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| Issue 44: December 1999 |
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Len Lye Forever
Roger Horrocks talks to Sarah Davy about a new Len Lye exhibition in France.
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Roger Horrocks with Len Lye sculpture
A Flip and Two Twisters |
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It is thanks to Roger Horrocks that we know so much about the life
and work of New Zealand born artist Len Lye. Lye is recognised in
the film world as a pioneer of direct film (making film without
a camera), and in the sculpture world as a pioneer of kinetic sculpture.
He saw the two art forms linked within the ‘art of motion’.
The enthusiasm the Horrocks, Lye’s biographer and Director
of the Centre for Film, Television & Media Studies in Auckland,
has for his subject is infectious: he describes Lye as “the
perfect example of a 20th century artist.” Lye, born in Christchurch
in 1901, was a forward thinker, a man before his time, who conceived
of his work as lasting into the new millennium: as he put it “I’m
for ever.”
A major celebration of the energy and diversity of Lye’s 50-year career is
being held in Paris from April 4 – 30 2000 at the French national museum
of modern art, the Georges Pompidou Centre. The Exhibition comprises an extensive
film retrospective, prints sourced from the Film Archive, works of kinetic sculpture,
and a selection of batiks, photograms, paintings, drawings and film making tools.
Horrocks, along with film writer and broadcaster Jonathan Dennis and Evan Webb,
Director of the Len Lye Foundation, has played a key role in setting up the exhibition,
which is curated by Jean-Michel Bouhours, the Pompidou’s curator of film
(and an authority on experimental film). Dennis has been instrumental in gathering
the best possible prints of Lye’s films from archives all over the world,
while Webb’s expertise is in restoring Lye’s kinetic sculptures.
Horrocks is excited about this relaunching of Lye in an international context.
With Bouhours he is editing a fully illustrated 250-page exhibition catalogue,
which will be published in a bilingual edition. “It will,” he says “be
the most significant book of analysis of Lye’s work to be published to date”.
It features an international range of contributors, including US film historian
William Moritz, French film maker Yann Beauvais, and sculpture expert Barbara
Rose. Horrocks is among the New Zealand contributors, along with Jonathan Dennis,
Evan Webb, Wustan Curnow, John Hurrell and Sarah Davy.
The catalogue has been funded by both Creative NZ and MTV Europe. Headed by Brett
Hanson, a New Zealand fan of Lye’s work, MTV Europe has regularly broadcast
Lye’s films and will host a party to commemorate the launch of the exhibition.
Horrocks says several other Lye-related events are also planned for 2000:
in New Plymouth on New Year’s Eve the Len Lye Foundation is unveiling Lye’s
45 metre high sculpture Wind Wand. The Museum of Contemporary Art in
Barcelona is creating an international touring exhibition of kinetic sculpture
which will include Len’s work. 2000 will also mark the completion of Horrocks’
biography on Lye, which he has been working on over the last decade. A sculpture
is also being planned for the Wellington waterfront.
Shortly before his death in 1980, Lye bequeathed his personal collection to the
Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in New Plymouth, where the Len Lye Foundation is based.
For Horrocks, it is rewarding to see the work that came back to New Zealand being
sent out again, refreshed, into the eyes of the world.
“It’s the beginning of a new phase in Len’s reputation”
he says.
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Mud Pies and Callisthenics
A new acquisition to Film Archive staff is Therese Sinnott, Education Programmes
Presenter.
Therese’s arrival reflects the phenomenal growth of the education programme
over the last two years. Funding for her position has been made possible with
an expanded contract with the Ministry of Education through its Learning Experiences
Outside The Classroom programme. The increased funding commenced in July this
year and runs until June 2001.
Much of the hands on student and teacher contact at the Film Centre will come
under Therese’s wing. She also works closely with Alex Burton, Education
Programmes Coordinator, on preparation and background teaching materials. Currently,
they’re preparing compilation tapes on New Zealand artists and Mud
Pies and Callisthenics, a look at New Zealand kids on film.
