Celia Jaspers
Growing up in North Canterbury, Celia as the eldest of two children was brought up with the attitude that girls can do anything. Attending a small school at Ohoka, with a limited number of pupils, meant that everyone played in all sports teams. Celia played with the boys’ hockey and cricket teams. There were no boundaries. It wasn’t until Celia attended Intermediate in Christchurch that she discovered girls were not welcome. “It was quite a shock” says Celia. “My father had been an aircraft engineer with Air New Zealand before becoming a pilot. He encouraged us to try all sorts of things as well as teaching us to be practical. I even flew a light aircraft solo at 16.”
RangiRuru, the secondary school Celia attended, was exceptional. A very inspiring principal encouraged the girls to aim for the best, with emphasis on leadership, sporting opportunities and academic excellence. Celia’s curriculum included practical art, technical drawing, photography, physics, and English.
At 15, Celia found a weekend job on the What Now show and discovered her calling in life.
“The day I finished school; I was offered an intern position at TVNZ. It was technical, creative, fun, and I learned so much. I would even read the technical manuals in edit suites to better understand how things worked. After a stint in Australia working for Channel 7 and Foxtel I returned to Avalon Studios as a Director and Editor, where we made a variety of children’s shows. I have now been in the industry for 31 years.
I always dreamed of being a film director. During the Covid lockdown in 2020 I decided that I could do this. The children were being home schooled. I filmed a three-minute film, in the rain, on the farm, with the children and the animals. I entered it in the 48 hours film festival. There were over 2,000 entries. It became a finalist and went on to win the best family film.
The impetus of that win inspired me to create “Milk.” We were just out of lockdown and the germ of a story based on kindness and caring took shape. What would a child sacrifice to help somebody else in need? It was a huge local community effort and collective project. I was amazed at the result. Milk has been shown in 85 film festivals and won 35 different awards, for directing, acting, editing and cinematography. It has been shown in Sweden, UK, Italy, France, Ukraine, Hungary, Turkey, Russia, Tokyo, Canada, USA, Buenos Aires, and Australia. But best of all, because it was produced in Martinborough, Jane Ross arranged for our own local premiere at Circus Cinema.
I love my work. It is so diverse. I film for Country Calendar, make documentaries, corporate training videos and American Reality Shows.
Yes, I do have another project up my sleeve. A story of a trumpet player based at Castle Point. It will be both joyful and tragic.”
