HRFF Auckland MC and Speakers List
Alistair Kwun – Cross cultural and youth advocate
Alistair works in cross-cultural relations, communications, and art and youth marketing among various communities in Auckland. He was a founder of the Asian Film Festival in 2004 and has been involved in several other film festivals.
Amalia Fawcett - World Vision
Amalia is an advocacy/policy analyst for World Vision NZ, which includes the impact of HIV/AIDS on children. She has a masters degree from Oxford in Forced Migration and has worked in both Tanzania and Switzerland on topics relating to HIV/AIDS, migration and the protection of children. In Tanzania,she worked as a primary teacherat Iringa International School,and volunteered at an orphanage where manychildren had lost parents to AIDS. In Switzerlandshe was with the Norwegian Refugee Council's Global Internally Displaced Peoples Project.
Amy Wang – Asia Downunder
Amy is a journalist and film maker who has recently returned from a trip to Burma and to the refugee camps on the Thai Burma border. She is also a member of the Burma Support Group and a former Auckland president of AIESEC a global student organisation.
Anji Kurian – Asia NZ Foundation
Anji is a filmmaker who has filmed in India and has an awareness of the paradox of alternatives for victims like the shipbreakers who might suffer other ills were their work to be stopped. She is aware of human security concepts, covering not just war but the provision of basic human life and civil rights and of the emerging role of civil society as an agent of change in countries like India.
Annie Goldson - University of Auckland,Directors Guild, WIFT, Screen Producers Assn.
Annie is a producer/director of films that engage with issues of social justice. Her films have been seen widely internationally through festivals, cinema releases and tv. She teaches at the Dept of Film, Television and Media Studiesand iscompleting a book on human rights and documentary for Temple University Press (USA). Recent documentaries include Punitive Damage (1999), Georgie Girl (2002) and Sheilas: 28 years on (2004) and she is currently completing Pacific Solution (2005).
Anthony Ravlich – Human Rights Council
Tony is Chairperson of the Human Rights Council who have been involved in the community educating people in Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, a covenant that is less well understood and perhaps less applied in New Zealand, than its sister covenant on civil and political rights. He is interested in eradicating poverty and feels that it often leads to conflict in UN forums and also weaken countries internal instability.
Antony Vallyon - United Nations Association of New Zealand
Antony is currently working for North Shore City Council helping manage water services as well as holding voluntary leadership roles in a number of NGO’s including UNANZ. He has previously worked for the United Nations in New York, NZ national and local government and in the private sector where he has gained an understanding of geo-politics, global governance and globalisation.
Barry Wilson- Auckland Council For Civil Liberties
Barry is a Barrister, a Newstalk ZB radio host, leading advocate for the civil liberties and human rights of New Zealanders and keeps in touch with liberties and rights in countries including Singapore. He is also involved with the International Law Association and on the advisory committee of the Human Rights Commission led New Zealand Action Plan for Human Rights.
Bob Newsom – Ngati Whatua
Bob is a Kaumatua of Ngati Whatua, and he is also Kaiwhakarite, cultural advisor to the Human Rights Commission in Auckland. Bob opened the film festival proceedings with a mihi, a formal speech of welcome, and will provide the farewell at the end of this year’s Auckland programme.
Bob Tait – Friends of The Earth
Bob is with Friends of the Earth who are a well established environmental NGO.
He has worked on the campaign featured in the film 60,000 Barrels and knows many of the people and situations featured in it.
Cameron Bennett – TVNZ
Cameron is the ForeignCorrespondent and Sunday correspondent presenter for TVNZ, and has reported on war stories from Bosnia to Baghdad. He has been a scriptwriter and a foreign correspondent personally covering human rights and international relations stories from inside a number of countries including Burma/Myanmar. He has also co-authored a book called Foreign Correspondents.
Candice Collier – New Zealand Business Council For Sustainable Development
Candice is a project manager for NZBCSD and has recently arrived from the United Kingdom. She has deep experience with businesses and their environment impacts.
Chris Morrison – Sustainable Business Network
Chris is the Managing Director of Phoenix Organics, and has been Chair of the Sustainable Business Network since2000. In 1985 Chris bought a ginger beer bug for $50, which was the beginning of Phoenix Organics Ltd. who have been committed to organics and sustainable business practices from day one. They manufacture and distribute natural and BioGro certified beverages throughout New Zealand, and are developing markets in Australia and South East Asia.
David Wakim – Human Rights Advocate
David is a pharmacist and human rights activist. He is involved with organisations including Pax Christi, UNANZ and Palestinian Human Rights Committee on local and international issues of peace and justice.
