Pictured above from left to right: Ben Powdrell, Celia Jaspers, Grant Campbell, Howard Taylor, Sam Kelly, Robyn Paterson, Tui Ruwhiu, and Bryce Campbell.

Earlier this year, the DEGANZ board put forward a motion to give life memberships to dedicated past board members, editor Annie Collins and directors Grant Campbell and Howard Taylor, for their significant contributions to DEGANZ and the Aotearoa screen industry. The votes were unanimous in passing the motion at the Extraordinary General Meeting in August.

Now, DEGANZ celebrates these long-time board and guild members and awards them their life membership certificates. To commemorate the occasion, DEGANZ hosted a lunch. Unfortunately, Annie was unable to attend due to Covid.

Read more about the new life members below:

Annie Collins

Annie has been editing film since 1975, beginning on celluloid through to digital and across multiple formats. Since joining the DEGANZ Board, she has prioritised skills training and workflow knowledge not only for editors and assistants but across the spectrum for all involved in the film industry. She continues both editing and training while putting energy into the government reform of tertiary education for the film industry.

Annie served on the board from 2016 till she stepped down in 2023.

I am humbled to be recognised in this way by DEGANZ. The work of all the Guilds and industry Associations is extremely important for the well being of each person who works in the industry, and therefore affects the well being of the film industry itself. To have had the opportunity to be part of Guild work has been fantastic, and life membership means having an ongoing part in that developing vision. Thank you DEGANZ.

– Annie Collins

Grant Campbell

Grant Campbell is a producer, writer and director who has worked across documentary, comedy and drama in Los Angeles, Australia, the Pacific Islands and New Zealand. Notably, he produced the classic Kiwi documentary Cinema of Unease.

Grant was a founding board member of DEGANZ, and remained on the board until stepping down in 2017. He is a past DEGANZ representative on the Australian Screen Directors Authorship Society (ASDACS).

Howard Taylor

Howard Taylor is a Wellington-based writer, director and producer. After training as a film editor with the NZ Broadcasting Corporation in the early 1970s, he produced Country Calendar and was a field director on the arts and magazine series Kaleidoscope, 10AM, and Sunday. He went freelance in 1995, working as a director and documentary maker for production houses including Ninox Films, Greenstone Pictures, Natural History New Zealand, and his own company, Howard Taylor Productions. He also stepped into the staged performance space, producing professional theatre for a stint in the 2010s. In recent years, Howard returned to his roots to direct Country Calander.

Howard was pivotal to DEGANZ’s origins as a founding board member of the guild, serving for 26 years. He was Board President for his final five years before stepping down.

Working for the Guild and, by extension, the welfare of its members has been hugely satisfying. The thing I am probably proudest of is giving the Guild a bit more muscle by working with Tui to get it registered as a union with the CTU. Copyright has been an ongoing issue. Back in 2006 ED at the time Anna Cahill and I appeared before the government’s select committee to argue for directors copyright. We were green and very disappointed when the great reception we received didn’t produce a change of the law. We were better prepared and more sophisticated planning the campaign in the latest (still on-going) Copyright Review. I wish the current board the best in the on-going fight.

– Howard Taylor