KEY NEW ZEALAND
FEATURE FILMS:
Rewi's Last Stand (1925)
Rewi's Last Stand (1939)
[Dir: Rudall Hayward]
Broken Barrier (1952)
[Dirs: Roger Mirams & John O'Shea]
Runaway (1964) +
Don't Let it Get You (1966)
[Dir: John O'Shea]
Test Pictures (1973)
[Dirs: Denis Taylor, Geoff
Steven, Phil Dadson]
Sleeping Dogs (1977)
[Dir: Roger Donaldson]
Solo (1977)
[Dir: Tony Williams]
Skin Deep (1979)
[Dir: Geoff Steven]
Middle Age Spread (1979)
[Dir: John Reid]
Beyond Reasonable Doubt (1980) [Dir: John Laing]
Goodbye Pork Pie (1981)
[Dir: Geoff Murphy]
Smash Palace (1982)
[Dir: Roger Donaldson]
Utu (1983)
[Dir: Geoff Murphy]
Patu! (1983)
[Dir: Merata Mita]
Trial Run (1984)
[Dir: Melanie Read]
Vigil (1984)
[Dir: Vincent Ward]
Came a Hot Friday (1985)
[Dir: Ian Mune]
Sylvia (1985)
Dir: Michael Firth
Mr Wrong (1985)
[Dir: Gaylene Preston]
The Quiet Earth (1986)
[Dir: Geoff Murphy]
Queen City Rocker (1985)
[Dir: Bruce Morrison]
Footrot Flats (1986)
[Dir: Murray Ball]
Nagti (1987)
Dir: Barry Barclay
Mauri (1987)
[Dir: Merata Mita]
Illustrious Energy (1988)
Dir: Leon Narbey
Bad Taste (1988)
[Dir: Peter Jackson]
The Navigator (1988)
[Dir: Vincent Ward]
Te Rua (1990)
[Dir: Barry Barclay]
An Angel at My Table (1990)
[Dir: Jane Campion]
The Piano (1993)
[Dir: Jane Campion]
Heavenly Creatures (1994)
[Dir: Peter Jackson]
Once Were Warriors (1994)
[Dir: Lee Tamahori]
Broken English (1997)
[Dir: Gregor Nicholas]
Topless Women Talk About Their Lives (1998)
[Dir: Harry Sinclair]
Via Satellite (1998)
[Dir: Anthony McCarten]
Scarfies (1999)
[Dir: Robert Sarkies]
Rain (2001)
[Dir: Christine Jeffs]
Whale Rider (2002)
[Dir: Niki Caro]
In My Father's Den (2004)
[Dir: Brad McGann]
River Queen (2006)
[Dir: Vincent Ward]
Eagle vs Shark (2007)
[Dir: Taika Waititi] |
Historic photo (1963) shows Pacific Films crew shooting Runaway near Hamilton, New Zealand. From left, John O'Shea (producer/director) a mainstay of New Zealand production for fifty years; Patrick O'Shea (camera assistant); behind camera Tony Williams (cinematographer) now a runs a commercial production house in Sydney, Australia; Michael Seresin (camera assistant) later shot Roger Donaldson's Sleeping Dogs and has had a distinguished career shooting many films for Alan Parker as well as directing Homeboy with Mickey Rourke. In 1964, O'Shea and Williams made another feature, Don't Let It Get You, also the title of O'Shea's recent autobiography.
N.Z. PRODUCTION WHO'S WHO
Peter Jackson: (director/writer/producer): Along with Jane Campion, Vincent Ward, Lee Tamahori and Roger Donaldson, one of the few internationally-recognised New Zealand film directors. The self-taught filmmaker from Pukerua Bay (north west of Wellington) and one-time photo engraver at the Wellington Evening Post, splattered onto local screens in 1988 with his now-legendary first film, Bad Taste. Jackson was writer, director, co-editor, star and special effects "designer", and the production took four painstaking years, shot with Jackson's 16mm Bolex during weekends.
Warming to his theme, he followed up with his outrageous muppet movie, Meet the Feebles, and the attention-seeking (and getting) Braindead, films which brought him praise from judges like Oscar-winning effects man Carlo Rambaldi, awards at European festivals as well as satisfaction to aficionados of horror and splatter movies. When you have this kind of talent, checking in to Film School simply puts the brakes on, and Jackson effortlessly moved into the mainstream.
