Ricky Townsend
Biography
Ricky Townsend is a filmmaker from Ōtautahi with a BFA Hons in Film from Ilam School of Fine Arts. Paired with a background in theatre, Ricky works in many areas of production such as directing, writing and editing. As an autistic filmmaker, he uses filmmaking to understand the world and express his feelings to others. Exploring stories through the eyes and thinking of neurodivergent voices is an important part of Ricky’s process as an artist and storyteller. Ricky’s recent independent feature film The Bostrom Scenario has been screening in genre festivals around the world including the 49th Boston Sci-Fi Film Festival, Phoenix Film Festival, Gen Con Film Festival and Galacticat. His film also won Best Sci-Fi Thriller at the Miami Sci-Fi Film Festival. Ricky's short film Wilbert Wire, was commissioned by Day One Shorts in Aotearoa; funded by NZ on Air, Whakaata Māori, Te Māngai Pāho and RNZ. Ricky's other short films have screened at Sydney Indie Film Festival and Top of the South Film Festival in Aotearoa.
Known For & Full Filmography3 Titles
Movie - 2024, 2h 15m • as Sam
In search of others in an infected world, Sam and Lily venture out in hopes to build a community of survivors as Sam struggles for his own survival after refusing to let go of his past.
Movie - 2024, 2h 15m • as Samuel the Vagabond
Alice Wonder, a young girl from New Zealand is haunted by the visions of her brother’s death, murdered by the impossible flash of a camera. But everyone is adamant her brother never existed. Alice travels the city of Christchurch for answers. She unravels the story of Plato; a supernatural photographer of the H.E.B. A photographer torn by guilt and yearning for enlightenment. And the story of renegade film students on the set of a cursed documentary, uncovering the power of a dreaded computer experiment. As imposing forces tighten their noose round Alice, she discovers her brother’s story is one that will break down reality itself.
Movie - 2025, 2h 15m • as Greg
This story brings to life how fragile ‘grown up relationships’ are. The fact that marriage has a 50% chance of working out is concerning and we follow Josh on his journey to realising that.