Deborah Manning - Human Rights Lawyer
Deborah is a lawyer and an advocate for human rights. She is probably most known for representing Ahmed Zaoui on his security certificate and status as a refugee. Deborah has insights into the clash between individual liberties, state security and human rights in New Zealand and overseas since the declaration of a war on terror.
Denise Ritchie – Stop Demand
Denise is the founder of Stop Demand Foundation. A campaigner and lawyer, Denise has worked in NZ and overseas for the past 12 years on issues relating to the global child sex trade including law reform, political lobbying and as a speaker at international forums.
Diane Winder – Odesee International
Diane is a management consultant and leadership coach and currently is Managing Director of Odessee International, a consulting and advocacy collaborative. She was previously president of Hendrickson Consulting Group, Inc. (HCGI), a knowledge management firm serving Fortune 100 biopharmaceutical clients across the United States. Diane has written over 200 knowledge management and training programmes since working in clinical microbiology at a Harvard Medical hospital.
Esteban Espinoza – NZ Latin American Community Leader
Esteban manages a hostel for asylum seekers in Mangere. He is also a leader of the Latin American community in Auckland and keeps in touch with issues from, and the impacts of, the human rights abuses in Latin America highlighted in the film Condor Axis of Evil.
Federico Monsalve – Sunday Star Times
Federico is a journalist, who was born in Medellin, Colombia where he lived until he was 16. His family and friends have been deeply affected by the violence and fear that can be seen in Resistencia, but he has also seen the creative ways in which some people opt to deal with it. He arrived in New Zealand 6 years ago, via the USA, where he was a graffiti artist and English language student. As a journalist he has previously run the City Voice newspaper in Wellington and written for Rip it Up, Listener, North and South, and The Herald – including covering visiting hip hop acts.
Fiona Thompson – NZ Burma Support Group
Fiona is a longtime campaigner for the people of Burma, and for getting refugees from Burma accepted into New Zealand. She has an awareness of human rights issues in Burma and the challenges facing refugees once they exit the country.
Geraldene Peters - Aotearoa Indymedia Network
Geraldene has been involved with the Aotearoa Indymedia network since Its inception in 2000. She organised some of the first resistance to globalization public screenings and has co-organised a number of documentary conferences, as well as being involved with the Global Peace and Justice Network. Involved in documentary production, she is also currently completing a PhD on radical/alternative political documentary in Aotearoa New Zealand.
James Nyan – Business Student
James is a refugee from Burma now living in Birkenhead. He has been in New Zealand four years and is now doing a business degree at Massey University and has recently visited various Burmese refugee camps in Thailand.Jane Brunning – Positive WomenJane is HIV positive and advocates on behalf of those who remain silent in New Zealand, particularly women. She has recently gone public after 20 years of keeping it hidden.
Jane Henley – Sustainable Business Network
Jane is the Northern Regional Manager for SBN. She has expertise in corporate social responsibility and businesses social impacts.
Jeanne Hallacy – Filmmaker
Jeanne is the director of the films Mercy and Burma Report that are being shown in this festival. Over the last few years she has made many other films and documentaries for media including BBC World, Reuters, CNBC, ITN, AP; United Nations agencies like UNICEF, UNAIDS, UNHCR and ILO; and the European Union as well as co-organizing an AIDS Film festival. She has developed strong links to and knowledge of human rights and social issues in Asia including those affected by HIV/AIDS.
Jennifer McCartney – University of Auckland
Jennifer is an accounting lecturer. She is active in public speaking, leadership development and sustainable business groups including toastmasters.
Joan Macdonald – Human Rights Network Trustee
Joan is involved in leadership roles in NGO’s including Women's International League for Peace and Freedom(WILPF), Indonesian Human Rights Committee and the Human Rights Network. She has wide experience in human rights especially in the rights of indigenous peoples, oppression, inequality, discrimination and exploitation in places like West Papua.
John David Price – Human Rights Advocate
John has been an outspoken social justice activist for several years in Canada. He has participated in, and co-founded numerous organisations in the sphere of anti-war, anti-poverty, environmental, libertarian socialist and de-schooling/free-schooling/un-schooling. He and also mobilized activists for mass demonstrations against groups like the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), the Group of Eight (G8), the Group of Twenty (G20), The
International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB). Some of these are linked to the events or people in the film Fourth World War.
Jo Luping – Filmmaker
Jo is the director and producer of the film Reframe, being shown in the festival. Jo worked with her sister Dianne Luping a human rights lawyer and grassroots activists from Jewish and Palestinian background to present their messages in striving towards a just and viable peace. She developed a broad knowledge of life in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Julie Watson – Human Rights Commission
Julie has a professional and personal interest in human rights. As part of the human rights commission she has a role in promoting the realization of human rights in New Zealand.
