Bryan Bruce Investigates
Hi I’m Bryan Bruce. Welcome to my Substack site! A lot of what you will find here is free, but unfortunately getting work as an investigative journalist is tough going in New Zealand at the moment, so I am having to put some things, such as my Crime investigations, behind a pay wall. If you can afford it I hope that you will become a paid subscriber to help me continue to tell stories that speak truth to power and give a voice to those who have none.
I am new to Substack so I am still very much trying to figure out how it works but the advice from the creators of Substack is that I begin by telling you a little bit about myself.
So, I was born in Scotland in 1948 and came to New Zealand when my parents emigrated and I was 7 years old. I grew up in Christchurch and eventually when to Canterbury University where I earned a Masters degree in Philosophy and Sociology before going on to Christchurch Teacher’s College where I gained a Diploma in Teaching.
I was a professional musician from the time I was 17 to just on age 35 when a television producer walked into the bar I was working in and asked me to front an Art show he was making. Since then I have been making my living as an independent documentary maker and writer.
Why Bryan Bruce Investigates ?
Well, I’m told everyone’s Substack needs a name and this title not only reflects the fact that I’ve always been a person who likes to delve deeply into subjects I think are important or simply take my interest. The title is also a bit of a reference to a 26 episode series I made for TVNZ looking into unsolved and puzzling New Zealand crimes which went on to screen in over 25 countries including the UK and the USA.
All those programmes are now out of the license period so I am going to progressively put them up on my Substack so you can watch them. Along with background videos, documents and podcasts commentary from me.
The above photo of me, by the way, comes from a documentary I made 6 years ago about education in New Zealand which you will find under the Philosophy section of my Substack. As you will see this is one of several sections I have created that will hopefully help you to find the type of stories of that are of the most interest to you.
The sections are labelled True Crime, Politics, Natural History, History, Philosophy, Interviews and Humour and, I say, reflect not only the range of my work but also my personal and creative interests.
I have touched on True Crime here but maybe a word about the Politics section is in order. Those of you who have followed me on Facebook over the years or seen my social documentaries will know that I have very strong views about the ME centred society Aotearoa New Zealand has become, far removed from the egalitarian country which gave me, a kid from a poor Scottish working class family, a new warm dry home to live in and a virtually free education up to and including university. I have always felt grateful for those gifts of the then government as I was growing up and in a very real sense my social documentaries are my way of paying back for the chance I was given for a better life than anyone in any previous generation of my family had.
In 2011 I made a documentary called Inside Child Poverty which caused a stir because TV3 chose to play it on the week leading up to the election that year. It drew attention to the plight of children living in our poorest homes and what we could do about it. You can watch it here but you may also want to watch the sequel I made last year Inside Child Poverty Revisted on Three Now to see how much we still have to do for our nations children our tamariki.
Inside Child Poverty led me to the question - what has gone wrong with our economy that children are going hungry in our food producing nation and many don’t have a place they can call home.
So I made Mind The Gap about the effect neoliberal economics has had not only on our country but throughout the western world, Who Owns New Zealand Now? about our housing crisis and how people are accumulating untaxed wealth by buying and selling houses.
The two sections Natural History and Food History are fairly self- explanatory in that it is where you will find my work on those topics . As for Interviews, I have had the great privilege of talking with some extraordinary people over the last 4 decades from whom I have learned some incredible insights into what it means to be human. So I will progressively put up some of those for you to watch and listen to.
As I say, you can access quite a bit of my work for free by subscribing. If you can afford to become a paid subscriber that would really help but if not I would really appreciate it if you could connect me via your email list to your friends, family, associates and whanau to give them the chance to subscribe.
Check in Everyday
I will be writing, podcasting, or uploading my programmes each day so please do keep checking in.
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Join the crew
Lastly I would encourage you to become part of a community of people who share your interests and mine through my Substack site. Please feel free to participate by writing in the comments section of a post whenever you feel the urge. My very simple rules are you must use your real name, that you comment on the ideas and not the person, and you cannot abuse anyone in anyway.
Thanks again. Let’s enjoy this journey together.
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