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| Issue 39: July 1997 |
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The Ultimate Class Trip
Reaching out to school age audiences is a continuing challenge for the Film Archive.
Young people generally have not had much exposure to archival images.
Two recent developments at the Film Archive are helping to balance the picture.
Former teacher, Alex Burton, has been appointed Education Programmes Co-ordinator,
and the Archive has released Tracking Time: 100 Years of Film in Aotearoa
New Zealand, an audio-visual resource to secondary schools.
Partially funded by the Ministry of Education, the aim of the Education Programmes
position is to link archival footage with studies in Media, Geography, Music,
English and Social Studies.
Alex selects film to screen to primary and secondary school groups visiting the
Archive. He says the moving images deliver strong identity themes.
“Aspects of our identity are easily tapped into by raw footage – New
Zealand in war time, representation of Maori throughout the 20th century, aspects
of the family unit, women, children and social control, and the influence of land
on our national consciousness.”
The release in July of Tracking Time, takes images from the Archive’s
collection into 600 New Zealand secondary schools.
Tracking Time, a 55 minute video and teachers’ guide, was produced
for the Ministry of Education by Learning Media Ltd in association with the
Film Archive. Compiled chronologically by decade, the video resource features
key extracts from 100 years of New Zealand film and television. Collection Manager,
Diane Pivac, developed Tracking Time from the history exhibition she
curated for the Film Centre.
“Tracking Time reveals how New Zealand’s moving image history
has evolved and gives an insight into our way of life, our character, and our
psyche”.
“Kia mau ki nga taonga a o tatou tupuna. Hold fast to the treasures
of our ancestors” - Te Puea Herangi.
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The Sound of Silents
Neil Brand is a globe trotting silent film and improvising pianist based in
London. He was here recently accompanying four silent films at the Auckland
and Wellington Film Festivals. During his visit Neil also conducted a seminar
at the Film Archive.
Diane Pivac from the Film Archive talks to Neil.
It’s an unusual occupation. How did you become a silent film pianist?
I’d always been able to play the piano by ear, just sit down
and play. I’ve always loved the movies.
In 1981 I was approached by a film society in Eastbourne, England
and asked if I’d be interested in playing a Buster Keaton movie,
Steamboat Bill Junior, a film I’d never heard of, I’d
never even seen a silent movie. They warned me their previous pianist
had broken down half way, he slammed the piano lid down and went
away a broken man.
That first audience decided me that there was a career to be had doing this.
I made it through the 90 minutes and people were on their feet. Silent film
is amazing, it’s an art form unlike any other. It’s not like cinema,
it’s not sound cinema turned down. It’s opera – opera without
words.
A job made in heaven. How do you describe your style?
I tend to be a bit theatrical and camp when I’m playing... I’m not
great at being understated, I’ll do it if it absolutely needs it but directors
who’ve required me to be understated have had to hammer me down. The bigger
the better.
You arrive at the piano seemingly unprepared, there’s no suggestion
of a score or even a sheet of music in sight.
It’s not as impressive as it looks. I honestly can’t say what the
intellectual process is that I’m going through when I play a film, it has
almost become too instinctive to describe. If I see something on screen it will
spark a memory or a thought or a piece of music but not a tune. I avoid using
music people know because that brings a whole lot of clutter that has nothing
to do with the film.
The movie comes with a metaphorical blank sheet of paper to be filled in by
the music. There’s what you can see on the screen but also what’s
going on in the characters’ heads and the overall feel of the thing, the
narration, style, impact, and momentum of it.
I prefer to play sight unseen on almost every occasion. What you lose out on
by not seeing a film before you play is you obviously don’t know what’s
going to happen.
Do you play sound effects and ham things up?
When it’s absolutely necessary. It can get a bit mickey mouse and it’s
the sort of thing I try and avoid. Comedy can be a mine field, timing is crucial.
Chances are people will be falling over and dropping stuff but it’s all
perfectly timed and you have to get the timing of the music right.
Things like explosions and stuff collapsing I always try and do as a big crunch
at the bass end of the piano because people expect it. Gun shots ditto. There’s
one particular scene in the Hitchcock film Blackmail that I played in the Festivals
here where she’s about to confess to the murder and then the phone rings
before she can get the words out, so I actually make the phone ring on the piano.
