A passion for building bridges

director Robyn Paterson approached Terrance Wallace (pictured above in front of the Epsom Girls Grammar School hostel in 2014) after reading about him in the Herald.

Paterson, who moved to New Zealand from Zimbabwe, says she was conscious of divisions within Auckland when she first arrived.

They have been escalated by the housing crisis, she says.

“That then comes into play with school zones . . . it does push people out. We are living at a time when there is extraordinary focus on difference and division between communities.

“Terrance Wallace is a man passionate about building bridges.”

Footage for the 115-minute documentary by Vendetta Films was recorded over four years, here and in the United States.

On a visit back in Chicago for filming, Wallace became starkly aware of conditions in some of the city’s communities. He has established InZone Illinois with a house in a village about 50km from Chicago.

Wallace, who studied te reo Ma¯ ori, implements cultural lessons from New Zealand including “teaching [the American students] about their whakapapa to build into their identity of who they are.

“I’m hoping that people can watch [the documentary] and decide ‘I’m going to live my dream. I’m going to live my life to make the difference for someone else’.”

Wallace returned to Chicago last year but will be back for the documentary premiere, at Hoyts Sylvia Park on December 5. He found it “devastating” to leave New Zealand but says one of the key principles of InZone is to give back.