Filmmaker, storyteller, and creative force Chelsea Winstanley is proof that following your heart is always in style. Based in Tāmaki Makaurau, the What We Do in the Shadows and Jojo Rabbit producer has stepped back behind the camera for her directorial feature debut TOITŪ: Visual Sovereignty — a powerful celebration of Māori artistry and identity. Premiering to sold-out audiences at NZIFF, the film embodies Winstanley’s lifelong mission to tell stories that uplift, inspire, and reflect who we are. Purpose-driven, culturally grounded, and impossibly chic — she’s redefining what visual sovereignty looks like, on screen and beyond.
In conversation with Chelsea Winstanley
Let’s get up to speed. Tell us a bit about you and your career to date.
I’m a purpose driven storyteller who has worked across many genres and filled many roles in the film industry. I started out as a director after university and moved into producing when the company I was working for needed someone to fill that role. While I learnt a lot as a producer and am grateful to have been part of some of Aotearoa’s greatest films – What We Do In The Shadows, JOJO Rabbit and MERATA: How Mum Decolonised the Screen – I’ve always wanted to return to my passion as a director and writer. This year I debuted my directorial feature film TOITŪ Visual Sovereignty to sell-out audiences at the NZIFF and have realised no matter what age you make that decision to follow your heart, just do it, it’s worth it!
What is your earliest memory of fashion?
My sister making my costume for Hatupatu and the Bird Woman at intermediate school. She was and is an incredible artist and she has always been able to turn her hand to anything. When my parents split and she moved to the big smoke in Auckland, she would buy me cool clothes, introduced me to Shiseido red raisin lipstick (a staple for my generation at the time!) and snuck me into nightclubs where all the High Street fashion from Zambesi to Standard Issue was on display on the dance floor.
How would you describe your personal style, and what influences it the most?
It truly depends on my mood and what my day entails. I think as a woman I dress as needed. If I am working from home it will be hard to get me out of anything other than sweatpants and a daggy old retro Wu-Tang t-shirt. But if I have to attend an event as Co-Chair for The Arts Foundation or a film premiere, I’m either going to support a local designer like Kiri Nathan (who made my incredible dress for the Oscars in 2020) or put on a vintage piece sourced from my favourite LA store Cannonball and Tilly. I like to style clothing with a mix of vintage and new jewellery. Same with shoes – I love fun shoes, it can be a mix of colour or an aesthetic style. I also like classic silhouettes if I am going to a meeting and need to kick ass, nothing beats a red lipstick and a tailored fitting jacket – vintage or new – power dressing can be fun, it should be fun.
You’ve just released your directorial debut, TOITŪ: Visual Sovereignty. What has it been like to see this story come to life and connect with audiences across Aotearoa?
I have been incredibly humbled by the reaction to the film. The premiere was everything and more – a sold-out crowd, a lot of audience engagement with the screen and a standing ovation. Truly overwhelming. It showed me that audiences want to see art and artists, that seeing ourselves on screen is important and that local content matters. Documentaries are a great way to do that.
What do you hope people take away from the film?
Art is intersectional and so important to the health and wellbeing of our lives. Fundamentally, I am hoping people come away inspired and in awe of our artistic community. I want people to embrace the beautiful culture we have here in our own backyard. Māori culture and artistic expression is here for everyone in Aotearoa New Zealand to enjoy, it is the only unique expression of this country – it can’t exist anywhere else, it is from the land and from the people, and that’s something truly special we can all celebrate
What’s currently on your mood board – artistically or sartorially?
Anything that excites my senses. I love filling up my whare with art. I just recently purchased a new piece from Ngatai Taepa and Saffronn Te Ratana from their recent sell-out show at Page Galleries in Wellington. I have one wall in my whare dedicated to new pieces where I change them out regularly as it suits. One wall in my hallway is dedicated to photography, another to my whānau and tūpuna (as you enter my whare) I’m running out of wall space in my house! I love candles and scents that bring me joy, so I will always have Curionoir candles burning and Tiffany Witehera’s perfume is now my staple go-to – I can’t wear anything else. Books are piled up on any surface, so the dinner table is now more a library and a place to do puzzles.
As a creative, what topics are you most passionate about exploring and sharing?
I’m straight into my next film project. It’s a story I am deeply invested in because we as Māori occupy more of this harmful statistic than anyone else – prisoners held on custodial remand. The majority of people currently held in prison are sitting there in a state of purgatory, and it’s incredibly shameful. It is shameful for us a country because we have more people on remand than anywhere else in the world and it doesn’t need to be this way. So many lives are affected when someone is held on remand, these are people who have not been convicted, they are waiting and sometimes it can be up to months. The prison system is incredibly archaic. It has been proven many times over incarceration does nobody any good, in fact it perpetuates far more harm, and I want to educate our society about it because I believe we can change it.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
Look at what you put your time into and ask yourself how much of that time spent brings you joy. To be honest, I am only just learning how to put that into practice. But I can already see the freedom it is giving me.
Are there any New Zealand designers you gravitate toward or that more people should know about?
Kiri Nathan – I cannot love on her more than I already do because of the incredible lengths she went to making my dress for the Oscars. I was not in Aotearoa at the time and all she had were some dodgy measurements that I sent. She created a masterpiece which was then acquired by Te Papa museum. To me she is a creative genius. She also created the Kāhui Collective to uplift and highlight Māori fashion designers, so to me she is one of the most selfless, giving humans I know. And her husband Jason is an incredible pounamu carver. Campbell Bobby Luke – divine. Feminine, steeped in whakapapa and beauty. I love any jewellery made by Claudine Muru – Maioha – and also Courtney Marama. In all honesty just follow @na_teatua. She is amazing and is full of the best fashion tips, who is doing what, and her own style is on point!
Quick-fire questions
The next item on my wardrobe wishlist is… Anything from wordssoundscolorsandshapes.com
The book currently on my bedside table is… There are a few… I just finished Slowing the Sun by Nadine Hura. Currently on the bedside table are… MANA – Tame Iti’s memoir, Land of My Ancestors by Darcy Nicholas and My First Ikura by Qiane Matata-Sipu (because my daughters still sleep in my bed and it’s a book we can read together).
If you could only save one item in your wardrobe, what would it be? That is not a fair question! A vintage quilted Jeanne Marc jacket because I wear it all the time and I know I could never find another one.
My favourite place to dine… I had an incredible experience at TALA – Samoan fine dining in Parnell. If not there, then in my own kitchen when my māmā comes to visit and cooks a leg of lamb.
My next holiday destination… Tahiti – I have never been and can’t wait to go next year.
My guilty pleasure TV show or movie is… There isn’t one in particular. But this time of year I get to watch all the films vying to be on the shortlist for The Academy Awards. There is a mountain of submissions but I love watching all the foreign films because the breadth and depth of international storytelling is the most creatively interesting to me.