Karishma Kripilani – Sociology Student
Karishma is a masters degree student at the University of Auckland in sociology and is committed to human rights and education, having worked for the Peace Foundation. She has also helped organise this film festival and the special school screenings attached to it.
Kathryn Lehman – University of Auckland
Kathryn is a senior lecturer in Spanish and Latin American studies, including Latin American films. She has a strong knowledge of Argentina, its culture and history as well as it’s 2Oth century fiction and film.
Laurie Ross – Human Rights Promoter
Laurie is a coordinator of many many educational, musical and cultural events promoting justice, peace, human rights and environmental values including the 2003 Human Rights Day Celebration in Aotea Square. She also coordinated the West Auckland Peace group during 1982 as part of the nationwide Nuclear Free New Zealand Peacemaker campaign spearheaded by her father Larry Ross. She has made a special focus on promoting peace and Palestinian Human Rights.
Lisa Eldret – Service and Food Workers Union
Lisa is the Assistant Regional Secretary of the Service & Food Workers Union Nga Ringa Tota (SFWU). SFWU is the union for contract cleaners in building services, hospitality, hotels, retail and health. The SFWU campaigned to win legislation which came in late last year to provide protection for cleaners in situations of contracting out or change of employer and negotiates the only national multi employer collective agreement covering thousands of cleaners employed by contractors. SFWU has a history of representing cleaners, which goes back more than fifty years.
Luis Velocci – Unitec
Luis now works in the tertiary education sector. As a student growing up in Argentina he had first hand experience of torture and detentions during the 1970’s period covered in the film Condor Axis of Evil. He was forcibly separated from his wife and child and exiled to Peru. He has a knowledge of current day legal actions to bring perpetrators to justice in Argentina.
Madeleine Sami – Actress
Madeleine is an experienced theatre and TV actress who has appeared on popular New Zealand TV shows like Shortland Street and The Insiders Guide to Happiness. She will read excerpts from child rights & HIV/AIDS campaigner Graca Machel.
Maire Leadbeater – Indonesia Human Rights Committee
Maire is an active member of NGO’s including Indonesia Human Rights Committee and the Human Rights Network. She has a deep knowledge of historical and human rights issues relating to Indonesia, including Aceh and West Papua.
Marama Davidson – Human Rights Commission
Marama has a professional and personal interest in human rights. As part of the human rights commission she has a role in promoting the realization of human rights in New Zealand. Marama was also involved in linking to the film festival committee.
Margaret Lewis – Barrister
Margaret is a barrister practising in Auckland. She has a broad range of experience in both legal cases and human rights work. Margaret has been a member of the executive of the Auckland Council for Civil Liberties for many years, holding office as both president and Chairperson during this time. She is also a member executive of the Human Rights Foundation, an advocacy group for the promotion of Human Rights. Her legal practice covers general civil litigation including cases under the N Z Bill of Rights, human rights, race relations and mental health. She also undertakes cases in the areas of the employment law and relationship property.
Margaret Taylor – Amnesty International
Margaret has a professional and personal interest in human rights. She is currently in the Auckland office of Amnesty helping promote human rights locally and globally.
Marilyn Waring – Massey University
Marilyn is currently on leave from her role as a professor of public policy to conduct a ministerial inquiry into the New Zealand Agency for International Development. She is a current Board member of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, a former Member of Parliament. She is the author of the book Counting For Nothing and remains a leading authority on Genuine Progress Indicators and other measures of wellbeing, as well as systems of national governmental accounting and economic practices.
Mark Slave – Base FM
Mark is a “self-proclaimed hip-hop media assassin”, DJ, MC radiohost, and a TV presenter/director/actor. He is on Base FM Radio 107.3 each weekday morning co-hosting with Otis Frizzell.
Michael Field – URS Ltd
Michael is a Sustainability Consultant from URS NZ, specialising in the areas of green buildings, sustainable business and sustainable industry (manufacturing). He is a new arrival in NZ, having moved from England via Australia three months ago, where he worked for Interface Inc, the worlds largest textile company and one of the world leaders in sustainable business practices, as their National Sustainability Manager.
Michael Galvin – Actor
Michael is an actor who appears in New Zealand television series Shortland Street and has an interest in promoting human rights. A graduate of Victoria University and Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School. His theatre credits include roles in the New Zealand classics Ladies Night, Foreskin's Lament, and Blue Sky Boys as well as Phantom of the Opera. He will read excerpts from Nelson Mandela and George Orwell.
Michael Shroff – United Nations Association of New Zealand
Michael is a public administrator and translator, and is an active toastmaster. He has worked for the United Nations in Chile for several years covering Latin American issues as a translator and has obtained an appreciation of South American culture and history.
