Suffragettes Podcast & Comic Book

Collecting the stories of woman who are making an impact in the world, this podcast will be a fun inspirational series highlighting the human spirit and condo attitude that many of the wahine in our beautiful country have. During in depth conversations with Nicola Peeperkoorn - a film producer and mental health advocate - we won’t shy away from th enough stuff, but we won’t focus on it either. Our lives are more than just our trauma, however our trauma has informed our lives, and every day we all pick ourselves up and keep going, for ourselves, for our families and most importantly for our children.

Travelling to the woman to capture their stories in an environment they are comfortable in, it is hoped that this will become a regular podcast tied in with Blindspot Busters other activities, however we are committing to six episodes to start with, the first being launched on Suffragette Day 19 September. The episodes will all be available via video, audio and transcript so people can engage with it in their preferred way.

For the woman who do not want to share their story via podcast, we will also be collecting short stories, poems, inspirational quotes, photos and art to form a comic book (or magazine) style book. Aimed to be at least an annual offering the book will offer hope, put a smile on peoples face and present relatable content for anyone who needs it.

BLINDSPOT BUSTERS - People tell stories, not just to entertain but to share. Sharing a story is one of the foundations of a culture, a community, a society. Be they fact or allegory, stories create empathy, understanding, and change. They contextualize our values, our understanding of the world by humanising ideas. But not everyone has the tools or the platform to share their stories. These are the blind spots in our shared narrative.

Blindspot Busters is a non-profit organization concerned with telling these stories. We believe that positive stories of recovery, of success, of overcoming hardship and finding peace enrich our societies. They give people hope, even strategies when their lives look the hardest. We believe that the ability to share and to hear these stories should be a right, not a privilege.

Bringing together a family of like-minded media professionals with the people who have stories to tell, we want to build a community of mutual support and shared experience for everyone, starting with those whose voices are the quietest. Through professionally producing these stories and sharing them in an accessible, widely recognised space. The more people tell their stories, the more people who hear them, the more we all win.

The goal of Blindspot Busters is to change the world through LOVE, LAUGHTER and a lot a bit of ACTIVISM.

The three core umbrella’s of Blindspot Busters are:

Love - Support and Advocacy - Supporting the people falling through the cracks in the system by listening, sharing, advocating and encouraging.

Laughter - Entertainment - Sharing peoples stories in their own words and remembering that laughter is the best medicine. Making content that educates, inspires, celebrates communities and brings people together.

Activism - Highlighting issues in the system to stand up for ourselves and our friends. Making an impact through partnerships, protests, politics and propaganda.

WHO IS INVOLVED

Writer / Director / Producer - Nicola Peeperkoorn
Nicola Jayne Peeperkoorn (pronounced ‘peppercorn’) is dutch on her fathers side, and Irish & Samoan on her mothers making her the second generation to be born and raised in the City of Sails – Tāmaki Makaurau, New Zealand. In 2004 she attended South Seas Film & Television School, working late into the night completing an uncommon Double Major in Production and Directing. After film school she worked on a number of productions including, ‘The Vintners Luck’and in accounts on ‘Go Girls’, ‘The Emperor’, Crouching Tiger 2, Ash vs Evil Dead & Hunt for the Wilderpeople.

Her dedication to becoming a Producer has driven her to be involved in producing more than 100 low budget short films, including ‘The Rapists’ which played at Show Me Shorts in 2008. She also produced the NZFC funded horror short film Restoration (pw: PremiereShort) and was part of the writing, directing and producing team for Tropfest finalist short films Xenophobia, Meet Hamish and Help, which won Best Film, Best Actor and the Audience Award at Tropfest NZ 2014.

By 23 she embarked on her ambitious first feature, ‘The Richmond Family Massacre’. She joined the team of independent feature ‘Crackheads’ as a co-producer which played several International festivals including Austin Film Festival (which she attended) and has won numerous awards including ‘Best Self Funded Feature’ at the Moas 2013. 

