Robyn Scott-Vincent has been making TV about marginalised Kiwis for 25 years, motivated in part by her own experiences and painful loss. With the third series of the hugely successful Down For Love about to launch, she talks to Sharon Stephenson.
Ask Robyn Scott-Vincent why she specialises in making programmes about marginalised New Zealanders and watch this thought bubble appear above the veteran producer’s head: “Why wouldn’t I?”
For the past 25 years, Robyn’s production company Attitude Pictures has made more than 700 doumentaries and television programmes about people living with disabilities, ADHD and mental health issues. Their website calls them the “world’s leading production company delivering content that shapes attitudes and changes lives”.
It’s a bold claim but as Robyn tells it, her North Star has always been “the potential and resilience of ordinary people living extaordinary lives”.
“One in five New Zealanders has a disability and although attitudes have softened over the years, there’s still often a sense that they’re less deserving than others,” she says. “I hope that my work allows others to recognise those living with disabilities in their full human form and to shift those perceptions.”
Viewers will get a chance to do just that tomorrow night, the launch of the third series of Down for Love, Robyn’s reality dating show about Kiwis with Down Syndrome, autism, foetal alcohol syndrome and global development delay.
“Once again we’re delving into the beauty of connection and the shared human experience, not just with couples from the previous series but also with several newbies. There are three couples still going strong which is lovely to see.”
Her production company was also behind last year’s Four Go Flatting series, about young Kiwi men with intellectual disabilities living in a shared house, as well as the documentary ADHD: Not Just Hyper.
For Robyn, it isn’t just about spinning a good yarn the way she was taught to in her early career as a journalist: it’s also personal.
The eldest of her three sons, Harrison, was born with Sotos Syndrome, a rare genetic condition that affects learning abilities and motor skills.
“When Harrison was five, he was turned away from his first day of school, not because he was a troublesome child but because he was very, very slow and needed support. I can remember the principal saying, ‘No we won’t be taking him, we don’t need another problem’.”
Harrison was eventually accepted at a nearby school that understood his disability but Robyn never forgot how painful that incident was. Or the parent teacher evening when a woman next to her said, “I can’t believe we spend so much money on slow learners because they’re never going to contribute to society”.
Those moments made Robyn determined to move the needle on attitudes towards people with disabilities, “to see the person, not the disability, and the potential they have to contribute to society”.
Harrison died of acute myeloid leukaemia in 2004, just weeks before Robyn secured NZ on Air funding to produce Attitude, 40 half-hour programmes which turned the spotlight on people living with disabilities. Two decades later, she’s still making the shows for TV1.
But telling these stories attracts criticism: that Robyn is exploiting those with disabilities, that participants on Down with Love are forced into doing things they might not choose to do.
Not so, says the woman named a Member of the Order of New Zealand Merit for services to television and the disabled. “I can’t remember when and it isn’t important” (a quick tootle around Google confirms it was 2014).
“We want participants to tell their own stories and own the narrative, so they feel more comfortable. People with Down Syndrome want meaningful relationships like everyone else so we’re giving them agency over their own stories. We also ensure that we’re really careful with our research so we know what participants’ interests are and what they’re looking for in a partner so that we can better match them. And we work closely with the NZ Down Syndrome Association throughout the process.”
As one of Aotearoa’s pioneering women documentarians, Robyn knows how hard it is to secure funding to make documentaries at the best of times. And these are nowhere near the best of times.
“I’m getting calls every week from really experienced directors and camerapeople who have no work at the moment. We’re losing a lot of amazing people who we need to help shape our views on a lot of things. And that’s a loss not only for those creatives but also for the audience because it means they won’t be exposed to these uniquely Kiwi stories.”
Although Robyn gives her age as “‘nearing retirement”, she admits she can’t ever see herself kicking back.
“I’d love to return to making the kind of documentaries I started my career doing, focusing on issues such as methamphetamine addiction and mothers in prison. It’s still social change but in a different way. But getting the funding to make these documentaries is a real issue, especially in this economic climate.”
A new season of Down for Love launches tomorrow night (Thursday April 10), 7.30pm on TVNZ 1 and TVNZ+.