Mike McRoberts – TV3
Mike is a news reader and 60 minutes presenter for TV3. He is a former news and sports reporter for Radio NZ and TVNZ and covered the Fiji Coup for Holmes. He is familiar with film and how the medium can tell a story about human rights.
Mike Treen – Unite Union
Mike is an organiser with the Unite Union which covers low-paid cleaners in the hotel and hospitality industry in Auckland. He is also involved in leadership positions in NGO’s like Global Peace and Justice Aotearoa and has an interest in globalization and its impacts.
Otis Frizzell – Base FM
Otis is a renowned graffiti and graphic artist who has spent the last 20 years learning the art of spray can bombing. He co-hosts the Mo-Show on TV and the Base FM 107.3 morning show with Mark Slave.
Paul Buchanan – University of Auckland
Paul is a professor of, and commentator on, international relations and Latin American studies. In the 1980’s Paul worked as a consultant for Amnesty on issues of state terror and human rights abuses in the Southern Cone of Latin America before training US military in the belief that he could re-orient US security policy and practices from the inside. His experience consulting to the CIA, the US and NZ military and Argentina’s Foreign Ministry among many projects give him a unique perspective on geo-strategic interests and their impacts on human rights.
Peter Shannon – Service and Foodworkers Union
Peter works for the service and foodworkers workers union and has a wide knowledge of employment rights and responsibilities. He also has an interest in globalisation and the affects it has on peoples identity.
Peter Stratford – United Nations Association of New Zealand
Peter is a software developer currently working in the private sector. He coordinated the annual UNANZ High School Speech Awards this year and is a toastmaster.
Rima Taraia – Unite Union
Rima is a Unite union organizer. She was formerly a housekeeper at an Auckland hotel and a union delegate representing cleaners for over 15 years, facing some issues similar to those in the film Bread and Roses.
Robert Howell – Council for Socially Responsible Investment
Robert is the Chair and had a significant role in the establishment of the Council for Socially Responsible Investment (CSRI) in New Zealand. It has evolved from various church and community funds exploring where their shares are invested and how the companies they invest in perform on social and environmental issues as part of their core business. He was previously a management consultant and has been Chief Executive of Napier City Council.
Sir Ross Jansen – Professional Director
Sir Ross is a director of several companies, trusts and community based NGO’s. He is a former Mayor of Hamilton, former head of the Local Government Commission and former Chair of Midland Health. He is a keen student of history and law, and has an awareness of globalisation and geo-politics and its impacts.
Sam Cunningham – Amnesty International
Sam is a small business and social entrepreneur and for the last ten years has worked with Amnesty, as co-ordinator of their Auckland Regional Team for the last two and half years dedicated to building Amnesty's human rights activism capacity in Auckland. Raised in Ethiopia, he and his brother started a community based development project in a small town in northeastern Ethiopia obtaining sponsorship from British Airways to travel there.
Simon Collins – New Zealand Herald
Simon is a journalist working for the Herald. He has a professional interest and knowledge in reporting on social affairs and has developed a broad range of contacts in and awareness of issues in many of our communities.
Tinmama Oo -Youth leader of the United Burmese Democractic Community
Tinmama is a first year university student, and a former Burmese refugee. She arrived in New Zealand in 2000, after living in a refugee camp on the Thailand -Burma border.
Tracey McIntosh – University of Auckland
Tracey holds a doctorate and is a senior lecturer in sociology. Her research and teaching interests include processes of marginalisation, religion, crime and the social location of death.
Treasa Dunworth – University of Auckland
Treasa is a lecturer in Public International Law. Following degrees at Auckland and Harvard she worked in international law in both non-governmental and inter-governmental spheres. This included political affairs for the Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Her research has included the law of arms control, armed conflict and international humanitarian law and the accountability of international organisations.
Tuma Hazou – Human Rights Advocate
Tuma has retired to New Zealand but maintains an interest in promoting human rights and reducing conflict. After working as a journalist for the BBC and in filmmaking he became the press advisor for many years to the Crown Prince of Jordan. He then was in charge of communications for UNICEF in the middle east and combines a strong knowledge of middle eastern history and politics with communications and telling a story through film.
Tyna – Musician
Tyna is a rapper. Hip hop is a way of expressing a way of life or a point of view via music which Tyna does in New Zealand, with some strands of musical similarities to hip hop in Colombia in the film Resistencia.
Walescka Pino-Ojeda – University of Auckland
Walescka is a senior lecturer in Spanish and in Latin American Studies. She lectures and has published on Latin American music and film. She was also a very active participant in the cultural movement in Chile during the 1980s prior to the end of the dictatorial regime of Augusto Pinochet.
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