Bryn Evans Lands Mentorship with Candadian Doco Maker   29 Jan 2016

Bryn Evans Lands Mentorship with Candadian Doco Maker Jennifer Baichwal

29 January 2016

The Directors & Editors Guild of NZ is thrilled to announce Bryn Evans as the recipient of our International Director’s Mentorship with award winning Canadian filmmaker Jennifer Baichwal.

"I feel both excited and inspired by the prospect of being mentored by Jennifer and anticipate that it will have an immense impact on my development as a filmmaker and the project we will be developing together," said Evans.

“Bryn has a deep understanding of documentary possibility, and a clear expertise with form, as evidenced in his earlier work,” said Baichwal. “I commend his desire to push the boundaries, and am looking forward to being part of that creative journey.”

For more than 20 years, Jennifer Baichwal has been making award-winning and critically acclaimed documentaries with Nick de Pencier through the pair’s Toronto-based company, Mercury Films Inc.

Baichwal’s strong documentary background and international success make her an ideal mentor for Evans, whose latest documentary feature Hip Hop-eration has screened in official selection around the world, from its world premiere at the International Documentary Film Festival of Amsterdam to the DocAviv Documentary International Film Festival. It has also won a slew of awards including Best Documentary at the 2014 Rialto Channel NZ Film Awards and the Audience Award at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

“Jennifer’s approach to documentary is different than Bryn’s prior work, which should prove challenging and highy interesting for Bryn as a filmmaker,” said Executive Director of DEGNZ Tui Ruwhiu. “Her long experience in theatrical documentary will also give him great insights for the future.”

Currently, Baichwal is working on her latest feature documentary Anthropocene, the third in a trilogy of feature documentaries preceded by Watermark (2014) and Manufactured Landscapes (2006). Anthropocene follows an international group of geologists who want to change the name of our present interglacial epoch ‘Holocene’ to ‘Anthropocene’ in recognition of human impact.

As part of the mentorship, Jennifer will visit New Zealand to work with Bryn on developing his next project, A Season for Persimmons. This documentary delves into the story of Kiwi nurse Kathleen Hall who put herself on the line to smuggle medical supplies to the needy in China.

The mentorship is an industry professional development initiative funded by the New Zealand Film Commission and managed by DEGNZ. The overall intention of the International Director’s Mentorship is to inspire a promising New Zealand director and demystify the international film industry. The experience offers genuine insight into creative process and engagement with the industry as a whole, while providing a solid platform upon which to build an international career.

ENDS

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