Desray Armstrong

Production

Desray Armstrong

Desray Armstrong is an independent producer with a diverse slate of credits. From 2007-2011, Desray and producer/director Chelsea Winstanley ran New Zealand production company StanStrong with a focus on creating compelling, conscious and informative content with a Maori worldview. In recent years, Desray has built up a mass of physical production experience, predominantly in feature film.

Known For

Mortal EnginesMortal Engines · 2018
Mortal Engines
★ 6.32018
MovieAdventureScience Fiction
Many thousands of years in the future, Earth’s cities roam the globe on huge wheels, devouring each other in a struggle for ever diminishing resources. On one of these massive traction cities, the old London, Tom Natsworthy has an unexpected encounter with a mysterious young woman from the wastelands who will change the course of his life forever.
The Light Between OceansThe Light Between Oceans · 2016
The Light Between Oceans
★ 7.12016
MovieDramaRomance
A lighthouse keeper and his wife living off the coast of Western Australia raise a baby they rescue from an adrift rowboat.
Tenzing
NEW
Tenzing · 2026
Tenzing
★ 5.72026
MovieDramaHistory
A determined man embarks on a high-stakes quest—and defies seemingly impossible odds—to fulfill his dream of being the first to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
Bad BehaviourBad Behaviour · 2023
Bad Behaviour
★ 4.72023
MovieDramaComedy
Lucy, a former child actor, seeks enlightenment at a retreat led by spiritual leader Elon while she navigates her close yet turbulent relationship with her stunt-performer daughter, Dylan.
Coming Home in the DarkComing Home in the Dark · 2021
Coming Home in the Dark
★ 5.72021
MovieCrimeHorror
A school teacher is forced to confront a brutal act from his past when a pair of ruthless drifters takes him and his family on a nightmare road-trip.
The MountainThe Mountain · 2024
The Mountain
★ 5.52024
MovieAdventureDrama
Sam, a fearless young girl raised outside of her Māori culture, is determined to fulfill her mission of connecting with her mountain. She hopes it can heal her from the cancer she is battling. Along the way, she meets some misfits and new kids in town, and together they journey through a difficult route, discovering the true spirit of adventure and the magic of friendship.
Merata: How Mum Decolonised the ScreenMerata: How Mum Decolonised the Screen · 2019
Merata: How Mum Decolonised the Screen
★ 6.72019
MovieDocumentary
This film is an intimate portrayal of pioneering filmmaker Merata Mita told through the eyes of her children. Using hours of archive footage, some never before seen, her youngest child and director Hepi Mita discovers the filmmaker he never knew and shares the mother he lost, with the world.
JuniperJuniper · 2021
Juniper
★ 6.52021
MovieDramaComedy
When a self-destructive teenager is suspended from school and asked to look after his feisty alcoholic grandmother as a punishment, the crazy time they spend together turns his life around.

Filmography

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Saving Grace - Te Whakarauora TangataSaving Grace - Te Whakarauora Tangata · 2011
Saving Grace - Te Whakarauora Tangata
2011
MovieDocumentary
Saving Grace - Te Whakarauora Tangata is the final work of director Merata Mita, who passed away suddenly before the film could be completed. The film addresses some of the deepest and most distressing issues Māori communities face, and shows how extraordinary creative solutions are being provided by Māori communities themselves. Mita asks Maori men to front up to some grim realities by talking openly and honestly about the violence and abuse that has plagued their communities for many years. The film is a personal response to this violence, with Mita making a case for a return to an older model of Maori manhood, when men were the ones who sweetly sang the children to sleep. “Merata intended the documentary to count in ways that mattered deeply to her and to change perceptions of abuse and violence by using themes of responsibility, redemption, revitalisation, forgiveness and, most of all, love.” - Carol Hirschfeld, Māori Television.

Production Manager