Ainsley Gardiner - Profile - Courtesy of Staple Magazine

We have 5 copies ( sorry all gone now) of the latest issue of Staple to giveaway. Just send us an email telling us the name of the film that earned Ainsley Gardiner an Oscar nomination?

Text by Dan Kircher, photography by David Read

Ainsley Gardiner is the co-founder of Aio Films, a production company dedicated to indigenous New Zealand storytelling. She has produced films, television and commercials, most recently the much-lauded (Oscar-nominated, even) Taika Waititi short, Two Cars One Night. In between developing three new features with Waititi and spending more time with her "punky" daughter Mary, Gardiner has been given the green light to direct her own short film - but god knows when she'll find the time to do it.Ainsley Gardiner - Profile - Courtesy of Staple Magazine

We have 5 copies ( sorry all gone now) of the latest issue of Staple to giveaway. Just send us an email telling us the name of the film that earned Ainsley Gardiner an Oscar nomination?

Text by Dan Kircher, photography by David Read

Ainsley Gardiner is the co-founder of Aio Films, a production company dedicated to indigenous New Zealand storytelling. She has produced films, television and commercials, most recently the much-lauded (Oscar-nominated, even) Taika Waititi short, Two Cars One Night. In between developing three new features with Waititi and spending more time with her "punky" daughter Mary, Gardiner has been given the green light to direct her own short film - but god knows when she'll find the time to do it."I've been lucky, I think. I've fallen in with like-minded people and with young, talented, driven filmmakers who keep my energy levels up. I think of influential people, Larry Parr (producer) being the most important in terms of where I'm at in my professional career. I look at his incredible passion and optimism and I realise those are his own personal gems, not (necessarily) legacies for the passing."

Gardiner considers Parr's work with film production company Kahukura pioneering. "We were driven to do things differently, to take risks on new things and new people. I never felt like I was slotting into the machine. It showed me what success can come from failure, how to learn the right lessons and move forward. It was devastating when we lost it, but I learned a lot about resilience and motivation. It left a space in the industry that needed to be filled and it taught me a lot of what I needed to help fill that space." Parr's attitude helped shape the way Gardiner approaches her own projects. "That's what I'm working on, moving forward, taking risks, doing it differently but doing it in a way that feels right. But like I said, I'm lucky."

With Aio Films partner Cliff Curtis, Ainsley is attempting to help build an alternative model for true New Zealand cinema. "I look at Merata Mita, Barry Barclay and Geoff Murphy and the work they did on behalf of filmmakers and particularly Maori filmmakers. Merata particularly, a founding member of Nga Tama Toa and a friend, you can't be with her and forget the legacy she's been creating. But I think about her, and the Martins and Malcolms of the world, the John Trudells (Native American Activist) and realize that somehow some people are born to be that kind of leader, trailblazers, motivators of people and creators of legacies. People who are faced with such adversity and struggle that they rise up and fight or they lie down and die."

"Life for me is easier than that. I sometimes think the defining characteristics of my generation are great passion and great apathy. The biggest struggle for me is internal. To see the world, how much has been done, how much there is to do, how much I really do care, but how powerless I feel to do anything. The thing that keeps me going is being surrounded with the kind of people who just might be the kind of trailblazer I'm talking about. Passionate filmmakers, good-hearted people, my daughter. Maybe I'm biding my time until there is a legacy that is truly mine to carry on."

"I've been racking my brains. I really don't know why I am where I am, or even most times why I do what I do. But I know there is something to be part of, something important, and somehow - though, god, I can't work out how exactly - what we're doing as filmmakers will make us part of it. For now we're just doing what we do, not thinking too hard, or worrying too much on the surface, but knowing that the time might come when there will be a real point to the films we make and the fun we have."