Johnny and Azita Agnew have a history of delving into the lives of society’s most marginalised groups and creating artful documentaries such as their latest six-part series Dadolescence. They talk to Emily Simpson about gaining the trust of five teenage dads, and how they combine their marriage with their intense working life.
Dadolescence is packed with scenes that make you feel like a spy. Three teen mates, the kind who probably treat teachers and parents to monosyllables, frankly discuss the impact of pregnancy on a relationship. A new teen dad rises in darkness and dresses in high-vis for a job he doesn’t like. Two teen parents choke, splutter and and burp their way through their first ever taste of champagne in a valiant attempt at some romantic couple time.
“The way we like to shoot is kind of to be like a ghost,” says documentary-maker Johnny Agnew. “We’re not in their faces, it’s observational.”
Johnny and Azita Agnew have a knack for infiltrating and artfully documenting the unseen worlds of fringe groups of society. So far that includes a doco about young homeless men (Young and the Reckless) and another about young male sex workers (Red Light Boys).
With Dadolescence they’ve continued the young, male and marginal theme in a six-part series following the lives of five teenage dads. The result feels non-judgemental and respectful while allowing unprecedented access to an invisible and woefully unsupported sector.
he six-part series offers an unflinching insight into teenage fatherhood. (Source: TVNZ)
The number of babies born to teenagers in New Zealand has almost halved in the past decade – a fact attributed to everything from improved sexual health services to the antisocial effect of smart phones. Just 1719 teenage people gave birth to babies in 2022 – the most recently recorded year – and we can assume that most of those were fathered by teen boys, but whether they were or not isn’t recorded.
Which pretty much sums up the experience of being a teenage dad in New Zealand – while there are 23 Teen Parent Units attached to high schools throughout the country, dads are only welcome in a few of them. As a society we have few systems in place to help teen dads, say the Agnews. And it’s not a group that tends to speak up for its own rights.
“Young men tend to not talk,” says Johnny. “And when they don’t talk the systems that are around them to help them don’t work.”
‘Success the exception, not the rule’
As doco-makers, finding five members of this silent demographic to allow them into their intimate lives wasn’t quick or simple. “We went on an exhaustive search around the country,” says Johnny. “We approached all the Teen Parent Units. We wanted a diverse group of dads and we wanted them spread out around New Zealand.”
Says Azita: “A lot of the young dads we met were just too embarrassed to talk to us. They saw teen parenthood as a failure.”
More so than the mums? “Yes,” she says, suggesting that’s partly due to the pressure in our culture to “man up, take control”. And also because a lot of girls just seem readier for parenthood. “The part of their brains – the prefrontal cortex – responsible for decision making and planning matures earlier.”
Still, there are plenty of scenes in Dadolescence of young boys/men showing beautiful, tender parenting skills and embracing, not just the role of dad, but of generous partner and co-parent too.
“What we saw was what a massive difference it makes when teenagers have family and community support,” says Johnny. “The successes in these situations are the exception not the rule. Many young dads break under the pressure, so it’s inspiring to see that it can work.”
‘We spend 24 hours a day thinking about work’
Johnny and Azita agree that approaching their subjects as a male/female duo helps them gain trust – because whatever understanding one of them might lack, the other tends to offer.
And balancing their different strengths is something they do creatively as well. “We’re both directors,” says Johnny. “But I’m the director of photography so I’m the visual one. But then Azita is visual too, she’s a photo journalist and her father was one of the main archivists in Iran, so she takes a more intellectual approach to things. She really delves deep.”
Azita says their couple’s shorthand also helps. “I don’t need to explain to Johnny what I want,” she says. “And if there’s something I think he missed, I will explain it briefly and he just gets it.”
“It’s quite a synergy,” agrees Johnny, but adds: “It’s important not to agree on everything.”
As for the clear boundaries between work and homelife, which some professional/personal couples swear by, that’s out the window. “We spend literally 24 hours a day working and thinking about work,” says Johnny.
But it’s clear that’s how they want it. “I really enjoy that work/life connection that we have,” he says. It would do a lot of people’s heads in. We take a lot home with us mentally – you have to.”
The working dynamic that defines their relationship kicked in early, they say. Pretty much from the beginning, in 2006, when they met on a blind date set up by friends.
Johnny was already on his way to becoming a documentary maker – his passion for film seeping through his official career goal of architecture. He’d started filming skateboarders when he was 15, and went on to travel the world filming skaters while still a teen. But it took ten years of boredom at architecture school for him to realise that his sideline was actually his vocation.
‘It was beautiful to come to NZ and feel the freedom’
Azita, when he met her, was the missing piece of the puzzle, as a photojournalist storytelling was her profession, and with her archivist dad, research was in her blood.
Having lived in New Zealand for just one year at that point, she was also in the midst of a giant cultural shift. “It was massive,” she says. “It’s very different, the culture here. Iran has thousands of years of civilisation and history, but it can be a burden sometimes, and a barrier, especially for women. It was beautiful to come to New Zealand and feel the freedom to express yourself.”
One thing that eased the transition was that English was actually her first language. Azita’s parents were living in England when she was born and decided to return to Iran in the 1980s “right at the point when everyone was running away – because my dad was a nationalist”.
She remembers the difficulty of moving to Iran from England. “I couldn’t understand Farsi, I was this little shy girl, people would laugh when I was speaking so I stopped talking altogether.”
Maybe it’s their experiences of being outsiders – in the wrong profession, a strange country, struggling with language – that help the Agnews slip into foreign worlds, offering visibility and a voice to those with neither.
Maini, Lincoln, Elijah, Devalin and Cayden
We asked the Agnews to briefly sum up each of the five dads in the series.
How about Maini, 16 and scared when he learned his girlfriend was pregnant?
“Maini is really trying,” says Johnny. “He’s stubborn and shy, but at the same time, when you crack that shell, he’s hilarious and really open. He never met his own father, so there’s a lot there. He wants to prove that he can do it.”
And Lincoln – the car and motorbike obsessed 17-year-old whose girlfriend believed, due to childhood cancer, that this might be her only shot at motherhood?
“In a word, positivity,” says Azita. “He’s from Temuka,” explains Johnny. “He’s got that South Canterbury, can-do, will-do attitude. He left home at 15 and has been working since then, he’s very capable.”
Elijah, who delivered one of the most unforgettable proposals in televised history?
“Awwww…” Johny and Azita’s reactions to hearing his name are simultaneous. “He radiates love and he’s got a very special aura of happiness,” says Johnny. “He’s adorable really.”
Devalin, who’d already saved enough to buy his “little family” a car and was one of the few dads able to attend a TPU with his partner and daughter?
“Devotion,” says Azita. “He’s devoted to his partner and his daughter, he’s determined to protect and support them. He comes from a very supportive, large family. That household works like clockwork and there’s a lot of respect.
And finally, Cayden – who’s juggling a household that includes a partner dealing with post-natal depression, a baby, his partner’s mother and younger siblings and a multitude of puppies and cats.
“Cayden broke my heart because he was desperate for help when we started filming him,” says Johnny. “He was the man of the household and he needed support.”
Azita says, “All of the issues that teen fathers face was embodied in Cayden.”
