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Pot Luck Webseries Season One

'Pot Luck' is a fresh, fun, and sexy webseries that follows the lives of three Wellington friends as they negotiate friendship, family and finding love at their weekly pot luck dinners. And it's New Zealand's first lesbian webseries!

  • Ness Simons
    Director
    Actually Alex, Active in Hell
  • Ness Simons
    Writer
    Actually Alex, Active in Hell
  • Robin Murphy
    Producer
    Active in Hell, Maul, Run, Food for Thought
  • Nikki Si'ulepa
    Key Cast
    Ma, Whole of the Moon, Super City
  • Anji Kreft
    Key Cast
    Coronation Street, Postman Pat, Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Wererabbit
  • Tess Jamieson-Karaha
    Key Cast
    How to Meet Girls From a Distance, Strum Strum
  • Adam Reynolds
    Editor
    Thunderbirds are Go, End of Term
  • Project Type:
    Web / New Media
  • Genres:
    Comedy, Drama
  • Runtime:
    59 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    December 1, 2015
  • Production Budget:
    35,000 NZD
  • Country of Origin:
    New Zealand
  • Country of Filming:
    New Zealand
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Canon 5D
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Melbourne Queer Film Festival
    Melbourne, Australia
    April 5, 2016
    Australian Premiere (Pilot ONLY)
  • OutWebFest
    Los Angeles
    United States
    May 7, 2016
    North American (Pilot Only)
  • UK Web Fest
    London
    United Kingdom
    October 29, 2016
    United Kingdom
  • Dublin Web Fest
    Dublin
    Ireland
    November 18, 2016
    Ireland
    Finalist - BEst LGBT; Finalist - Best Actress, Comedy (Nikki Si'ulepa); Finalist - Best Screenplay (Ness Simons)
  • NZ Web Festival
    Auckland
    New Zealand
    November 19, 2016
    New Zealand
Distribution Information
  • Robin Murphy Productions Limited
    Country: New Zealand
    Rights: All Rights
Director Biography - Ness Simons

Ness Simons is a writer and director based in Wellington, New Zealand. She is a graduate of the NZ Film School and Whitireia Polytechnic, holding a Bachelor of Applied Arts majoring in Scriptwriting.

Ness is the Writer/Director of the short film 'Actually Alex' (2014) which was funded by the NZ Film Commission, and Director of the factual webseries 'Active in Hell' (2013). While at Film School her script 'Tell Tale Tit' was selected as a final graduation production, and she wrote and directed 'Fashism' which played at the 2013 Outtakes ReelQueer Festival.

In 2009 her short radio plays 'Taking the Bait' and 'Crazy in Love' were produced by Radio New Zealand as winners of their ‘Student Shorts’ competition. In 2010 her feature script 'The Family Way' was awarded the New Zealand Film Commission’s 1st Writers Initiative. In 2011 she was the recipient of the WIFT NZ Robin Laing Scholarship. In addition to currently developing short and feature film scripts Ness works as a freelance film maker on both corporate and creative projects and continues to grow her skills as a story teller.

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Director Statement

As an emerging film maker it's important for me to tell stories that I want to see. Growing up gay in Aotearoa/New Zealand I struggled to find people like me on screen - TV certainly never showed any, and outside of the annual queer film festival I had to hunt high and low. It's a shame that this is often still the case with TV and film, however the growing online platform is changing the landscape.

The audience response to episode one has been overwhelmingly positive, and with the next five episodes currently in release we're looking forward to delivering the remainder of the series in July 2016.

I'm drawn to naturalistic drama and comedy about everyday people, and the rich daily lives they lead. I engage with the intimacy that can be found in living rooms and kitchens, and the way that life can be simultaneously unique and universal.

I'm inspired by some of the amazing work being developed by the LGBTQI community globally, such as 'Transparent', 'Orange is the New Black' and 'Cucumber, Banana, Tofu' to name a few. These series are raising the bar and making strong queer characters and their interesting stories visible in ways we've never seen before.

Since leaving Film School in 2011 I have worked in the Wellington industry as a freelancer, crewing on bigger productions, sharpening my skills in my corporate work, and grabbing the opportunity to write and direct my first short film 'Actually Alex' (2014).

Pot Luck is a new challenge for me. As a six-part web-series it builds on my work with 'Actually Alex'. I currently have a feature film script in development, plus I'm developing the script for season two of 'Pot Luck'. With this in mind I want to take on projects that prove my talent and build my experience as a film maker.