Giving her audience an insight into a topic that they may have only thought about in passing is one thing Amy enjoys about making documentaries. 'I look at it as being my job to show them more,' she says.

Amy's first job after university involved spending seven weeks in Venezuela working with two directors on a documentary about Venezuela's revolution.

'That was a life-changing experience for me. I hadn't been exposed to politics before, and here I was filming in the middle of revolutionary election in another country – that was well out of my comfort zone.'

That documentary, Now the People Have Awoken, screened at the 2008 Human Rights Film Festival.

After Venezuela, Amy packed her bags and headed to Wellington where she has worked since. She says, 'It was hard to start with as I moved up without a job confirmed, but I knew that Wellington was the place to get film work and I had previously done meet-and-greets at various companies while I was still at university'. In fact, Amy was never out of work and found various pre- and post-production jobs for music videos, short films, documentaries and a children's TV series, as well as managing post-production on the popular TVNZ show Reservoir Hill.

'I enjoy making films because I think that it is an art form in which you really get to communicate with the viewer on a one-on-one basis, and they can completely submerge themselves into the world that you create for them.'

Amy chose to study Fine Arts at UC to gain an internationally recognised qualification in her area of study. She adds: 'A BFA degree is designed to prepare you for the world as a practising artist. It seemed the most fitting degree to give me the skills to be an artist, for example, motivation and communications skills and learning how to work for myself.'

'Each student majoring in film is encouraged and supported in making their creative ideas a reality. The emphasis of the degree is on directing, with each student given the opportunity to direct a number of films including silent, animated and short films, and documentaries.'

Amy enjoyed the closeness she had with fellow students. 'The environment of the film school is a collaborative one with students working together on a regular basis. This allows film students to build friendships that carry on well into their professional careers,' she says.

Amy has held on to her goal of becoming a documentary-maker, although it has been hard while working 'crazy hours'. Remaining in Wellington, she completed her Honours degree in Film at UC. ' I kept in touch with my lecturer via email and flew down for key events.'

Her research paper looked at developments in viewing documentaries online, and the impact this has on documentary makers. 'For the practical component I created the website www.strawberrieswiththefuhrer.com for the documentary I had been working on for three years at that stage.'

That documentary, based on the memoir Strawberries with the Führer by Helga Tiscenko, had already been successfully pitched at the Documentary New Zealand Trust Pitching Forum, and involved a research trip to Germany and Slovakia. Amy also won a grant set up by SPARDA and BBC Knowledge Australia to select five emerging documentary makers under the age of 30 who would receive funding to create a documentary, and she used this to complete the film.

Strawberries with the Führer was selected for the 2011 New Zealand International Film Festival and had two sell-out screenings in Wellington before being broadcast on BBC Knowledge.

For others considering Fine Arts as a degree, Amy advises that 'to get through the degree and gain all the benefits it has to offer you have to be self-motivated and prepared to accept a challenge.' She adds: 'UC allowed me to grow as a person, with all the lecturers and support staff being more than helpful. It's a very welcoming, inspiring environment.'