Does the unexpected ever happen, and what do you do when it does?
All the time. I played a tinting copy* once. The title and first scene were
in the right place but everything else was out of order. You automatically assume
that it’s in the right order. I was playing and someone got murdered and
in the next scene they walked in through the door and I was thinking oh well
maybe it’s experimental, or maybe it’s a flashback, that’ll be
it, its a flashback. So you think, “right we’re in a flashback”
and then something else went wrong which seemed to suggest we were in a flashback
in a flashback ... Eventually somebody came up and tapped me on the shoulder
and said “I’m terribly sorry this is a tinting print, do your best”
and went.
That sort of thing happens, you can’t leave, you can’t get off the
piano, it’s tantamount to the captain of the Titanic getting in the first
life boat and throwing a baby over the side.
*Silent films were frequently coloured by a tinting process. When they
were prepared for tinting the scenes to be given the same tint were placed next
to each other.
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Te Hokinga mai o nga taonga whiti-ahua
Bradford Haami
While Tawhiri-matea unleashed his cold winds and rain outside, a large gas blower
heater spewed heat waves throughout the whare-kai at Hauiti marae in Tolaga
Bay.
Cords were unravelled, suitcases opened, video and film projector equipment
prepared and a viewing screen erected. The scene was set for a trip down memory
lane on the big screen.
Daring the cold, a crowd, gumboots, jackets and all, arrived, not for a night
of The Green Hornet or Flash Gordon but for a screening of
archival films of the Ngati Porou districts and its people.
This travelling screening show is part of the New Zealand Film Archive’s
Te Hokinga Mai O Nga Taonga Whiti-ahua project, presented in association
with National Services of Te Papa Tongarewa. Te Hokinga mai is designed to return
the treasured images of Maori back to their place of origin for the viewing
enjoyment of the descendants and communities portrayed.
For Huia Kopua of Ngati Porou, co-ordinator of Te Hokinga mai, it is a chance
for the Archive to bring the images of our people out from the darkness into
the light.
On this occasion, the films containing images of Ngati Porou were returned to
the East Coast in June, on a 10 day trip that started at Te Waha-o-Rerekohu
Area School at Te Ara-roa and travelled to Tikitiki, Rangi-tukia, Rua-toria,
Tokomaru Bay, Whangara and finally Te Poho-o-Rawiri marae at Turanga.
Thirteen films were screened in eight locations.
Viewers from each marae reacted differently to each showing. The simplicity
of the times caused raucous laughter at some points and silent reverence in
others. Sighs of elation and surprise often overtook the crowd at the old customs
and cultural content, especially from the early silent films.
The films from James McDonald’s Scenes of Maori Life in the
1920s show Sir Apirana Ngata, Sir Peter Buck and other notable elders demonstrating
whai, kao ika, hanga tauke, poi, haka, hauhake kumara, whakatangi puoro and
other activities.
“People enjoy seeing themselves, their communities, those long past and
gone. They’re interested in seeing environments that have changed enormously...
for many it’s a very personal experience” says Huia.
Comments like, “Ka mau te wehi” or “you never see that anymore”
were typically voiced at the sight of catching a large number of aua (herrings)
in a pa ika or the construction of a taruke, or “I wonder if we’ll
all look as funny as that” a telling remark on the old images of fashion,
habits and landscape.
E Huia me to roopu e tiaki i nga whakaata o tatou matua tipuna, kia kaha,
kia toa, kia manuwa-nui.
Bradford Haami holds a fellowship from the Historical Branch of Internal Affairs.
This is an extract from an article Bradford wrote when he accompanied Te Hokinga
mai on the trip to Ngati Porou.
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Major Heritage Initiative by Film Archive
The Film Archive has announced its objective for the millennium – the preservation
of all of New Zealand’s remaining early film treasures.
The Film Heritage Fund, to be officially launched in September, aims to raise
$250,000 over the next three years from individuals and organisations concerned
about the continuing threat to the survival of New Zealand’s historical
films, particularly those on nitrate film stock.
Chief Executive Frank Stark said in the announcement that the Archive’s
enormously successful Bank of New Zealand Last Film Search project had more
than achieved its objective of locating a great proportion of the remaining
early film material. However, he said, there is still a lot to do.
