Wellington Silver Screeners: Matthew Mawkes _{by Alessia Belsito-Riera}

In our Wellington Silver Screeners series, Alessia Belsito-Riera shines a spotlight on the movers and shakers working in the film capital of New Zealand. 

Matthew Mawkes can pinpoint the moment that sparked his passion for filmmaking: seeing Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock.

“It was the first time I realised there was someone behind the camera controlling everything. And I thought that was cool,” Matthew recalls. “It’s not necessarily my favourite movie of all time, but it’s the first one that made me go, ‘Oh, this looks fun!’”

Now located in Brisbane after working in New Zealand’s capital for years, Matthew’s newest film, the crime thriller Blind Panic, which he produced and co-wrote with the film’s director Mark Willis, recently premiered at the 2025 Terror-Fi Film festival in Wellington. Funded by a Kickstarter campaign and filmed on a shoestring budget in Wellington over 21 days, Blind Panic underwent years of editing and re-shoots before facing a major setback when Mark was tragically killed in May 2023.

With a journey full of ups and downs, Matthew tells me about his past and his future in film, as well as Blind Panic, a movie he knows Mark would be proud of.

What do you love about filmmaking?

It’s the Psycho thing, actually. It’s about working out the plot and how to keep the audience guessing, on the edge of their seat. With Blind Panic being a thriller, the most fun for me was writing it. That’s absolutely where my passion lies. In fact, Hitchcock used to say that he hated making the film, his favourite part was writing it. The rest was a chore, and I couldn’t agree more! Producing and directing was more done out of necessity. For Blind Panic director Mark and I, we did it because we knew no one else would give us a green light. So we had to self-actualise it into existence. His passion was always writing and directing, mine was writing, so I became a very reluctant producer. It’s not my natural strength, but when you’re a low-budget filmmaker, you have to do what you’ve got to do to make the movie, because no one else will do it for you.

What do you like about writing?

I get a kick out of it. When you write something and show it to someone and it works, it’s quite magic. It gets your pulses racing. So, I’m stuck now and I’m writing other projects and slowly getting back into it after the Blind Panic experience. Any writing I personally get a kick out of. My recent blogging about Blind Panic is really fun. I did a journalism paper at Massey University this year and I thoroughly enjoyed that too. Any writing is good writing.

When you realised film was a passion, where did you go from there? 


I moved to Wellington from Bay of Plenty because that’s where the film industry was. I studied at Avalon Studios’ film and television school, which is now gone! It doesn’t exist anymore! That was in the year 2000, when Wellington was a very exciting filmmaking place to be with The Lord of the Rings trilogy being filmed and released. I was drawn to the city, and I became known as the guy to go to if you want to make a low-budget movie. So, I never really got into those big-budget productions. I was always the grassroots, smell of an oily rag person.

What have been some career highlights?

Mark and I were both assistant directors on a low-budget production called The Great Maiden’s Blush during a nighttime shoot. It was out in Lower Hutt at what is now Brewtown, but back then it was just an empty industrial lot. We had fun doing that. I’ve had fun on other film sets, but like I said earlier, low-budget ones. So the career highlights for me have been helping other people out. Not my own productions… they were so stressful. Although I produced a music video for the Wellington band Bullet Belt, and that was really fun. Full heavy, thrash metal; crazy loud, had to have earplugs. It was directed by Jason Howden (Guns Akimbo, Deathgasm). The heavy metalers were actually kind of nerds. We had two girls on set who were dancers, and they had all this zombie makeup on because it was supposed to be a black and white zine come to life, and they outmetaled Bullet Belt by far. It was really cool to watch!

What is Blind Panic about?

We needed to come up with a low-budget movie idea for our first feature film. So, Mark hatched an idea about a man on home detention. He’s stuck in suburbia and there’s an evil guy from his past circling. And then I had an idea about a blind woman who’s also trapped in suburbia for very different reasons… So we merged those two ideas, and that’s how Blind Panic was born. It’s about a man [Louis, played by Erroll Shand] who befriends a blind woman who lives across the street and unbeknownst to her, he’s on home detention and she gets caught up in his past. It’s not a woman-in-peril film, it’s quite different. Our character Madeleine [Jodie Hillock] has a whole past that is revealed throughout the movie. It’s a crime thriller and not many crime thrillers have been made in New Zealand. There have been a few, but our movie has the nerve to take itself seriously. It’s got lots of humour, but it’s not afraid to be a crime thriller, so we’re gonna give you crime and thrills. Mark and I wanted it to feel like it could be set anywhere.

Where is it going next?

The plan now is international distribution. The film is in the hands of Dystopian Films in LA as we speak. We’ll just see how far we can push it. Which is very exciting because realistically, for a movie like ours, we’re talking video on demand and streaming services. That is the way that people consume movies nowadays. We’re hoping to give the maximum number of people the chance to see the movie.

Is there any timeline for when Kiwi audiences will be able to see it?

I’m not sure. We’ll have to wait and see. Keep your eyes open!

How would you describe the local film industry?

Wellington’s film industry is of an interesting dichotomy because there’s huge Hollywood productions coming in and then there is everyone else. So there are two film industries. There’s always something going on. It is still a wonderful place to work and be if you’re into movies, but filmmaking is such a hustle, no matter what level you’re working at.

What advice would you give someone trying to crack into the film industry?

I think it depends on what you want to do, but one piece of advice is to know what you want to do and stick to it, because not everyone should be a director, a writer, or certainly not a producer. Just figure out what it is you’re really passionate about. There are very few directors working full time in New Zealand. So if you want to be a director, that’s cool but definitely prepare to make your own movie on your own steam like I have. If you do want to write, direct, produce, then work hard at it and you will get there, but you might need to move where the work is. Filmmaking is international; it’s worldwide. Everybody loves movies, but the way they’re consuming is changing. I feel like in a world of AI, people will gravitate toward the arts more and more, especially in-person experiences. It was great to see Blind Panic on the big screen and hear the audience around me. I heard people gasping and laughing in the right places. Maybe the cinema has got a little bit of life left in it yet; there’s still a place for the movies.

What’s next? 


With Blind Panic, losing my best friend and co-writer was very tough. So for me, a little bit of recovery was required for getting my spark back. Screenwriting is what I want to do next. I am currently writing a horror movie and a comedy and another thriller. I’ve got three movies on the go. What happens with them? I’m not sure, but I don’t really care. I’ll try to nail one of them and then I’ll see. Watch this space!