We have extended our film production offering to include long form storytelling. The Story Department is passionately committed to developing long-form fiction and non-fiction stories for screens, bringing short form TVC content production and long form production together under the same roof.
The Story Department is currently in production on a feature length documentary film about the life of Dame Valerie Adams as she prepares for her fifth and final Olympic games. The project recently received an offer of funding from the New Zealand Film Commission and additional brand funding has been secured via local and international brand partners.
Directed by Briar March and produced by Leanne the Pooley, the film follows Dame Valerie’s journey to her fifth and final Olympic Games. The film will honour Dame Valerie as a woman who has not just survived a challenging past, but taken strength from her often difficult journey and turned it into greatness.
We are excited by the opportunities to collaborate with brands on seamlessly integrating brand stories into long form content and we are thrilled by the prospect of this model leading to many more films being made in this part of the world.
Eight is putting the call out to prospective brand partners to support our other Story projects, including a television documentary about conversion therapy in New Zealand and a behind the scenes documentary series about boxer, Joseph Parker and the road to a heavyweight belt.
The Story Department is helmed by award winning documentary filmmaker, Leanne Pooley. Leanne has been a documentary filmmaker for over twenty-five years and has directed films all over the world. She has worked with the BBC, Channel 4, PBS, Discovery, National Geographic, The ABC, The CBC, TVNZ, ARTE amongst many others. She was made an Arts Laureate in 2011, named an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for Services to Documentary in 2017 and the same year she was admitted to The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (The Oscars).
