Media release
Thursday 15th September 2011

NHNZ sponsors inaugural ScienceTellers Festival

Global production house NHNZ is backing the inaugural ScienceTeller Festival being held in Dunedin, New Zealand, from 15-19 November 2011.

The ScienceTeller Festival, which is run by the University of Otago’s Centre for Science Communication, is aimed at science producers and writers. The festival combines extensive public screenings, a competition element for writers and producers and workshops with talks by internationally renowned science communicators including Lawrence Krauss and Robyn Williams.

For NHNZ, who is a key partner in the Science Communication Masters at the University of Otago, this festival is a way of ensuring that Australasia stays ahead of the game in the world of science communication.

NHNZ Managing Director Michael Stedman says the work NHNZ does with the Science Communications team is an exceptional example of industry and a university working together.

“The results of our work together speak for themselves. We have seen some of the finest young science film-makers enter the industry, and it is only through combining the knowledge of a production house like ours with the rigour of a university like Otago that you see extraordinary results like this.”

EVP Development and Marketing Neil Harraway says that NHNZ’s involvement in the Science Communications course has lead an impressive range of young film makers to NHNZ’s halls and the ScienceTellers Festival is another way to cement the skills of the Australian and Asian producers who tell the stories of science and want to stay in front of the pack.

“While we’re not all about science programming, that does make up at least a quarter of our programming mix, so ensuring we are getting the best science communicators and being up with the play is important. We’re lucky to have the prestigious University of Otago at our doorstep, so working in collaboration with them is a no brainer.”

The festival has an impressive line-up of the world’s great storytellers of science, including Jay O’Callahan, author and performer of the NASA-commissioned story on space “Forged in the Stars”, internationally renowned theoretical physicist and speaker Professor Lawrence Krauss, author of “The Physics of Star Trek”, Mark Lewis, renowned for developing the genre of quirky nature documentary, and Robyn Williams, presenter of Australia's Radio National Science Show, Ockham's Razor and In Conversation.

Centre for Science Communication Director Professor Lloyd Spencer Davis says the ScienceTeller Festival is all about the methods by which communicators popularise science through film, writing and documentary productions.

“This festival is unique – there is nothing else quite like it in the world. There are other science and film festivals, but none that celebrate the marriage of storytelling and science,” says Professor Davis.

Delegate registration is open now at www.scienceteller.com

Delegates will have access to all screenings, workshops, exhibitions and talks, plus the festival functions. Some workshops will be exclusively open to delegates.

For more information about the speakers, competition, delegate registration and the ScienceTeller Festival in general see: www.scienceteller.com

ENDS

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