“The problem of nitrate decomposition is getting more and more urgent as
the end of the century approaches. These films will not be truly safe until
they can be transferred to modern safety film stock at the laboratory. There
is only one way to achieve our goal - and that means meeting some very steep
costs.”
“The response to the Heritage Fund concept has been very positive and
I’m confident that we will get the support we need.”
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Preserving Pacific Treasures
A rare collection of films from the Solomon Islands has recently been preserved
by the Film Archive. The films were produced in the 1940s and 50s by the Melanesian
Mission to promote and raise funds for their work. Very few films of the Solomons
are known to survive from this period which makes this collection all the more
significant.
During a visit to National Archives, Honiara in 1995 film producer Bridget Ikin
discovered the plight of the films. Originally deposited by the Church of Melanesia
they had remained unscreened for decades, their condition gradually deteriorating
in the hot, humid climate.
Ikin contacted the New Zealand Film Archive, setting in train a process of rescue,
restoration and repatriation.
While the films document the work carried out by the missionaries in the Pacific
they also provide a unique account of daily life in the New Hebrides (Vanuatu)
at that time.
Once funding to cover the cost of freight was secured from the New Zealand High
Commission in Honiara the reels of film were packed and dispatched to the Film
Archive. Their condition was immediately assessed and conservators found that
the prints were in a very fragile state. Fifty years of storage in high humidity
had taken its toll, causing marked shrinkage, colour fading and a curious condition
called ‘ribboning’ where the film stock becomes limp with distorted,
curling edges. Projection damage was also apparent with scratches, torn perforations
and multiple splices.
The condition report ruled out the possibility of a transfer to video until
the prints had gone through the full preservation process: meticulous cleaning
and repair followed by careful copying on to new film stock at the Film Unit
laboratory. Laboratory costs alone for the four films, totalling approximately
2 hours, was in the region of $14,000.
While funds were sought for the laboratory work Film Archive conservators cleaned,
repaired and stabilised the prints storing them in temperature and humidity
controlled vaults.
In June this year with additional funding assistance confirmed from the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs and Trade, new negatives, prints and video masters were generated
for each title. Video copies of the films were returned to the Solomons in August
in the care of the Archbishop of Melanesia.
The discovery of this collection is a warning of the likely condition of all
films stored in hot Pacific climates. There is an urgent need to have such films
identified, assessed and preserved before it becomes too late.
The Film Archive is committed to film preservation in the South Pacific. As
a founder member of SEAPAVAA (South East Asia Pacific Audio Visual Archives
Association) the archive is developing co-operative relationships with archives
and museums in the region.
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A Rock and Roll Summer at the Film Centre
The Film Centre is confident of matching last year’s record attendance
figures for the show Movie Monsters with this summer’s
exhibition. The show, currently under development, has the working
title Heavenly Pop Hits and looks at the flourishing art
of the music video in New Zealand.
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Pauli Fuemana and OMC perform
How Bizarre. Video by Lee Baker |
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It draws extensively on the Film Archive’s expanding collection
of these three-minute movies as well as the extensive holdings of
Television New Zealand to take a good look at the techniques and
trends in over 20 years of music video.
Among the artists featured will be international stars Pauly Fuemana of OMC,
Crowded House and Shona Laing alongside bands like Fetus Productions and Head
Like A Hole.
The exhibition will open in late November and run until March 1998.
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News Clips
Anzac Fellow
Julia Williams from the Australian National Film and Sound Archive, recently
spent a month at the Film Archive. Julia was the recipient of an ANZAC Fellowship
to research Australian films held here. Many previously unidentified nitrate
films of Australian significance were discovered during her research and arrangements
are being made to repatriate these films to the NFSA for preservation.
On the Road Again
The Bank of New Zealand Last Film Search will hit the road again in October,
this time moving through the Taranaki and Manawatu districts.
The search for early New Zealand film will cover New Plymouth, Wanganui, Palmerston
North and surrounding areas. A search in Northland last May located more than
300 films.
Dreamtime
The Film Archive has been invited to present a screening of Maori films at
the Festival of the Dreaming in Sydney this September. Organised in
association with the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, the Festival will celebrate
indigenous cultures.
The programme will be followed by panel discussions focusing on issues of representation
of indigenous people.
A review of the Festival will appear in the next issue of Newsreel.
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