Summer Agnew

Elam School of Fine Arts graduate Summer Agnew first made his mark with acclaimed documentary Minginui (2004), which he co-directed with fellow Elam graduate Adam Luxton. The film offered a moody portrait of a former mill town. The SPADA New Filmmaker of 2007 followed it with episodes of Let's Get Inventin' and New Artland — plus short film Patu Ihu, which played at festivals in Aotearoa and overseas. In 2016 Agnew and Luxton's 'speculative documentary' On an Unknown Beach was chosen to debut in the NZ International Film Festival. Agnew has also directed a run of music videos and commercials.

We were interested in testing the horizons of non-fiction film. We knew we wanted the characters to speak to each other, and speak to something beyond themselves, from within the film. We just weren’t sure how we were all going to arrive there. Summer Agnew on co-directing On an Unknown Beach with Adam Luxton, in a press release for the film