My stories always are about friendship. My teenage years were pretty difficult at home, with a crumbling family, and the constant support I had was my group of friends. All my stories champion the use of ‘friendship’ in one’s life to overcome crisis. I maybe sound like an advocate for ‘friends’, which is maybe silly because of course we know they’re great! But I’m advocating for treating friends as family.
As a part of our series about “Filmmakers Making A Social Impact” I had the pleasure of interviewing Tom Furniss.
Tom Furniss came to Waikato University from Mount Maunganui to study economics, but it didn’t take him long to realize his talents lay elsewhere and since graduating with an arts degree majoring in screen and media he’s has been working in film and comedy.
Thank you so much for doing this interview with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to get to know you a bit. Can you share your “backstory” that brought you to this career?
I was the kid who made movies with their friends on a handy cam. We grew up in a small surf town in New Zealand, so we made surf films. Then I grew up (kinda) and went and studied film, with some time spent in California at UC Santa Barbara where I discovered screenwriting. When I came back to New Zealand me and my friends made a little short film called The Child Jumpers, about a group of guys who’s past time is jumping over children, which was bonkers but blew up in New Zealand and we all still get recognized on the street for it to this day. That was the start of it, from there I fell into commercial and television work, and haven’t stopped.
Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview, how are you using your success to bring goodness to the world? Can you share with us the meaningful or exciting social impact causes you are working on right now?
My stories always are about friendship. My teenage years were pretty difficult at home, with a crumbling family, and the constant support I had was my group of friends. All my stories champion the use of ‘friendship’ in one’s life to overcome crisis. I maybe sound like an advocate for ‘friends’, which is maybe silly because of course we know they’re great! But I’m advocating for treating friends as family.
Many of us have ideas, dreams, and passions, but never manifest it. But you did. Was there an “Aha Moment” that made you decide that you were actually going to step up and take action for this cause? What was that final trigger?
No, I had no choice, it was a must for me. I was compelled to tell stories to make people feel good, to smile, to laugh, to maybe cry. If there was an aha moment I don’t recall it, I just always wanted to do it, and I just kept doing it, whether it was filming on a handycam with pals, or writing a story in my book. I’ve always wanted to do this.
Can you tell us a story about a particular individual who was impacted or helped by your cause?
I used to work on a radio station in New Zealand, a big one that had a predominantly male listenership, and in New Zealand we have a very high rate of male suicide. And we, particularly my co-host Bryce, talked about it quite openly which no one else in the media did. The private messages our text machine would receive saying how that openness had saved them, made it very worth while.
Are there three things that individuals, society or the government can do to support you in this effort?
Fund the arts. It has and always will be the catalyst for social change.
If you could tell other young people one thing about why they should consider making a positive impact on our environment or society, like you, what would you tell them?
You never know when that positive impact will come back around to you. I do feel, personally, that the openness within my group of friends — the thing I cultivate in my story telling — has probably saved at least one of them.
We are very blessed that many other Social Impact Heroes read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, whom you would like to collaborate with, and why? He or she might see this. 🙂
Ah lets shoot for the moon, Steven Spielberg. His early films celebrated friendship better than any other to me. Hi Steven!
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
George Mallory when asked before he went and climbed Mt Everest ‘why do men climb mountains?’ blankly replied ‘because they’re there.’ I’ve always loved that, and I guess for me it says purpose and reason don’t necessarily go into a decision to do something, it’s an unexplained passion and innate desire to do so that drives us.
How can our readers follow you online?
@tomfurnissnz on instagram and twitter
This was great, thank you so much for sharing your story and doing this with us. We wish you continued success!
Thank you!
Filmmakers Making A Social Impact: Why & How Filmmaker Tom Furniss Is Helping To Change Our World was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.