SDGNZ is only as strong as its members. We encourage you to join the Guild, and send us suggestions on how we can work better for you.

CONTACT US
This page contains all the info you need but if you want to talk more, give us a call or send us an email:
Tel. (09) 360 2102
Email. office@sdgnz.co.nz
And yes we do still communicate by good old-fashioned post:
195 Ponsonby Road
PO Box 47-294
Ponsonby
Auckland

• We have successfully published a Directors' Minimum Rate Card and a Recommended Editors' Rate Card designed to reinforce directors and editors claims to adequate fees, fair contracts and reasonable working conditions.
• Our Standard Directors' Contracts for feature film, short film, documentary and television back up the Directors' Minimum Rate Card. Standard contracts for editors are currently being put together.
• Members are entitled to thirty minutes free legal advice with discounted rates thereafter, see our Rates page.
• We work with New Zealand Immigration Service and industry associations to ensure that wherever possible overseas directors do not do work that local directors could successfully undertake.
• SDGNZ is represented on the Copyright Council, increasing our expertise and profile in intellectual property rights.
• We distribute internationally accrued directors' royalties to NZ directors through ASDACs, see www.asdafilm.com.au.
• We work to strengthen your creative and economic rights as directors, both nationally and internationally, by lobbying for law changes, local content quota, and by developing international networks through conferences and meetings of director groups.
• You are able to protect your work from plagiarism through the project proposal/script registration facility operated in collaboration with the New Zealand Writers Guild, see www.nzwritersguild.org.nz.
• Every three months you get a copy of Take, the Guild's quarterly magazine and the industry's only publication covering issues from the director's perspective as well as interviews, news and gossip.
• The news bulletin Directors and Editors Online is delivered to your email box every fortnight.
• You also get free or discounted entry to all SDGNZ events (workshops, conferences, master classes, directors' screenings, etc)
• Exclusive discounts on courses with Apple Certified Master Trainer Andy Day.
• Concession prices on New Zealand International Film Festival tickets.
• Concession prices on Documentary Edge Film Festival tickets.
• $10 tickets (Mon - Fri) at Rialto Cinema
• $11 tickets (all day, everyday) at Academy Cinemas
• A Borders Bookshop Corporate Membership which gives you a 10%-15% discount on books, music, DVD and videos
• A 15% discount at Glengarry New Zealand

Briar March

One of this year’s Fulbright Fellows is also the first New Zealander to be accepted into the world-renowned Masters of Fine Arts programme at Stanford University in the United States.

Briar March, a 2004 graduate of The University of Auckland’s Elam School of Fine Arts has received a Fulbright General Graduate Award to help her complete her studies. The artist-turned-photographer-and-filmmaker will begin her MFA in documentary film in September. Widely considered one of the top documentary film programmes in the world, only eight places are available annually to students in this highly competitive programme.

Briar’s best-known claim to fame is possibly her 2004 hour-long film Allie Eagle and Me, described as “one artist’s astonishing journey from lesbian separatism to celibate Christianity, seen through the lens of a young filmmaker”. As director, producer, editor and second camera of the film, Briar says she “found her medium”—one which allowed her to engage socially and politically with a wide audience.

“Making the documentary challenged my own cultural and social perceptions and forced me to develop an active voice on the issues I was exploring. It was then that I knew I had found the perfect medium for my artistic practice, and I made a conscious choice to develop a career as a documentary filmmaker,” says Briar, who has always sought to understand the world by recording and interpreting it.

More recently, Briar has embarked on what is arguably the most challenging film of her young but busy career. There once was an Island is a feature-length documentary about Takuu, a remote atoll in Papua New Guinea currently experiencing the first impacts of climate change. The three-year film project, currently in post-production, saw Briar live for the first two months of 2007 and the last month of 2008 on Takuu, where she lived on a diet of fish and taro, without shops, electricity or reliable telecommunications.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Briar encountered some “difficult situations” on the island. These challenges helped her define what she calls her own “filmmaking ethics”, and to learn more about informed consent when working with indigenous cultures. The experiences also galvanised her commitment to “contribute something back to the people and communities who have participated in my films”: Briar, along with two other members of her production crew, sponsored a woman from Takuu to live in New Zealand and work with her on the film; her company, On the Level Productions, is setting up a trust whereby some of the film's profit will be donated to the Takuu islanders.

As part of her work on Allie Eagle and Me, Briar published educational resources in various formats relating to issues explored in the documentary.

Despite the hefty overseas tuition fees -- Briar has already raised NZ$100,000 and still needs to raise an additional NZ$60,000 to complete her degree—the filmmaker is committed to fulfilling her long-held dream of studying at Stanford.

From an industry perspective, Briar believes New Zealand’s funding environment means Kiwi filmmakers will often need to look overseas to fund films with international content. She hopes her networking abilities will both strengthen and broaden during her overseas study.

During her time in the United States Briar also hopes to help strengthen the connections between New Zealand and American filmmakers and their communities.

“I believe that participation by our local industries can create limitless benefits and I have already volunteered much of my time to help improve New Zealand’s filmmaking landscape,” says Briar, whose current project is a bi-monthly event called “Doc2doc”, where filmmakers show their works in progress and get feedback from an audience. Briar is already making plans to launch the event in San Francisco and New York.

Equally important, Briar says that as a Fulbright scholar and an ambassador for New Zealand she hopes to share the knowledge and contacts she makes in the US with her peers back home. Eventually, she would like to teach in New Zealand as a way of supporting her filmmaking career.

“My work as a filmmaker has given me immense personal satisfaction; but more importantly I aspire to produce socially-conscious films that move audiences to care and promote positive change, and which support the representation of individuals, groups and issues that are rarely given a voice in the global arena.”

For more information on Briar March’s work visit www.briarmarch.wordpress.com

Full Membership is open to any screen director or editor with a minimum of twenty minutes of credited screen time. In the case of music clips, commercials or animation, SDGNZ take a flexible approach to the screen time requirements.

Secondary Membership is available at a discounted rate to full members of Nga Aho Whakaari who work as directors or editors.

Associate Membership is available to any individual, company, or group who wishes to support the SDGNZ, including any emerging filmmakers, directors and editors.

Student Membership is available to full time students only. Applicants must enclose a photocopy of their current student identification card.

Temporary Membership is available to directors from overseas working temporarily in NZ.

The fine print: Membership approval is subject to the discretion of the SDGNZ. Associate, Student and Temporary Members do not have voting rights, but are entitled to all other benefits.

Print out the Membership Form, fill in the details with an old fashioned writing implement, and along with your CHEQUE and photocopy of STUDENT ID (if appropriate) pop it in an envelope addressed to SDGNZ, PO Box 47-294, Ponsonby, Auckland.

If you're a foreign director working in NZ, and you'd like to join SDGNZ, please choose the Temporary Membership form.

Membership Form

Temporary Membership Form

It is now possible to pay your SDGNZ subscription by direct debit so you never forget and never miss out.

Just fill out the Direct Debit Form and return by post.

Automatic Payment Form