Claudette Hauiti: On producing in Front of the Box...

TV producer Claudette Hauiti (Ngāti Porou, Ngāpuhi) began her career as a sports journalist on radio before moving to television news. In later years, her production company Front of the Box made ground-breaking Māori series such as Eye to Eye and Takatāpui, as well as the award-winning documentaries Gang Girls and Children of the Revolution.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Hauiti talks about:

• How some gang connections led to the documentary Gang Girls and how it validated the lives of the women interviewed
• How strong support from Maori TV for Takatāpui helped get the series on air despite some misgivings from the Māori community
• The cancellation of Eye to Eye
• How she likes shows to challenge audiences
• How Maori Television has created a huge mind shift in attitudes to Māori and assisted in making New Zealand more multi-cultural
• The challenges of being an independent television producer in New Zealand

This video was first uploaded on 3 August 2010, and is available under this Creative Commons licence. This licence is limited to use of ScreenTalk interview footage only and does not apply to any video content and photographs from films, television, music videos, web series and commercials used in the interview.

Interview, Camera and Editing – Andrew Whiteside