Christine Jeffs

Christine Jeffs (born January 29, 1963) is a New Zealand-born director, editor and screenwriter known for directing the New Zealand film Rain (2001), the British motion picture Sylvia (2003), and the American independent film Sunshine Cleaning (2009). Jeffs is also renowned for her work on television commercials.

Jeffs lives in Auckland, NZ with her partner John Toon, who was the cinematographer on all of Jeffs' films.

Education and Career

Jeffs has directed a total of 4 films from 1993-2008, 2 of which she wrote herself. Jeffs began her career by working locally in post-production, most notably as an assistant film editor. Afterwards, Jeffs went on to attend the Australian Film, Television and Radio School, located in Sydney, Australia. Jeffs obtained a diploma in film editing in 1990, after which she held the position of assistant editor on three feature-length films: Ruby and Rata (1990), Crush (1992), and Absent Without Leave (1992).

Stroke (1993)

From her work as an assistant editor, Jeffs wrote, directed and edited her first short film Stroke in 1993, which unexpectedly gained attention from film festivals like Cannes and Sundance. Following her success with Stroke, Jeffs began to receive offers to direct commercials, and is now considered as one of New Zealand's most prominent commercial directors.