Attitude in global spotlight- again

Attitude in global spotlight- again

Auckland, September 25 2014: The Attitude Group, a New Zealand digital disability content specialist, has been selected from broadcasters and production companies across Asia-Pacific to participate in the “1 Asia Co-production Initiative”, funded by the Japanese Government.

The capacity of the Attitude team to focus on the essence and individuality of every story is what the 1 Asia Project identified and secured the group’s place in the project.

This latest achievement comes simultaneously with the news that two programmes from its flagship weekly TV documentary series “Attitude” are finalists in the annual Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) Prizes.

Other finalists include major broadcasters such as the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Australia’s SBS, Japan’s NHK, CNN International and Korea’s KBS. The winners will be announced on October 27 in Macau.

‘The Attitude Awards’, a documentary about the annual celebration of New Zealanders living with a disability, is a finalist in the ABU Perspective Awards category. ‘Adam Hall: Defending Champion’, featuring Paralympic Skier Adam Hall’s buildup to the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games, is a finalist in the sports category. Both documentaries were funded by New Zealand On Air.

These achievements are the latest in a string of international successes for the independent company founded in 22 years ago by Kiwi documentary maker Robyn Scott Vincent. In the past 12 months alone The Attitude Group has:

• Won the Special Jury Prize at the 2013 ABU Prizes for its documentary about New Zealand’s Paralympic cycling team

• Won the 2014 Asia Image Apollo Awards Prize for Editing for its documentary about a young man living with autism called ‘Jimmy Wants a Job’

• Become the first independent production company to secure broadcast rights for both the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games and the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games

• Livestreamed 50 hours of HD 1080 content from the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games on its groundbreaking, fully accessible web platform AttitudeLive.com

• Grown unique pageviews of AttitudeLive.com to an average of 45,134 a month, averaging 10 minutes per session, in less than a year

Since its launch in September 2013 AttitudeLive.com has attracted viewers from 172 countries/territories around the world.

Scott Vincent, who is the group CEO and executive producer, says broadcasters are recognising how Attitude’s focus on content relating to disability and chronic health work is helping shape public attitudes.

“Most importantly it is giving people with disabilities all over the world a sense that they have both skills and real value to offer society,” Scott Vincent says. “We are really happy AttitudeLive.com is rapidly developing into the global online community that was our vision to help create.”

The Attitude Group currently employs eight people living with disability, three of whom are heads of department. Dan Buckingham who lives with quadriplegia and is a Paralympic Gold medallist, is the Producer, AttitudeLive.com. Jai Waite, whose editing skills secured this year’s Apollo Award, is also a quadriplegic and Paralympian and he heads post production. Tanya Black, who lives with paraplegia, is head of content, helping to develop stories and campaigns for both the Attitude TV series and AttitudeLive.com

ends

© Scoop Media