Independent filmmaker Pietra Brettkelly is fiercely passionate about what she considers to be the most exciting and innovative element of film and television production – documentary film making.
Pietra was the first NZ documentary director to have a film in competition at the Sundance Film Festival. Her film, THE ART STAR AND THE SUDANESE TWINS (2008) won the World Documentary award for Best Editing at Sundance, as well as Qantas awards for Best Director, Editor and Festival Documentary. The film also screened in competition at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, Hotdocs, Toronto, Zurich International Film Festival, the Melbourne International Film Festival and Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival.
This year Pietra followed up with the world premiere of her feature documentary MAORI BOY GENIUS at another A-list film festival – the Berlin Film Festival. The film has received considerable international film festival success with invitations to the Sydney, Warsaw, Sheffield Doc/Fest and NZ Film Festivals.
Pietra also directed INSIDE OUTWARD BOUND (2011), produced OCTOBER 15 (2010), and produced and directed ENDS OF THE EARTH (2007), THE RESCUE OF LANI LINGURAR (2006), BEAUTY WILL SAVE THE WORLD (2003), and more. She’s a graduate of the two year Binger Doc Lab in Amsterdam, and was the 2010 recipient of the New Zealand Film Commission Producer’s Award.
