'GEOFF STEVEN; Film Producer / Director; TV Executive; Photographer'

Citizenship: New Zealand;

Geoffrey Douglas STEVEN was born in Mt Albert Auckland, May 1946. His father was Squadron Leader WD Steven, RNZAF and his mother was Jean Steven (nee Maxwell) He attended Mt Albert Grammar school. Geoff began his career in the visual media by working as a junior photographer in a number of professional studios in Auckland city and eventually ran a small photo studio in Sydney, Australia. He left working in commercial photography to travel and during his early 20’s traveled extensively in Asia and Europe. During this time he produced his “Early Travels” portfolio of Black and White still images. The Alexander Turnbull Library is now in discussion with Geoff concerning the permanent archiving of this historic collection.

Film Producer/Director; Industry advocate; 1965—1980s

He returned to NZ in the late 1960’s. Following his growing interest in film making and believing the need for a strong independent New Zealand film culture, Geoff established NZ’s first film makers co-operative –Alternative Cinema Inc. Branches were formed in both Auckland and Christchurch. As well as collectively owning editing equipment for members use, Alternative Cinema published a local film magazine, organised screening of international films and advocated politically for a local NZ industry. Because of his advocacy, Geoff was invited to become a member of the QE2 Arts Council Working Party on Film which, in its final report, recommended the establishment of the New Zealand Film Commission. During this period Geoff also helped make the experimental Film “Test Pictures - Eleven Vignettes of a Relationship” which was the first NZ feature film to be ever shown at local New Zealand film festivals (Wellington /Auckland; 1975). Geoff and the film were also chosen to represent New Zealand at the Asian Broadcasting Union’s (ABU) “Young Filmmakers Festival” in Iran (1976).

He was also active in various social protest movements during the 70s including founding the group “U-Action” which advocated countries committing 1% of their GDP to help developing nations. U-Action initiated the provocative “Think Thin Santa” campaign during the late 70s.

Geoff formed the production company See Hear Films with sound artist Philip Dadson and under this company he produced and directed the influential film “Te Matakite O’ Aotearoa” on the Maori Land March of 1975. This documentary is still shown today and in 2016 was shown as part of Nga Taonga -The Film Archive’s “Films that Changed NZ” series. Following See Hear Films, Geoff formed Phase Three Films with Producer John Maynard and writer/lawyer Piers Davies.

As well as Te Matakite, Geoff has directed and produced other notable NZ documentaries including “Carmen” (on the life of Wellington trans-sexual, Carmen Rupe); “Rewi Alley of China” (2 hours on the life of this remarkable New Zealander); “Hei Tiki -Adventures in Maori Land” ( on early film making in NZ); “American Pie” (6 X 1 hours -an uniquely Kiwi look at America and its people); “Signatures of the Soul” (on Pacific Basin tattoo culture- hosted by Peter Fonda; a Gold Plaque Winner for Best Arts and Humanities Documentary at the San Francisco Film Festival) and “Haka” (a musical history of NZ set to seven major Haka performances and with original music by the late New Zealand composer, Delvanious Prime).

Geoff also was committed to making indigenous theatrical film dramas and co-wrote and directed the NZ feature “Skin Deep” which was produced through Phase Three Films Ltd. Skin Deep was selected as the opening film at New York’s MOMA-Museum of Modern Art’s “New Films – New Directors” festival and has since screened in many international film festivals. Skin Deep was hailed by “Variety Magazine” USA as “NZ’s long awaited break through film…” Geoff also directed the art house feature “Strata”.

Because of his commitment to developing a local film industry, Geoff was invited to be a member of the panel of the NZ Film Commission’s’ Short Film Fund and served on that body for two years.

Television Executive; 1992 - 2004

In the 1990’s Geoff joined the executive team at TV3 as Director of Commissioned Programmes with the mandate to increase local NZ productions on the network. He was successful in this role and after 6 years at TV3 he was invited to join TVNZ as Head of Production. Geoff eventually held various senior executive positions with TVNZ which also included his being made Head of Programme Development.