In 2015 she joined the team at Notable Pictures to work on TV series ‘Both Worlds’ as a production manager and moved into Producing feature docs starting with Wilbur the King in the Ring. Her most recent features as a producer are horror The Turn of the Screw, documentary Six60: Till the Lights go Out and writer/producer for documentary The Chills: The Triumph and Tragedy of Martin Philipps. Her films have won many awards and her shorts and features \have played festivals like SXSW, Austin, Stiges, Palm Springs Shorts and DocEdge. In 2018 she was a nominee for the hotly contested WIFT Woman to Watch Award.

In 2019, her father took his own life, and I took a break from film to explore the mental health sector. She was a founding member and initial co-Chair of the Lived Experience Advisory Council (LEAC), a charitable trust providing lived experience voices into quality projects, policy and service delivery of mainstream mental health services in Waitemata (the largest DHB region in the country). LEAC was a finailist in the Waitemata Health Excellence Awards in 2021 in the patient experience category.

After completing training in Intentional Peer Support, a brief stint as the newsletter editor for Solace Suicide Bereavement support group, sharing her story with the Health Quality and Safety commission and helping create a training resource for Aoeke te Ra (suicide bereavement counselling services) and being a member of the a member of the Auckland & Waitemata Suicide Prevention and Post-vention Governance Group, she was presented with a national Lifekeepers award for my Suicide Prevention efforts.

Writer / Director / Editor - Luke Watkinson
I've been a director, a writer, an editor, a teacher, an actor, a creative director, a DoP, a designer and a podcaster. I'm an artist and I tell stories, and for the past sixteen years I've done so professionally. But even before that my first job at age sixteen was at a Village 8 Cinema and from there I moved to a Video Ezy, abandoned studying Law to complete a BA majoring in Film and English at Auckland University. All of that to say that film has been my life for a very long time. Since then I've been in a key creative role for over fifty short films and music videos, I've freelanced for more than two hundred commercial video projects, and I've worked as a tertiary lecturer at the NZ Film Academy and Media Design School. I'm a three time Show Me Shorts alumnus, and my shorts  Roy  (2011),  Crash Course  (2014) and  Restoration  (2015) have all picked up awards. I'm in post on my latest short Girl Eats Boy and am deep into pe-production for features  Resident  and  The Slarg Moment. I’ve recently released a documentary podcast  Prank of the Year  (2023), and I'll be completing my debut novel Bullshit in the upcoming months and attempting traditional publishing.

I'm proud to be self-taught, making my living in my chosen industry, and lecturing and mentoring has only made me more determined to leave this industry better than I found it. Easier to navigate, with more opportunities and better people. I continue to do this with a focus on creative quality, investing in talent, and making sure that the projects I devote my time to have something to say.

BUDGET

Boosted Fees $2000

Travel Expenses $6000

Koha / Kai $3000

Equipment $1500

Post Production $3000

Logistics $2500

Printing $1000

Misc $1000

TOTAL $20,000

WHAT WE WILL DO (& HOW)

Travel the North Island to capture the stories of wahine defying the odds and doing great things for their communities. These woman are not afraid to stand up for what they believe in, and we will capture their stories in their own words, giving them the chance to review the final product before it is released.

First Six Episodes

Auckland - Lisa & Laura

Cambridge - Eli

New Plymouth - Hannah

Wellington - Sharlene 

Gizzy - LJ 

In a nutshell, people in Aotearoa need inspiration right now. They need hope. They need to know that there is a way through the hardships most of us are now experiencing on an almost daily basis. These wahine can give the people exactly that. All of them will talk openly, freely and honestly, not only about the adversities, about all the wins, the laughs, the joys that come along with all the battles. The losses may hurt at times, but if we focus on them alone we don’t get anywhere. These wahine know how to pick themselves up, dust themselves off and glamorously present themselves to the world with their heads held high, smiles on their faces. They are the perfect role models for the next generation because they are all good Mums.

Please support us to hear the stories we all need right now, the stories of the wahine in the trenches, in Aotearoa, in 2025.