Chelsea Winstanley Biography
Chelsea Cohen is a New Zealand film-maker. She is the maker of What We Do in the Shadows, among different movies. She has created short movies, for example, Meathead and Night Shift. In 2014 she delivered What We Do in the Shadows with Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement. She has worked hand in hand to produce Merata Mita’s domestic abuse documentary Saving Grace, Te Whakarauora Tangata, and she also directs documentaries.
They rewarded her the 2014 SPADA Screen Industry Awards Independent Producer of the Year, together with her husband Taika Waititi
In June 2015 Winstanley was chosen as the New Zealand Women in Film and Television’s Mana Wahine recipient at Wairoa’s Maori Film Festival.
Chelsea Winstanley Age | Birthday
Chelsea Winstanley was born in 1976 Her current age is 42 years old as of 2019.
Chelsea Winstanley Instagram
Ethnicity
Winstanley has Ngāti Ranginui (New Zealand) ancestry.
Chelsea Winstanley Taika Waititi
Chelsea Winstanley is married to Taika Waititi
Interview
Winstanley Interview With W&H
W&H: Merata Mita was a voice for the under represented community. You seem to follow her in her footsteps. How important is it for you to tell stories like this?
Chelsea Winstanley: It’s really important. My background is in documentary filmmaking. I started as a director and fell into the producing role quite naturally. In some ways, I was regretful that I had given up my creative dream to carry on directing. But over time, I believe that all good things happen for a reason. Maybe I needed to marinate in that producing role for a while and understand the business a bit better. Now I have the skills of a producer to get things done and actually get things happening. In hindsight, now it serves me in a better way.
To say that I’m walking in Merata’s footsteps — wow, man, that is huge. I’m so grateful to have known her. She influenced a lot of us coming through. She and I were actually making “Saving Grade, Te Whakarauora Tangata” when she died. I feel so lucky to have been by her side and to have learned from her, though it was a for a short time. But now having produced this documentary with her son, learning so much more about the woman and where her passions came from, so much struggle and adversity. I can’t wait for you to see the film. So many have people have resonated with it because she represents so many people’s stories.
W&H: You are a dedicated mother of three. A child of divorce. One who endured the pain of sexual abuse. You lost your ability to walk and solo motherhood all before you graduated from college. You are incredibly resilient.
Chelsea Winstanley : Yes, I went back to college when I had a two-year-old son. I knew I had to go back and continue my education. Something about storytelling and the truths kept coming up for me, so I had to follow it, whatever that was. During that year, I had a car accident and had to learn to walk again.
W&H: It’s almost like motherhood. It takes you out for a short time and you have to make a comeback, so to speak.
Chelsea Winstanley : That’s so true. We forget to remind ourselves that it’s going to take time to get back into it. It really is two to three years of exhaustion. As a mother, you just get on, you keep going.
W&H: What is it like being a woman in Hollywood today, a working mom specifically and also a New Zealander with so much history and passion?
Chelsea Winstanley : I’m pretty new to the whole place, to be fair. I only made my first short film last year, which I’m editing now. Hollywood is really different. It feels like a big creative pool and you can go in so many ways. It’s like a train station — people are coming and going out. I realize that while I’m here, it’s important to enjoy the ride.
I had never lived anywhere outside of New Zealand before I arrived. When I first came over, I only had an O-3 Visa which was a visa of a spouse who has a working visa [her husband is film director Taika Waititi], so I wasn’t allowed to work. It was okay at the time because I was working to finish “Merata” from overseas. I’ve just gotten my O-1 Visa which enabled me to do that short film at the end of last year. Now I can really jump into this world of Hollywood and put myself out there like I hadn’t necessarily been able to do before.
Kiwis are kind of withdrawn. People might think we don’t seem to blow ourselves up so much, which I think is a good and bad thing because we don’t necessarily put ourselves forward. Half the time, we just sit back and hope people will notice us. In Hollywood, people are so open and they want to tell you everything about what they are doing and they are also equally interested in finding out what you’re doing. It’s quite a refreshing place, especially as a woman, when you are trying to reinvent yourself. Back home, I’m known as a producer primarily, but here I can say that I’m a director and that I write, as well. No one has labeled me as such when they meet me. It’s very affirming.
W&H: In terms of the #MeToo movement, I read that you were sexually harassed on the set of “One Land” in New Zealand. How has that experience and being vocal about it impacted you?
Chelsea Winstanley : It was because of the #MeToo movement that I actually said something. A lot of it [the secrecy] is around shame. I might have also been triggered to talk about it by my childhood sexual abuse. You felt so vulnerable because you didn’t have the support network — unlike now. At the time, I was surrounded by so many men on the set. The producers were men, the main head director was a man, the crew was made up of men. Who was going to believe me? I had a friend who was a Māori sound guy and I broke down and told him. He kept me safe [on the set].
When the abuse is happening, you feel a lot of shame because you wonder if you did something to provoke it
source: womenandhollywood.com