Film Commission boss David Strong's stand-down over a conflict of interest is raising eyebrows - and it comes at a time where all eyes are on New Zealand's publicly funded media.
David Strong Photo: Signy Gudlaugsdottir
If you're a film or TV producer in New Zealand, getting funding for your project is a life changer. Almost always that funding is from the public purse, and it is heavily contested.
It explains why members of the screen industry are seething after finding out that the head of the Film Commission, David Strong, had received public money from NZ On Air to develop his project The Pilgrim into a TV drama series.
NZ on Air says it committed $22,000 in development funding to The Pilgrim in July last year.
According to his bio on the Film Commission website, Strong has been in the industry since 2006 and for many years had been also working on the screenplay for The Pilgrim.
In July last year NZ on Air approved funding for the project, to develop a script alongside Great Southern Television and TVNZ. Just as The Pilgrim was going through the funding process, Strong was in the final stages of being appointed Film Commission chief executive.
Strong has been on paid leave for several months while a conflict of interest review is under way. The board's role is under scrutiny, lawyers have been called in, and the leadership is in a vacuum.
It comes at a time of major change and upheaval. The government is reviewing the Screen Production Grant, the incentive or rebate paid to overseas and local producers to make their films in New Zealand. The Screen Industry Workers Bill - previously known as the Hobbit Law - is also under review; and industry players are closely watching the development of the new public media entity involving TVNZ and RNZ.
"It's a small industry, heavy government participation, very relationship-based and the volatility between getting a project and not getting a project is enormous," says The Spinoff's chief executive and publisher Duncan Greive, who broke the story in May.
"Naturally people scrutinise the funding decisions very heavily. When they don't get something, understandably, they're pretty mad about it. When they do, they feel vindicated."
The backdrop to the controversy is a publicly funded body, the Film Commission, which not only funds films to be made here, but is also tasked with marketing New Zealand to overseas film makers and helping broker deals with offshore distributors. It means the commission heads are "highly courted" by the industry.
Greive points out that Strong never attempted to hide his project, and his bio on the commission's website makes prominent mention of The Pilgrim as part of his body of work.
Many in the industry first heard of it when a letter was sent to screen guilds earlier this year by the chair of the Film Commission, Dame Kerry Prendergast, saying they had a conflict of interest situation and were managing it.
"We looked at the letter and thought, wow, that doesn't actually sound like a conflict of interest that you can actually manage," says Irene Gardiner, president of the screen producers' guild SPADA.
"You can't have the head of one of your major funding agencies still swimming in the production waters."
SPADA, keen to remain at arms length from the commission, replied with a barrister's letter.
"That began the process," says Gardiner. "David was stood down and the independent review was put in place."
Greive says he feels for Strong and thinks he might have been naive in thinking he could run the Film Commission and work on a publicly-funded TV series.
"Those were two dream situations that just happened to come at once."
He believes the board of the commission should have handled it better.
Gardiner says the timing is unfortunate but with a new chair Alastair Carruthers starting in October she's confident the issues will be resolved.
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