End Conversion Therapy is a film by Jay Angel, Amberly Colby and Christina Huang. The film was produced as part of a Stage 3 COMMs class Documentary and Social Change (2021) at the University of Auckland.
The class had about 45 students. Working in groups of three, students produced a ‘mini-documentary’ – 2-3 minutes long – based around an interview with a ‘social change’ maker. Half way through the class, we had to go into lockdown so students had to respond (creatively). They all recorded their primary interview on Zoom and figured out how to illustrate the interview gathering images safely through archive searches and iPhone recordings.
End Conversion Therapy argues that the practice of conversion therapy continues to harm young queer people across Aotearoa. Leading the fight against conversion therapy is queer activist Shaneel Lal, co-founder of the End Conversion Therapy in NZ campaign. In our film (End Conversion Therapy), we follow their personal struggle with conversion therapy and their longstanding battle to ensure this practice ends for good.
On the 8th of February 2022, New Zealand Parliament passed a bill to ban conversion therapy at its second reading, with now just seven MPs, all from the National Party, opposing.
For more of our audio and visual content, check out our YouTube channel, or head to the University of Auckland’s manuscripts and archives collection.
Disclaimer: The ideas expressed in this film reflect the views of the subject and not necessarily the views of The Big Q.
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