'Our humour doesn't go when we lose our legs!' Film maker Paula Whetu Jones
Paula Whetu Jones is a film maker who's probably best known for co-writing and directing the feature film about Dame Whina Cooper in 2022. But her latest work is a dark comedy series set in a spinal ward, and based on her own experience when she became paralysed from the waist down as the result of unexplained nerve damage to her spine. Spinal Destination will begin screening next month on Sky Open, starring Bree Peters and Tom Sainsbury. She is also finishing a documentary filmed over 15 years in Gaza, about the Auckland cardiac surgeon Alan Kerr's lifesaving work with Palestinian children - and the role of his wife, Hazel.
