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Desray Armstrong

Desray Armstrong

Production

Biography

Desray Armstrong is an independent producer with a diverse slate of credits. From 2007-2011, Desray and producer/director Chelsea Winstanley ran New Zealand production company StanStrong with a focus on creating compelling, conscious and informative content with a Maori worldview. In recent years, Desray has built up a mass of physical production experience, predominantly in feature film.

Known For

Saving Grace - Te Whakarauora Tangata

Saving Grace - Te Whakarauora Tangata is the final work of director Merata Mita, who passed away suddenly before the film could be completed. The film addresses some of the deepest and most distressing issues Māori communities face, and shows how extraordinary creative solutions are being provided by Māori communities themselves. Mita asks Maori men to front up to some grim realities by talking openly and honestly about the violence and abuse that has plagued their communities for many years. The film is a personal response to this violence, with Mita making a case for a return to an older model of Maori manhood, when men were the ones who sweetly sang the children to sleep. “Merata intended the documentary to count in ways that mattered deeply to her and to change perceptions of abuse and violence by using themes of responsibility, redemption, revitalisation, forgiveness and, most of all, love.” - Carol Hirschfeld, Māori Television.

Saving Grace - Te Whakarauora Tangata

2011Movie