EST. 2007
Storiesfrom insidethe frame.
Stretch Productions is a Deaf-led film company founded by director and producer Brent Macpherson, making documentary, drama and accessible screen work across Aotearoa and the Pacific.
Films built around people, language and place.
Click any project to open its full story. Every major project in the archive now has its own chapter.
Director.
Producer.
Storyteller.
More than twenty-five years across performance, film and documentary with a visual approach shaped by lived experience as a Deaf filmmaker and NZSL user.
Brent founded Stretch Productions in 2007. He has directed work for government agencies, NGOs, community organisations and cultural projects throughout New Zealand and the Pacific, alongside scripted shorts, acting, film education and international Deaf-film programmes.
His strongest work starts where cultural knowledge and filmmaking meet: understanding who a story belongs to, how people communicate, and what the camera needs to do to make that experience legible without flattening it.
Brent’s acting credits include Shortland Street, Plainclothes and I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry, selected for competition at Cannes in 1994.
A Spectacle of One
Brent’s first professional acting experience was A Spectacle of One at the Watershed Theatre in 1994.
He performed alongside Michael Hurst and other established actors. The production was directed by Michael Mizraki and was nominated as one of Auckland’s best theatre shows that year.
That stage experience became part of a wider acting career across theatre, television and short film, and later helped draw Brent toward filmmaking and directing.
Work that travelled.
Inaugural NZSL Champion Award
Deaf Aotearoa recognised Brent’s work protecting, promoting and preserving New Zealand Sign Language through film and accessible resources.
The Compost: four festival awards
Best Actor, Best Cinematography, Best Director and Best Short Film at the New Zealand Deaf Short Film Festival.
The Forgotten People: Seattle Deaf Film Festival
The Solomon Islands documentary was selected for the international festival.
Leaves Me Alone: NZ 48Hours
The first Deaf team in the Waikato event; regional top 12 with four award nominations.
Stories built on time, trust and local relationships.
Brent has filmed in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands and lived in Vanuatu for almost two years. That experience gives Stretch a strong foundation for documentary work across the Pacific.
Looking for a filmmaker who already understands the region?
Stretch Productions is available for documentary commissions throughout the Pacific. Brent is particularly interested in stories involving culture, language, Deaf communities, disability, identity and social change.
Discuss a Pacific project →Clear in English.
Natural in NZSL.
to studio
recording
Professional New Zealand Sign Language translation for organisations that need their information to be genuinely accessible to New Zealand’s Deaf community.
Stretch Productions works with highly experienced translators to translate English into NZSL that is accurate, clear and culturally appropriate. The team can support the whole process, from translation through to professional studio recording.
With a professional studio on-site, Stretch can also accommodate fast-turnaround work when deadlines are tight. Projects can be large or small.
Every title opens into a story.
Documentary, short film, public information, language preservation, commercial work and film education. Together they show the wider picture of Stretch’s practice since 2007.