Hero films
Hero film for Ash
The passion, talent, and positive impact that students from overseas bring to New Zealand speaks for itself, so we made a documentary video series to amplify it.
Beyond the economic benefits of people coming from overseas to Aotearoa for study, many New Zealanders were unaware of why our international education system is so valuable. Education New Zealand wanted to continue building a successful future for international education here by helping Kiwis see the value it brings, and helping students feel welcome in the communities they’re part of.
We suspected our audience of relatively unaware Kiwis wouldn’t be compelled by someone simply telling them why international education is good. So we created a documentary-style series to introduce New Zealand audiences to Ash, Htin, and Arash — three people who came here as international students and are changing our lives for the better through their knowledge and passion. From native bush and birds to the frontiers of microbiology and technology, we help viewers understand how one person’s genuine connection with New Zealand can go on to connect us all to richer experiences and opportunities. Stories were edited in a range of durations so ENZ could share the compelling content across different platforms and reach as many people as possible.
We supported ENZ to confidently adapt their storytelling approach which traditionally promotes New Zealand to international students, with the videos in this first series having had more than 200,000 total views and some of the individual stories being viewed 86,000 times. After the success of these first three stories, ENZ approached us to create two more, which are also now live and share Rehan and Shalini’s stories.