Christine Jeffs was born in Lower Hutt, New Zealand. She graduated from Massey University with a B.A. in Sociology and Geography. In 1990, she earned a diploma in editing at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School and began cutting films as well as commercials. As a sound editor, she worked on several New Zealand documentaries as well as feature films such as Crush (1992) starring Marcia Gay Harden, Absent Without Leave (1992) and Send a Gorilla (1998). 

Her first short film, Stroke, which she wrote, directed and edited, was screened at numerous film festivals including Cannes and Sundance. Her first feature film, Rain (2001), for which she adapted the screenplay from Kirsty Gunn’s novel, was selected for its World Premiere in the Directors Fortnight at the 2001 Cannes International Film Festival. After enjoying great acclaim at Cannes, Rain was invited to screen all over the world at other film festivals including Edinburgh, Melbourne, Toronto and Sundance. In January 2002, Jeffs was named one of Daily Variety’s “10 Directors to Watch.”

Credit: tribute.ca