Writing

Gavin Strawhan

Acting credits

Behind the camera

Lawless: Beyond Justice poster
4.5

Two private investigators discover the truth behind a gangland drug deal gone wrong.

Lawless: Beyond Justice

2001

Crooked Earth poster
7.5

Will Bastion returns home from the army after an absence of 20 years to bury his father, the former chief of thee Maori tribe, Ngati Kaipuku. The eldest son, he is reluctant to inherit his fathers role, so it is taken more willingly by his younger brother, Kahu. Kahu is the leader of a band of drug dealers and trouble-makers who ride horses through the middle of town, wrecking peoples gardens. Under the guise of refusal of a land settlement, Kahu makes a large marijuana deal with some murdering city folk. Will must choose between loyalty for his brother and his father, Maori tradition, and contemporary financial issues.

Crooked Earth

2001

Lawless: Dead Evidence poster
6.3

A killer thought behind bars is killing again. It's up to John Lawless (Kevin Smith) and Jodie Keane (Angelina Dotchin) to stop the murders.

Lawless: Dead Evidence

2001

Lawless poster
8.0

An undercover cop who has been undercover for too long has to prepare to make the biggest bust of his career to arrest a drug lord, is suddenly betrayed by a person he least suspects and finds himself on the wrong side of the law. Now framed for a crime he didn't commit, he is determined to uncover his betrayer.

Lawless

1999

Erebus: Operation Overdue poster
7.0

On 28 November 1979, an Air New Zealand jet with 257 passengers went missing during a sightseeing tour over Antarctica. Within hours 11 ordinary police officers were called to duty to face the formidable Mount Erebus. As the police recovered the victims, an investigation team tried to uncover the mystery of how a jet could fly into a mountain in broad daylight. Did the airline have a secret it wanted to bury? This film tells the story of four New Zealand police officers who went to Antarctica as part of the police operation to recover the victims of the crash. Set in the beautiful yet hostile environment of Antarctica, this is the emotional and compelling true story of an extraordinary police operation.

Erebus: Operation Overdue

2014

Waitangi Day: What Really Happened poster
NR

This docudrama follows an imaginary news reporter who travels back in time to cover the days leading up to the Treaty of Waitangi's signing on 6 February 1840. Dropping the usual solemnity surrounding Aotearoa's founding document, it uses humour and asides to camera to evoke the chaos and motives behind the treaty. This clip features a confrontation between Hone Heke and representatives of the Crown.

Waitangi Day: What Really Happened

2011