During 2014 – 2015, the Faculty of Creative Arts and Business at Unitec in Auckland sponsored a community media project called “The Spaces Between/The Living Community.”  The project involved students and staff from the Departments of Communication Studies and Performing and Screen Arts.

“The Living Community” series is intended to reflect Unitec’s commitment to the communities it serves, and to suggest the idea of exploring what it is that makes communities vital and resilient.  Also it echoes Unitec’s “The Living Curriculum” – learning as a conversation, the importance of engagement / two way dialogue to make something “live.”

Six community projects in the Auckland area were identified and teams of students and staff created film documentaries on each of them.  The documentaries were broadcast on the Auckland community television station, Face TV, during May and June 2015.

We are honoured that CUE Haven was selected as one of the projects.

Last year we met with Jocelyn Williams, Head of Department, Department of Communication Studies, Faculty of Creative Industries and Business and she interviewed us at length about the CUE Haven project, its history and our goals and objectives.

In June, Mark Ingram, Documentary Production Manager, Department of Performing & Screen Arts at Unitec brought out a group of students—Andrew, Asha, Caleb, Tima, Jatin, Josh, Parth, Roshan, Siobhan and Victor to exploring and film the property and interview us.

In November, Mark Ingram came out again with students Geoffrey, Jade, Jimmy, Peia and Rosie to conduct some additional interviews.

Last year a group of Unitec Graphic Design students had done projects to design signs for CUE Haven as part of their course work.  Thanks to a grant from the Auckland Council and sponsorship from Capitol Signs Ltd, seven information signs designed by students Yan Herre and Paige Keene, were developed and installed at CUE Haven in 2014. The Unitec media students interviewed Paige and Yan about their experience working on the project.

From initial ideas, to interviews, story development, filming and editing – the project was a great opportunity for all sorts of Unitec students to get their hands on a real production project.

The end result is a wonderful short documentary showcasing CUE Haven and you can see the final results of the students’ efforts here:

We are delighted with the results.  We have very much enjoyed working with the Unitec staff and students who were professional and also fun to work with.

Real world learning and delivering value to communities is a key element of studies at Unitec and we are delighted that CUE Haven is able to provide a platform for student learning and in return gain significant benefit from the students’ contributions.

We would like to thank Jocelyn, Marcus, Mark, Ravi and Skye for their support and interest in CUE Haven and for involving us with the Living Communities project.  We very much value our relationship with Unitec and we look forward to continuing working with them on other projects.

The Living Community CUE Haven program was the result of the work of several people and we want to thank each of them for their efforts.

Presenters –Jess Kahi and Hannah Rohe

Camera – Jeffery Huang, Jimmy Yang, Jade Hurst, Andrea Eastwick, Victor Ikeda, Asha Haines, Jatin Kachhala

Editors – Gad Gong, Jemma Lee, Elias Elzenaar-Adams, Natasha Bishop

Editing Supervisor – Jo Jowitt

Series Assembly Coordinator – Skye Clark

Music – Michael Murray, Jason Shaw (audionautix.com)

Studio recording – Will Isherwood

Design & Animation – Angus Burrows. Jay Matson, Jamie Martel, Irene Lee, Sam Wong

Sound – Josh Metcalfe

Production Assistant – Sondiyp Singh

Chief Researcher & Project Leader – Jocelyn Williams

Executive Producer – Alex Lee

Episode Director – Mark Ingram

Interviews written by – Tima Abbas, Parth Mehta, Roshan Nama, Caleb Rakete, Siobhan Willocks, Amy Bramley, Jade Hurst, Rosie Stanton

Interviews by – Siobhan Willocks, Rosie Stanton

Thanks again!  You’ve created a valuable visual story about the CUE Haven project and we really appreciate all of your contributions.  We wish you all the best in your future endeavours!

You can see other Living Community stories here.