About

FILMMAKER: RESEARCH, WRITING, PRODUCING, DIRECTING

As producer on South Island DOP John Chrisstoffels' independent New Zealand feature and debut documentary, Building Bridges: Bill Youren's Vision of Peace (2022), Porter completed the international film festival circuit in 2023, followed by a national theatrical release through LIMELIGHT Distribution, a stint on AirNZ and is now available to view on DocPlay (NZ/AU/UK), Arovision and Beamafilm.

In 2023/24 she undertook archival research for Scottish production company Tongue Tied Films towards development of their NZ–Scottish funded feature documentary, Land of Voices (WT), drawing on her collection knowledge from the RNZ Sound Archives. Porter co-produced Christchurch-based artist and writer/director Ed Lust's New Zealand Film Commission Fresh Short, Fling (2019). 

Her montage-photographs and moving image installations have been exhibited in Christchurch and Dunedin galleries, and at the former Film Archive in Wellington and draw on recurring influences from the archives such as tactile open reel tape boxes, analogue discs or an announcer's tone from the 1950s.

Porter has collaborated with New Zealand artist and painter Julia Holden on archival sound acquisition and production, including soundscapes for Holden's Lyttelton walking tour made in partnership with Lyttelton and Canterbury Museums, Lyttelton Redux (2016-17), and an audio montage, A Meditation on Domesticity, in response to Holden's portrait show Her Indoors (Sergeant Gallery, Whanganui, 2019). She was part of a collective of artist-subjects in Holden's exhibitions It's Like Now (2014) and I'm Your Fan (2016).

Porter's long-standing collaboration with Chrisstoffels began with her short films, Super8man (2005) and A Sense of Place (2009), both funded by the Creative NZ Innovation Production Fund, and her MFA Film submission, N or Nor W; Study of a Canterbury Wind (2011). She assisted Chrisstoffels with his PhD moving-image installations and final submission, Ritornello (2018, 16mm B&W film), exhibited online by Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū in 2020.

Porter graduated Ilam School of Fine Arts, UC with a MFA (Film) in 2012. Her films weave autobiographical facts and fictions into lyrical, cinematic compositions with narrative montage and are influenced by primitive cinema, the 1930s General Post Office films of New Zealand artist Len Lye, the 1970s short films of English auteur Peter Greenaway, and an on-going meditation with life.

ARCHIVIST & ADMINISTRATOR: COLLECTION MANAGEMENT & PRESERVATION, RESEARCH & RIGHTS CLEARANCES

Porter currently works as Executive Officer to Len Lye Foundation, a role encompassing both archival and administrative responsibilities. This includes overseeing the digital capture and cloud migration of the Foundation's physical documentation (dating from 1980) ensuring future access for LLF Trustees and researchers. This large-scale project spans collection and file management, scanning, cataloguing, re-housing and re-homing of collection materials. As administrator, Porter liaises between clients and LLF Trustees to clear rights for the re-use of films, supports research and broader administrative needs.

Porter provided transcriptions and cataloguing summaries for the Len Lye Open Reel Tape Collection at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery/Len Lye Centre, New Plymouth. Recorded mostly between the mid-1960s-'79, the tapes span personal reflections, readings from Lye's manuscript 'Happy Moments', kinetic sculpture recordings, interviews and lecture notes. An accompanying tape box inscription and re-housing project completed Porter's archival workflow, before the physical tapes were deposited with Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision, Aotearoa New Zealand's audiovisual archive, in June 2026.

Porter worked for Radio New Zealand's Sound Archives/Ngā Taonga Kōrero and Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision, Aotearoa New Zealand's audiovisual archive for nearly twelve years, initially, as Audio Archivist and then Client Access Liaison. In the RNZ Sound Archives she developed an ear for archival audio and gained broad experience in collection handling, research, cataloguing and audio editing. 

In this Client Access role, Porter gained experience in Copyright and Kaitiaki clearances, Licensing Agreements, Invoicing (Xero), pan-archival liaising, research and supplying content to broadcasters and the GLAM sector, as well as assisting whānau, hapū and iwi with content discovery. Her contributions to the blog, The Gauge, were inspired by recordings held in the collection.

Ten years part-time office administration with wine and olive oil producer Bellbird Spring served to sharpen Porter's organisational abilities and introduced her to general office procedures within a business environment. This small, independent, family-run company required much self-direction, and a conscientious and flexible aptitude.

PERSONAL

Born in Assam, India and raised in Salisbury, Wiltshire in the UK, Porter settled in Aotearoa New Zealand in 1993. She currently lives beside the Ōpāwaho Heathcote river in St Martins, Ōtautahi Christchurch with her son Elijah of Waitaha, Kāti Māmoe and Ngāi Tahu descent. All sources of whānau and friendships, work and play, fuel and inform her past, present and future art making practices.