Leanne Pooley

Who is Leanne Pooley?

Leanne Pooley is a filmmaker based in Auckland New Zealand. Her career spans more than 20 years and she has won numerous international awards. Leanne Pooley was made a New Zealand Arts Laureate in November 2011.

Pooley was born and raised in Winnipeg, Canada, she immigrated to New Zealand in the mid-1980s and began working in the New Zealand television industry.

In 1992 she moved to England where she made documentaries for Britain's major broadcasters including BBC1, BBC2, ITV, Channel 4 as well as PBS in America.

In 1997 Pooley established the independent production company Spacific Films based in New Zealand. Recent documentaries include, The Man Who Has Everything for the American Discovery Network, Kiwi Buddha as seen on National Geographic and Haunting Douglas, described by Variety Magazine as an "Expertly crafted video portrait of modern dancer/choreographer Douglas Wright,". Haunting Douglas is a feature length documentary that has received accolades at film festivals around the world and earned Pooley the “Best Director” award at the 2005 New Zealand Screen Awards.

Pooley made The Promise about the life of euthanasia advocate, Leslie Martin, winning the “Best Documentary” award at the 2006 New Zealand Screen Awards. Her documentary Try Revolution explores how rugby was used to help end apartheid in South Africa and featured among others Archbishop Desmond Tutu.