Four screen industry people were named in the King’s Birthday Honours List: Chloe Smith, Dan Buckingham, Shuchi Kothari, and Paul Davidson.
Veteran producer Chloe Smith was awarded the highest honour of those named, becoming a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (above). Smith’s career spans several decades, early titles on which she worked including Came A Hot Friday, Queen City Rocker and The Piano. Her first credit as producer was Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, and she went on to work on several of Rob Tapert’s TV titles shot here, including Xena and Legends of the Seeker. Most recently, she worked with the late John Barnett on Dark City: The Cleaner and Spartacus: House of Ashur.
The three others named in the Honours List all become Members of the New Zealand Order of Merit.
Able CEO Dan Buckingham is recognised for services to people with disabilities and wheelchair rugby. A member of the gold medal winning 2004 Paralympic Games Wheel Blacks, he played for NZ for 15 years, and after retiring was a presenter and producer for TVNZ’s coverage of the Rio 2016 Paralympics. He worked for many years at Attitude Pictures, which specialises in highlighting people with disabilities, becoming CEO in 2020. He’s currently CEO of Able, which provides captioning and audio description services, and was a founding member of the Disability Media Collective.
Dr Shuchi Kothari is recognised for services to the screen industry. An Associate Professor in Screen Production at the University of Auckland, who has advocated for Pan-Asian filmmakers in New Zealand for more than 20 years and co-founded the Pan-Asian Screen Collective (PASC). She co-wrote and co-produced feature Apron Strings, which played 15 international film festivals, and anthology feature Kāinga. She created PASC’s Episode One Web Series Pilot Programme, the second run of which has just released its four pilots.
Dr Paul Davidson, recognised for services to documentary filmmaking, has spent more than 45 years scripting, directing and compiling over 200 documentary films, recording the stories of ordinary New Zealanders and community institutions. Initially based in Wellington, he has worked from his Blenheim studio for many years, as well as making films in Australia while completing a Doctorate in Visual Arts.
The full list of those honoured is here.
