Pono Series

The Pono video series was a three year project for the Health, Safety & Quality Commission.  The goal was to create a series of documentary video narratives, capturing consumer, family and whānau lived experiences of mental health and addiction services.

Each year we focussed on a different way in which people engaged with these services, to help give a voice to their perspectives and experiences within different parts of the health system. The areas we focussed on were seclusion, transitioning between services, and experiences of adverse event reviews.

This project involved filming people who were vulnerable. Sharing their stories publicly was courageous but also scary for many of them.  

This was a project that needed care and sensitivity, as well as cultural understanding. Storybox’s director Jess Feast has extensive experience working in this space and we have a number of processes that we have developed to make sure that projects like these are handled in the appropriate way.