Suddenly, came the sublime Heavenly Creatures. Not only was this a startling change of style for the precocious schlockmeister, it introduced international audiences to Kate Winslet. Jackson's next coup was making a Hollywood film, The Frighteners, (under the shrewd eye of executive producer Robert Zemeckis) without even bothering to leave New Zealand.
With the first part of Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring and now The Two Towers and The Return of the King, Jackson achieved what many believed impossible: he managed to please almost everyone - the fans and the non-believers, young hipsters and their parents, the financial backers and his international peers, culminating in a clutch of Academy Awards. Best of all, he appears to be (apart from giving the NZ Film Commission a well-deserved shafting) still the same unassuming, dedicated, single-minded filmmaker he was when he started.
Prior to shooting the mammoth three-film, multi-unit Lord of the Rings, in New Zealand, Jackson re-enforced his commitment to local production by acquiring the National Film Unit, "a one-stop post-production facility." Jackson's endearing comment after his purchase: "If (the Film Unit) had closed I would have had to go on a plane to Sydney a lot, which would have been pretty boring." Jackson is now owner or part-owner of production companies Wingnut Films, Park Road Post, Weta Workshop and Weta Digital - not to mention a vintage Sopwith Camel airplane. 2007: Peter Jackson shoots ambitious 12-minute short Crossing the Line with prototype RED ONE digital camera.
Alun Bollinger (Cinematographer) A mainstay of New Zealand film production since the creative resurgence of the early '70s, Bollinger has helped shape, the inter-national perception of New Zealand as a dramatic physical landscape which is integral to the invariably dark psychological narratives on which so many NZ films rely. As much as any of the major players, Bollinger is responsible for what Sam Neill described as "cinema of unease." While Vincent Ward's early short A State of Siege, the seminal Vigil and recent, troubled River Queen may be obvious examples, their deftly rendered, lushly arcadian surrounds brings the alienated characters (common to all three films) into sharp relief. Goodbye Pork Pie and Came a Hot Friday, are lighter, funnier films, made on shoe-string budgets, starkly different in visual treatment; the former mostly sunny exteriors, the latter given a softer "period" look, with subtly underlit interiors. Heavenly Creatures, where Bollinger first workedwith Peter Jackson, is another bleak period piece with nascent CGI work flawlessly integrated and benefitting from the self-effacing photography. No wonder this film brought so many participants, including Bollinger, international acclaim. Jackson's next, a jokey horror film, The Frighteners, is really a Hollywood film made in Wellington, and had a slick, very pro finish. Recently, Bollinger has worked on Perfect Strangers (Gaylene Preston), a two- (or three?) hander, set on a rugged island (reminiscent of Polanski's Cul-de-Sac) and making expert use of isolation as a major dramatic element. Off-shore, Bollinger has shot A Soldier's Tale (Larry Parr) in France, For Love Alone (Stephen Wallace ) in
Australia, and last year there was more acclaim for his depiction of the (Australian) Hawkesbury River location for fellow NZer Anna Reeve in Oyster Farmer.
Emily Barclay (Actress) She made such a big splash as the conflicted teen in In My Father's Den it's impossible to think of anybody else in the part. Yet, it nearly didn't happen, when the film's nervous UK backers suggested an American actor for the role. The director Brad McGann held out for Barclay, whose contribution, along with cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh (in brilliant form) gave the film a quintessentially dark New Zealand quality - yes, more cinema of psychological unease, in spades. Barclay's portrayal of Celia effortlessly mixed intense drama with the stoicism so prevalent in contemporary teenagers, (note the off-hand description of the adolescent ritual of "teabagging") leavened with amusing attempts at would-be sophistication: Celia's idea of interviewing technique in a school assignment (donning glasses; pen poised for notetaking) or her casual, "I'll have a machito" when offered a coffee. Barclay followed up with a widely praised, bigger role in the Australian black comedy Suburban Mayhem. Now she's won an AFI Award for Best Actress (she was also nominated for Best Supporting Actress in the ABC-TV drama The Silence) I bet it won't be long before Australians claim her as one of theirs.
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