Hana
Botha

Hana is a Sustainability Coordinator in Film and Television. She has worked in a variety of production and location roles and more recently for Te Tumu Whakaata Taonga - The New Zealand Film Commission. She is grateful for the opportunity to move into the sustainability side of the industry and focus on reducing the footprint of large scale productions shot in Aotearoa, New Zealand.

PROJECT

I want to develop a Future Friendly Film framework for Sustainability departments to work towards when shooting content in New Zealand. A large portion of my current role is trying to solve unfavourable situations that we as a production have created. I would love to be able to work on designing out these problems before they arise and focus on moving forward in a more circular economy operational style, incorporating the indigenous knowledge of our country, mātauranga Māori. I think the on/off nature of film has made it difficult to create positive lasting practises within the industry, so I am hoping this programme will give me the knowledge and support to develop a purpose-built framework for future friendly filming in Aotearoa that can be applied to any production.

The opportunity to work in the sustainability side of film has highlighted to me how new this space still is in the NZ film industry. Apart from some comprehensive reporting tools provided to me from our US studio, there is little structure on how to approach and reduce the vast and complex footprint of a production specific to New Zealand. As more and more of the stories we tell with film are about working towards a sustainable planet, it feels deeply hypocritical to continue making this kind of content in wasteful and harmful practises.

MOTIVATION FOR AND COMMITMENT TO CREATING A BETTER AND MORE SUSTAINABLE PLANET

"Toitū te Marae o Tane, Toitū te Marae o Tangaroa, Toitū te Iwi." If the land is well and the water is well, the people will thrive. It is time we stopped thinking of nature as something external or separate to ourselves. Every disservice done to the planet is equally a disservice to us a people.

Find out more:
LinkedIn