Dame Valerie Adams: More Than Gold

Runtime: 90'

Expected release: October, 2022

Production stage: Post Production

Budget: $1,250,000 USD (100% in place)

1st feature: No

Looking for: Sales Agents, Festivals, Distributors, Buyers

Synopsis:

The inspirational story of one of the World’s greatest shot-putters; Olympic gold medallist Dame Valerie Adams. Tokyo was the Tongan, New Zealander’s 5th Olympic campaign and the culmination of an odyssey that started with a troubled childhood, traversed poverty, health issues and a near death experience…to the top of the sport’s world – where she stands as a role model, a mother, and an athletics icon.

Director’s profile:

Briar March is a filmmaker and Fulbright scholar. Her films have been broadcast on major television networks around the world, have been theatrically released, and are regularly exhibited in film festivals having won over 30 international awards. Her last feature Mother’s of the Revolution premiered at the BFI London Film Festival (2021). Her filmography also includes feature documentaries, A Place To Call Home (2014), There Once was an Island: Te Henua e Nnoho (2010), and Allie Eagle and Me (2004), as well as documentary shorts: The Coffin Club (2017), Smoke Songs (2012), Michael & His Dragon (2010), Sick Wid It (2010), and Promenade (2011). In 2011-2012 she was a full-time Instructor in Documentary Film Production at Florida Atlantic University. Briar received an M.F.A in Documentary Film and Video Production at Stanford University, and a B.F.A at Auckland University’s Elam School of Fine Arts.

Producers’s profile:

Leanne Pooley has been a documentary filmmaker for over 25 years. She has directed films all over the world, winning over 30 international awards awards (including Best Documentary at TIFF). Leanne is a New Zealand Arts Laureate, an “Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit” and a member of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (The Oscars). Born in Canada, Leanne immigrated to New Zealand in the mid-1980’s and began working for TVNZ. In 1992 she moved to England where she made documentaries for Britain’s major broadcasters including the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 as well as PBS and Discovery in America. Leanne returned to New Zealand in 1999 and established SPACIFIC FILMS. Her documentaries have screened in more than 100 countries and include topics ranging from rugby to the Pope.