Imago Convocation (ICON) is a weekend experience for viewers, thinkers, and creators who believe that screen stories shape souls. Held in Auckland during the NZ International Film Festival (NZIFF), this unique event invites you into a rhythm of film, faith, and thoughtful conversation.
Across two days, 7 - 8 August 2026, we’ll gather for:
🎬 In-house screenings
🍿 NZIFF screenings
🎙️ Sessions with guest speakers
🗣️ Guided conversations about films
☕ Unstructured time to reflect and connect
You’ll be encouraged to step into the cinematic experience with your whole heart, mind, and soul, while engaging with others in rich, meaningful, and layered discussion.
Our 2026 Guest Speakers
Micah Winiata
Micah Winiata (Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāti Porou) is a filmmaker and producer committed to championing Māori stories on screen. His short film THE MUTE premiered on Beyond the Short, his documentary LAST SHOT AT MESSENGER screened at DocEdge, Māoriland 2024, and Lift-Off Berlin, and his experimental documentary TAIAO won Best Aotearoa Project at Vision Feast and continues to screen internationally. In 2025, Micah participated in the Ngā Aho Whakaari Development Lab as a Producer, building towards a 2026 slate of indigenous-led films.
Working with Velvet Moss and Tahi Production Services, he has contributed as a Producer’s Assistant to feature films such as UPROAR, BOOKWORM and the upcoming HOLY DAYS (2025) and LOMU (2025) as an Associate Producer and Trainee Māori Producer under Tainui Stephens. Micah also represents his iwi on the Film Bay of Plenty Board, supporting regional industry development in his rohe.
In 2025 he stepped back from producing to study full-time immersion Te Reo Māori at Waikato University ki Tauranga Moana. He aspires to carry this reo and mātauranga, taught by his kaumatua, into future cinematic storytelling.
Léah McVeagh
Léah (pronounced like the princess from Star Wars) is a Film Director, Producer, Writer & Script Analyst.
Léah has always loved telling stories. As a child growing up in the heat of Africa or the cold of New Zealand, she was always scribbling something on whatever paper or surface she could find. At university, she learnt how to tell stories through pictures by making her first short film. Since graduating, Léah has produced and/or directed multiple award-winning live action and animation projects, working for big brands like Samsung and Xero. She's also freelanced with various film, animation and television companies, such as Greenstone Television, Huhu Studios, Coverfly Los Angeles and Flying Fish. Her short films have been successful at the Show Me Shorts Film Festival, My Rode Reel, as well the 48 Hour Film Festival. Notably, Dame Gaylene Preston awarded Léah Best Female Director at the 48 Hour Grand Finals in 2022.
She loves working with her friends at Angle3 Pictures, and helping people share their unique cultural and spiritual stories through narrative film.
Find out more here: http://leahmcveagh.squarespace.com
Luke Fenwick
Luke hails from Ōtautahi Christchurch, where he grew up and developed a love of learning. This love took him to the University of Canterbury, where he studied History and Classics, and to University College, Oxford, where he read German history. He is now a Senior Teaching Fellow at Venn, and his work encompasses a range of interests. He’s also a big fan of film, especially movies from the studio era and German-language movies.
Richard Goodwin
Richard is a lecturer at Pathways Bible College and a big fan of movies. He has a PhD from Otago in which he researched the intersection of theology and film. He is the author of Seeing Is Believing: The Revelation of God Through Film (IVP, 2022). Before his doctoral studies, he completed a master's degree at Fuller Seminary, where he is now also an adjunct faculty member teaching courses looking at theological engagement with television and pop culture. He hails from Cambridge, New Zealand, where he lives with his wife, Hilly, and two young sons.
Who's it for?
Movie lovers with a hunger for deeper meaning
Creatives who want to integrate faith and artistry
Pastors/leaders interested in understanding culture through the arts
Anyone curious about where God might be found in cinema
What's in the Name, 'ICON'?
The religious icon has a long history as a visual artform through which an attentive viewer may encounter the transcendent. Cinema could, therefore, be understood as a type of contemporary iconography, a catalyst for contemplation of—and dare we suggest?—perhaps even an encounter with the divine. Here, the name serves as an abbreviation for our full name, Imago Convocation.
Imago is a word rich in sacred and cinematic connotations. The word is Latin for image, both a reference to the visual nature of the film medium and an allusion to imago Dei, a phrase used by theologians to capture the bold biblical assertion that humans beings are made in the very image of God. A convocation is a gathering (typically in an academic or church setting), a sacred calling-together of voices, hearts, and ideas.
ICON is thus a call, a call to artists, scholars, believers, doubters, seekers and dreamers—a call to you—to join together in conversations about faith, film, and the art of seeing.
Event Details
📍 Location: Eden Church, Auckland
🗓️ Dates: Friday, 7th to Saturday, 8th August 2026
⌚ Time: Starting Friday at 5:30pm ending on Saturday at 3pm
🎟️ Pricing (*Early Bird Prices):
Adult: $70
Student or Senior: $50
*EARLY BIRD PRICING available until June 5. From June 6 onwards, prices will increase to $85 (Adult) and $65 (Student/Senior).
Note: NZIFF film tickets are not included.
Interested?
Contact
Pathways Bible College
7 Oak Lane, Judea, Tauranga
+64 7 571 6981
info@pathways.ac.nz
