Director: Luit Bieringa
Director of Photography: John Irwin
Editor: John Irwin
Sound: John Irwin
Producer: Jan Bieringa
Productuion Consultant: Gaylene Preston
Music: Bevan Smith and Matthew Mitchell
Stills Editor & Technical Consultant: Kris Bieringa
Ans Westra, whose photographs of New Zealanders constitute a uniquely expressive record of who we are and have been, now sits for the camera herself. Contemplating her career with amusement and gratitude, she speaks as one for whom photography is as natural and indispensable as seeing or remembering. Luit Bieringa, first-time filmmaker and curator of the superb touring retrospective, intercuts her testimony with cordial interjections from friends, family and other commentators - and shows us the photos. Her images are captured at the peripheries of official activity and are all the more piquant for that. Framed by a conversation with Hone Tuwhare, the film roundly acknowledges the progressive role her work played in 60s counterculture and in the cultural renaissance of Maori.
