I came to documentary making from a journalistic background. This is a little unusual because most people come to it from a cinema-graphic background. I learned about videoing, sort up, about what cameras work, and what cameras don’t, mic-ing up, and editing- at least from a voyeuristic perspective.

 Briefly, I returned from the Middle East in February 2014, where I was head of a news service in Middle East and Africa. I knew that part of the world far better than I knew any other, so I wanted to produce something that used my knowledge of that area. That was difficult, not only because of the censorship laws operating in the region, which would have meant not filming there, but, as I found it later, any documentary had to be based in New Zealand and have a NZ perspective.