BINDSPOT BUSTERS – The Core Idea
People tell stories, not just to entertain but to share. Sharing a story is one of the foundations of a culture, a community, a society. Be they fact or allegory, stories create empathy, understanding, and change. They contextualize our values, our understanding of the world by humanising ideas. But not everyone has the tools or the platform to share their stories. These are the blind spots in our shared narrative.
Blindspot Busters is a non-profit organization concerned with telling these stories. We believe that positive stories of recovery, of success, of overcoming hardship and finding peace enrich our societies. They give people hope, even strategies when their lives look the hardest. We believe that the ability to share and to hear these stories should be a right, not a privilege.
Bringing together a family of like-minded media professionals with the people who have stories to tell, we want to build a community of mutual support and shared experience for everyone, starting with those whose voices are the quietest. Through professionally producing these stories and sharing them in an accessible, widely recognised space. The more people tell their stories, the more people who hear them, the more we all win.
The goal of Blindspot Busters is to change the world through LOVE, LAUGHTER and a lot a bit of ACTIVISM.
The three core umbrella’s of Blindspot Busters are:
Love – Support and Advocacy – Supporting the people falling through the cracks in the system by listening, sharing, advocating and encouraging.
Laughter – Entertainment – Sharing peoples stories in their own words and remembering that laughter is the best medicine. Making content that educates, inspires, celebrates communities and brings people together.
Activism – Highlighting issues in the system to stand up for ourselves and our friends. Making an impact through partnerships, protests, politics and propaganda.
NICOLA PEEPERKOORN – MANAGER – BIO
Nicola Jayne Peeperkoorn (pronounced ‘peppercorn’) is dutch on her fathers side, and Irish & Samoan on her mothers making her the second generation to be born and raised in the City of Sails – Tāmaki Makaurau, New Zealand. In 2004 she attended South Seas Film & Television School, working late into the night completing an uncommon Double Major in Production and Directing. After film school she worked on a number of productions including, ‘The Vintners Luck’and in accounts on ‘Go Girls’, ‘The Emperor’, Crouching Tiger 2, Ash vs Evil Dead & Hunt for the Wilderpeople.
Her dedication to becoming a Producer has driven her to be involved in producing more than 100 low budget short films, including ‘The Rapists’ which played at Show Me Shorts in 2008. She also produced the NZFC funded horror short film Restoration (pw: PremiereShort) and was part of the writing, directing and producing team for Tropfest finalist short films Xenophobia, Meet Hamish and Help, which won Best Film, Best Actor and the Audience Award at Tropfest NZ 2014.
By 23 she embarked on her ambitious first feature, ‘The Richmond Family Massacre’. She joined the team of independent feature ‘Crackheads’ as a co-producer which played several International festivals including Austin Film Festival (which she attended) and has won numerous awards including ‘Best Self Funded Feature’ at the Moas 2013.
In 2015 she joined the team at Notable Pictures to work on TV series ‘Both Worlds’ as a production manager and moved into Producing feature docs starting with Wilbur the King in the Ring. Her most recent features as a producer are horror The Turn of the Screw, documentary Six60: Till the Lights go Out and writer/producer for documentary The Chills: The Triumph and Tragedy of Martin Philipps. Her films have won many awards and her shorts and features \have played festivals like SXSW, Austin, Stiges, Palm Springs Shorts and DocEdge. In 2018 she was a nominee for the hotly contested WIFT Woman to Watch Award.
In 2019, her father took his own life, and I took a break from film to explore the mental health sector. She was a founding member and initial co-Chair of the Lived Experience Advisory Council (LEAC), a charitable trust providing lived experience voices into quality projects, policy and service delivery of mainstream mental health services in Waitemata (the largest DHB region in the country). LEAC was a finailist in the Waitemata Health Excellence Awards in 2021 in the patient experience category.
After completing training in Intentional Peer Support, a brief stint as the newsletter editor for Solace Suicide Bereavement support group, sharing her story with the Health Quality and Safety commission and helping create a training resource for Aoeke te Ra (suicide bereavement counselling services) and being a member of the a member of the Auckland & Waitemata Suicide Prevention and Post-vention Governance Group, she was presented with a national Lifekeepers award for her Suicide Prevention efforts.
Blindspot Busters 