly successful short films. Those 10 years culminated in the realization of both their dreams - the opportunity to make a feature in Dunedin. That feature was Scarfies which went on to become one of New Zealand's most successful recent feature films. Stephen has continued to shoot many short dramas for others and to direct and shoot his own projects as well.
Zoe Hobson
Zoe grew up surrounded by film and drama, first as an actor and later as a director, production co-ordinator and producer. Her experience ranges from field and studio directing for Maori Television, to assistant directing for South Pacific Pictures (Shortland Street) and producing music videos and short films (The Peter Jackson Project). Zoe produced three 3D film productions in 2009, along with the interactive series, Casebook.
Ross Johnston
Ross Johnston is currently the Director of Film Making at the University of Otago's Centre for Science Communication. He's spent over thirty years in the television industry making almost every conceivable genre of programme - he says he has a low threshold for boredom.
Amie Richardson
Amie Richardson is an award-winning journalist, freelance writer, documentary associate producer/researcher and PR consultant who has worked in the television and media industries for more than 10 years. As a journalist, she has worked for many prominent New Zealand publications, including the Sunday Star-Times, New Zealand Herald and New Zealand Listener. Since going freelance in 2005, Amie began work as a documentary researcher and associate producer in Wellington and Auckland and has worked on many programmes for TVNZ and TV3. Amie also has extensive experience as a PR consultant and copywriter for a variety of clients – from Government departments to start-up companies. Amie’s short film script Paradise (written with husband Wayne Biggs) was one of the first films produced by Short Film Otago and was selected for the New Zealand International Film Festival in 2009.
Julie Watson