Pietra Brettkelly is a New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 documentary

Documentary film

Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

 director and producer, best known for the film The Art Star and the Sudanese Twins. Brettkelly was a journalist before becoming a film maker.

When filming in southern Sudan in 2006 for the television documentary series Ends of the Earth for Television New Zealand

Television New Zealand

Television New Zealand, more commonly referred to, and stylized as TVNZ, is a government-owned corporation television network broadcasting in New Zealand and parts of the Pacific. It operates TV1, TV2, TVNZ7, TVNZ Heartland, TVNZ U and new media services....

, Brettkelly met Italian artist Vanessa Beecroft

Vanessa Beecroft

Vanessa Beecroft is an Italian contemporary artist living in Los Angeles.-Artistic practice:Beecroft's work is a fusion of conceptual issues and aesthetic concerns, focusing on large-scale performance art, usually involving live female models...

. Beecroft is famous for her provocative performance art, and while in Sudan for a project had decided to try and adopt motherless twins. Brettkelly had previously produced a documentary on international adoption, The Rescue of Iani and, along with cameraman Jacob Bryant, eventually followed Beecroft's adoption efforts over 16 months, which formed the basis for The Art Star and the Sudanese Twins.

Brettkelly is a mentor for Women in Film and Television NZ.

Filmography

• The Art Star and the Sudanese Twins premièred at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival
  2008 Sundance Film Festival
  The 2008 Sundance Film Festival ran from January 17, 2008 to January 27 in Park City, Utah. It was the 24th iteration of the Sundance Film Festival. The opening night film was In Bruges and the closing night film was CSNY Déjà Vu.-Films:...
  
  . In 2009 Brettkelly was invited to screen the film at the New York's Museum of Modern Art
  Museum of Modern Art
  The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
  
   as part of their documentary fortnight. The Winnipeg Free Press noted that "any tendency for the observer to mock [Beecroft's] self-indulgence is mitigated by director Pietra Brettkelly's scrupulous acknowledgement of Beecroft's self-awareness."
• In 2003 Brettkelly travelled to Libya for that country’s first ever beauty pageant. Beauty Will Save the World follows 19-year-old Teca Zendik, the American contender, and featured an interview with Muammar al-Gaddafi
  Muammar al-Gaddafi
  Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar Gaddafi or "September 1942" 20 October 2011), commonly known as Muammar Gaddafi or Colonel Gaddafi, was the official ruler of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then the "Brother Leader" of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011.He seized power in a...
  
  .
• Ends of the Earth: A four-part documentary series searching out New Zealanders living in some of the world's more extreme locations. The episodes were filmed in Afghanistan, the Amazon, Kazakhstan, the Arctic Circle, Sudan, Uganda and were presented by Paul Henry.
• The Rescue of Iani Part 1 & 2, TV3 New Zealand.

Music for many of Brettkelly's documentaries has been composed by musician and singer Anika Moa

Anika Moa

Anika Rose Moa is a New Zealand pop recording artist. In 2001 she signed to Atlantic Records in the United States and released her debut album, Thinking Room, the album reached the top of the New Zealand Singles Chart and was a commercial success.Moa was raised in Christchurch, New Zealand...

.

Festivals and awards

• Best Editing, World Cinema Documentary (Editor: Irena Dol)
• Best Director, EIDF Seoul Korea
• Best Documentary, Whistler Film Festival, Canada,
• Special Jury Prize, Zurich Film Festival
  Zurich Film Festival
  The Zurich Film Festival ' is an important international film festival, held annually in Zurich, Switzerland. A stated objective of the festival is to discover and support young, aspiring filmmakers and to offer the industry, audiences, the press and a broader public an exciting cinema experience...
  
  
• Best Director, Documentary; Best Arts/Festival Documentary; Best Editing (Irena Dol), Qantas Film & Television Awards, New Zealand, 2009

Beauty Will Save The World premiered at the AFI Film Festival in October 2003, and was shown at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival and the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam in 2004.

External links

• Official website for The Art Star and the Sudanese Twins
• The Art Star and The Sudanese Twins - Review Variety January 21, 2008
• Profile on Pietra Brettkelly www.nowtoronto.com