About
Heath Cozens is a US-based filmmaker, via 18 years in Japan. He shoots, edits and directs. His superpower: single-shooter cinematic verite. In his native New Zealand, Cozens made short films and worked in local TV production before graduating with a degree in Film Criticism. In 1996, he relocated to Japan and attained fluency in Japanese. There, he produced, directed, shot and edited news, commercials, and shot documentaries, including features about bilingualism, expat identity, and child abduction.
Since 2013, Cozens has worked out of NYC, but maintains familial and work ties to Japan. In 2015, His pioneering DSLR verite feature Doglegs --about disabled pro wrestlers in Tokyo-- earned rave reviews, international distribution deals and a long Japanese theatrical run. Doglegs was broadcast eight times nationwide and released on DVD in 2019. Only I Can Hear, a feature about American children of deaf adults which he co-directed and shot for Japanese national broadcaster NHK, was broadcast the same year.
Cozens' work has been featured in media outlets like the Economist, VICE, the BBC, the WSJ, AFP, AP, WaPo, LA Times, the Guardian, Bloomberg, the Hollywood Reporter and Al Jazeera.
