Bio
Alex is a qualified media lawyer and a film-maker. He has two Masters of Laws from University of Auckland and Vrije Universiteit Brussels respectively as well as a Masters of Creative & Performing Arts (Film & TV Drama Directing) (First Class Hons) from the University of Auckland.
He has been involved with a creative management and world sales agency as well as a number of film production companies. Alex is a producer/director of various award-winning short and feature films in drama and documentary. His films have shown in international festivals and released in cinemas. He has a number of films, television and new media projects in development and post-production.
Most recently, he executive produced Hip Hop-eration a feature documentary supported by the NZ Film Commission which opened to wide aclaim and national theatrical release throughout New Zealand. It is selected to be in competition at the world’s largest documentary festival, International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) 2013.
Alex taught Production Management at the University of Auckland in the Masters of Creative & Performing Arts program and lectured in law in Auckland and Hong Kong. He has also given papers at international film events in Thailand, China and Germany covering many areas including festival strategies, social media and digital distribution. He has been a jury member at IDFA and Dok Liepzig, (Germany’s largest documentary festival) and guests of Asian Side of the Docs, Berlin Film Festival, Chicago Documentary Film Festival, Guangzhou International Documentary Festival and the Magnolia Documentary Festival Shanghai.
Alex was awarded a place in the very competitive Arts Venture Programe run by Arts Regional Trust which selects a small group of creative practioners to develop creative enterprises that will make a difference to the Auckland economy and creative arts landscape.
Alex has served on the boards of various screen and performing arts guilds. Currently, he is Chairman of Film Auckland. He has served on the Auckland Mayoral Creative Industries Think-tank. Alex also directs stage and theatre productions. He is also a member of the China group committee at the NZ Film Commission.
Alex co-founded the Documentary NZ Trust which runs the Documentary Edge Festival (Australasia’s premiere international competitive documentary festival), Screen Edge Forum and DOC Edge Lab which are important Australasian/Asia Pacific film industry events. He has co-curated the film programmes for the Documentary Edge Festival. He also designed and curated the training programmes at Screen Edge Forum and DOC Edge Lab as well as being a facilitator and trainer at these events. Most recently, he is pioneering Story Edge, a strategy to develop and upskill digital interactive storytelling (and transmedia) in New Zealand as well as exhibition platforms and funding opportunities.
He champions transmedia, digital story-telling and collaborative filmmaking and has helped develop many of New Zealand’s documentary and transmedia development strategies.