During his time as a TV Executive he commissioned over 1500 hours of prime time television in all genres including drama, reality, documentary, entertainment, comedy and children’s. All were made by local NZ Production Houses. He re-established the NZ Music Awards as a TV event and launched the “Tuis” as the main NZ popular music awards. In 2002 he received NZ on Air and industry recognition for his significant contribution to popularizing the Documentary Genre for the television audience. He had established the highly successful TV3 documentary strand “Inside New Zealand” as a multi-year series and Executive Produced over 100 hours of prime time documentaries for that series. He also launched the “Documentary New Zealand” strand on TV One.

He has individually Executive Produced many innovative television programmes in all genres which have transmitted successfully in New Zealand and around the world. The NZ international hit formats “Pop Stars”; ”Dream Home”; “Treasure Island”; “Location, Location, Location” etc. were all developed with Geoff’s close creative input and over-sight. He personally oversaw the creation and development of first ever series of "Pop Stars", which has since morphed into the worldwide “ …Idol” format.

He commissioned and was Network Executive on a number of successful New Zealand Feature Films including the highly regarded “Once Were Warriors”; as well as “Scarfies”, “Stickman”, “Perfect Strangers” and a number of feature length documentaries including “War Stories our mothers never told us”(Dir. Gaylene Preston) and “Feathers of Peace”(Dir. Barry Barclay) .

Photography and Publishing;

During Geoff’s television career, he also kept up his interest in photography. He has an established reputation as a respected Fine Art photographer.

He has held solo exhibitions in Japan [Nikon Gallery– Tokyo], Sweden, France and New Zealand. The Auckland City Art Gallery exhibited the multi screen presentation of Geoff’s “Aspects of a Small Town” video work which became the source material for the Skin Deep screenplay.

His “American Pie” photographic series (photographed in conjunction with the TV series he directed) was exhibited for a one month period at the Auckland War Memorial Museum and then toured NZ with assistance of the QE2 Arts Council. His photographs are in private collections in Australasia, Europe, America and Japan. Recently his “China 1979 -A New Dawn” series of images, taken when he was directing the documentaries on Rewi Alley, have been publicly exhibited in both New Zealand and in China. At the 2017 Wellington celebrations (including an event in Parliament Buildings) to commemorate the 120th Anniversary of Alley’s birth his images were exhibited to the general public. A special, free public screening of his “Gung Ho-Rewi Alley of China” documentary was also shown at Nga Taonga, the NZ Film Archive in conjunction with those anniversary celebrations. By invitation the China 1979 Photos have also been seen and exhibited in China in association with the Chinese National Academy of Arts-Beijing; published in the prestigious Chinese Photographers magazine and by special invitation displayed at the China Photographers Association’s 60th Year Commemorative Festival where Geoff was invited to hold a seminar session on his work.

Current Projects; 2004 - Present

After leaving TVNZ in 2004, Geoff wanted to establish a project that had some global significance as well as allowing him to get back full time to his original passions of traveling and taking photographs.

He founded the 'OUR PLACE World Heritage' project which is dedicated to photographically documenting and promoting the important international cultural and natural sites that make up the UNESCO World Heritage list.

NZ based, Our Place Publishing has been granted Official Partnership status with UNESCO [Paris HQ] and is creating the “first global World Heritage photographic database “(UNESCO report). Our Place’s UNESCO Partner status is unique for a Southern Hemisphere company. As the CEO of Our Place Publishing Ltd, Geoff is responsible for the over all creative style and content mix of the project. Geoff has overseen this project’s development from an “interesting idea” into a major global on-line archive and heritage resource that uses quality, original photos to spread UNESCO World Heritage values world-wide. Viewers can access the collection and read Geoff’s editorials www.ourplaceworldheritage.com

Geoff has employed a number on NZ and international photographers on this project and when possible travels locally and internationally himself to lecture on the World Heritage initiative and heritage photography. He also personally photographically documents World Heritage sites to be added to the growing UNESCO / OUR PLACE data base. Images from the archive of exclusive Our Place photographs are being published internationally in a number of media including books; UNESCO and third party educational materials; web-content and a planned television series.

'Links/Contacts;'

   [email protected]
    https://www.nzonscreen.com/person/geoff-steven
     https://www.nzonscreen.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&search_term=Geoff+Steven&button=