Amelia Addis
Wellington writing team Amelia Addis and Ebed Pohl have been announced as the 2024 Wellington Write Room Residents with their project In Alex. Producer Kate Goodwin will join the programme’s mentor team as this year’s Producer Intern.
Based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Amelia Addis and Ebed Pohl are screenwriters and filmmakers working on their first feature film together. Their collaboration began after Ebed watched a scene written and directed by Amelia. Through their discussions the pair found they shared a common creative voice as well as a desire to explore similar character types and themes. The conversations quickly resulted in a story, and the pair realised they were developing a feature film.
“The nature of attraction and how age and life experience play into how we act on it, are central to In Alex. The story poses the question ‘who can two people be to each other?’. Through the perspectives of our characters we want to explore how the perimeters of age, marriage, mentorship and creative collaboration impact their actions and their perception of a relationship.”
"The Write Room Residency will provide us with the time and space to flesh out our story-we are extremely grateful to Vicky, Rob, Kate and the Toi Pōneke Arts Centre team for seeing the potential in this story and can’t wait to begin the next round of development with them.” -Amelia and Ebed
Amelia’s focus is on writing and directing. While writing personally in the past few years, it was last year that her aspiration to pursue filmmaking professionally took hold. She studied a Diploma in Film and Television Production through Yoobee College as well as screenwriting classes through the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University. This year she will further her studies through the MA Screenwriting program at the IML.
Ebed is a graduate of Massey University, having studied Creative Media Production, and now tutors a filmmaking course at Yoobee College of Creative Innovation. After two years of working mainly as a cinematographer on short films, Ebed brought his focus back to screenwriting with the short film The Watson Journals, which he co-wrote and shot as cinematographer. The Watson Journals went on to win the Best Short Screenplay at the 8&Halfilm awards, and Best Crime Short at the Independent Shorts Awards.
Ebed Pohl
Kate Goodwin
Producer intern Kate Goodwin has worked across a myriad of different projects starting with music videos for artists such as Benee, The Phoenix Foundation, Soft Plastics and Dick Move, as well as commercials, then moving into web series and the Loading Doc Only Human written and directed by Mia Marama. Most recently she produced Self Help, a young adult comedy drama created by Kris Hermansson and Grace Palmer, directed by Michelle Ang and Rawiri Jobe and funded by NZ on Air. The project won best NZ Web series in 2022 and has been selected for numerous international festivals. In 2023 she delivered The Turning Point, a 6-part documentary for RNZ and NZ on Air, created by Steph Miller and following young people doing grassroots conservation work around Aotearoa. She is currently developing numerous film and TV projects including The Chair by Brooke Benton and The Golden Pig by Hweiling Ow.
“Telling original and innovative stories from Aotearoa is my main career ambition, I’m eventually hoping to produce feature films that connect with audiences in a deep and powerful way. I am especially interested in stories that explore power dynamics and disenfranchised communities who historically haven’t been given a platform”.Mentor and selector Vicky Pope said “We are always so impressed by the calibre of submissions to this programme and the number of talented screenwriters in Wellington. This screenplay shone as a sophisticated, mature and distinctive piece of writing with contemporary themes and the potential to be developed towards a production pathway. Amelia and Ebed are an incredible team and we’re so excited to support them via the programme, thanks to the team at Toi Pōneke Arts Centre and Wellington City Council.”
Write Room Wellington is a screenwriter residency programme offered in partnership with Toi Pōneke Arts Centre, and Wellington City Council Aho Tini 2030 Arts, Culture and Creativity Strategy. Each year a Wellington screenwriter is selected to undertake a 12-week residency to develop a draft of their feature film screenplay with the support of experienced industry mentors. This year’s mentors are Robert Sarkies (Scarfies, Out of the Blue, Consent: The Louise Nicolas Story) and Vicky Pope (Went Up The Hill, Savage, Gardening with Soul) with producer intern Kate Goodwin.
Write Room Wellington recognises the challenges for New Zealand screenwriters to create space in their lives to write and find a place to do their work. The aim of the programme is to support screenwriters to develop their screenplay to a level where it can be pitched to a producer and secure further development funding and a pathway towards production.
For more information on other Toi Pōneke Residencies click here