Nelson mum and her son aim to make a difference

Nelson mum and her son aim to make a difference

“I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do.” - Edward Everett Hale Nelson filmmaker, mum and passionate greenie Emma Heke and her seven year old son Connor are hitting the road to film other families who are living the green lifestyle.

Emma won a Ministry for the Environment 2011 Green Ribbon Award for her Red Heke Productions DVDs for children. Now she and Connor are off in their trusty van on an eight month journey around New Zealand, travelling as far South as Invercargill and as far North as the Hokianga.

“We will be filming over 60 families with environmentally sustainable businesses and lifestyles to showcase the diversity of green business and dispel myths around green living,” Emma says. “We’ll be telling the stories mainly through the eyes of the children involved and we reckon every New Zealander will be able to identify with at least one family in the film and be challenged and inspired to make a difference too.”

This epic journey is titled Our Green Roadie and is largely self-funded. Emma has rented out their home and will be selling her DVDs for children along the way to pay for fuel and accommodation in camping grounds.

“In many cases we’ll be able to spend the night with the families we are filming and we are doing everything we can to keep our costs down,” Emma says. “However we are looking for sponsors - we’re negotiating with Ecostore to provide product gifts as koha for the families we stay with.”

From all this filming will come a series of programmes aimed for prime time TV viewing and a feature-length documentary set for national and international film festivals, and Emma hopes, for community and school viewings nationwide.

“We think seeing such a variety of green lifestyles will really show people what is possible and will greatly impact on mainstream New Zealand,” she says.

In the Nelson/Tasman region businesses such as Richmond Plains Wines, Fresh2U, Founders Brewery, Solid Earth, Ecotect, Dolphin Ecotours, Fresh Choice Supermarket, Lochmarra, Stone Arrow, The Little Greenie, Toad Hall and the Tui Nature Reserve are all taking part in the documentary.

If you want to help Emma to make a difference she has a range of suggestions:

FREE: Liking us on Facebook and posting encouraging words. By doing this you’ll get to join us ‘virtually’ on our eight month journey and share some of our stories. www.facebook.com/OurGreenRoadie

$25: Buy either of our awesome DVDs – OURS or Our Creative Children which will help greatly with travel and means you’ll own or be able to gift a truly unique 100% NZ made DVD to a child in your life www.oursdvd.co.nz postage in NZ is free. $100: By gifting us $100 you get to be one of our Hundred$100s and have your name in the Film Credits as being a significant supporter. Please email Emma info@oursdvd.co.nz for more details. Sponsorship: There are three levels of business sponsorship on offer for significant benefits. Please email Emma info@oursdvd.co.nz for a proposal.

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