Therese comes from an extensive and varied teaching background both in New
Zealand and the United Kingdom, with particular strengths and interest in Art
History, the Social Sciences and teaching children with special needs.
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Te Roopu Whakahau Forum
Representatives from the Film Archive met indigenous archivists and librarians
from around the globe at a recent forum in Auckland.
The International Indigenous Librarian’s Forum was hosted by Te Roopu Whakahau,
the professional association for Maori who work in libraries, archives and information
services to which Maori staff of the Film Archive are affiliated.
Overseas delegates travelled from Canada, Australia, North America, Lapland,
Greenland and Hawaii. Foremost among the forum’s concerns were issues of
intellectual and cultural property rights and the empowerment of indigenous
peoples through access to information.
Huia Kopua and Lawrence Wharerau from the Film Archive were invited to speak
about the Archive’s role in promoting cultural property rights relating
to the collections it cares for. Of particular interest was the Archive’s
outreach programme, Te Hokinga Mai O Nga Taonga Whitiahua. This project is facilitated
in partnership with Te Papa’s National Services and is designed to reacquaint
Iwi Maori with images housed at the Archive which depict their people, geography
and events. The Archive has ongoing discussions and screenings with Iwi Maori
regarding appropriate access and use of the images.
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Desperately Seeking Sponsors
Developing a dynamic video library resource that can be seen by every child
in New Zealand is behind a sponsorship drive by the Film Archive.
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Lee Mete-Kingi in Ruby and
Rata |
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Today’s young people respond extremely well to moving images.
They are also more likely to retain information about any school
subject taught in conjunction with film and video.
With this is mind the Film Archive’s Education Co-ordinator, Alex Burton,
has developed film programmes to enrich school curricula. And while many schools
in Wellington and the surrounding areas have come to the Film Centre for specially
arranged screenings there is a much wider demand for the material.
The Archive’s single greatest asset is its huge collection of New Zealand
images of historical, social and cultural significance. No other New Zealand
institution has such a diverse collection to call on. The aim is to develop
a video library resource for teachers in conjunction with the curriculum. An
initial teacher survey had an extremely positive response.
Although the Archive gets a small amount of government funding it’s not
enough to get a video library of this scale up and running. To maximise the
potential of this exciting idea the Archive needs a partner. To date approaches
to various corporates for sponsorship have been declined. The Archive would
be grateful for any information or ideas about potential partners to make this
vital learning experience a reality for all the kids of New Zealand.
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The Te Kooti Daybill Tale
The Film Archive has restored a rare example of early New Zealand cinema poster
art, the daybill for The Te Kooti Trail.
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The restored The Te Kooti
Trail daybill |
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Printed in Auckland by Wright and Jacques in 1927 the daybill promoted
Rudall Hayward’s third feature film. The only other copy of
the daybill known to survive is with Hayward’s widow and fellow
film maker Ramai Hayward.
The daybill is the ‘star’ of the Frank Bodle Collection
which was deposited with the Film Archive’s documentation collection
earlier this year. Bodle wrote The Te Kooti Trail as a
weekly newspaper serial and later collaborated with Hayward on the
screenplay.
The daybill arrived at the Archive in a fragile condition. The paper was weak
with numerous tears and creases, and covered in surface dirt, fly spots, finger
marks, water stains and brown gum tape. Conservator Shelly Jamieson took on
the restoration challenge.
The cleaning was made more difficult by the original soluble paint used to
illustrate the daybill but she succeeded in cleaning and flattening it, removing
the tape and repairing the tears.
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Margaret Ogilvie
Wellington based pianist Margaret Ogilvie will play piano accompaniment at the
Bank of New Zealand & New Zealand Film Archive Wellington / Horowhenua Last
Film Search screenings.
Margaret’s name will be familiar to Film Festival audiences in Wellington,
Dunedin and Napier where she has accompanied the sell-out screenings of Under
the Southern Cross and South.
In October 1999, she played at the prestigious Le Giornate del Cinema Muto,
the Silent Film Festival in Italy, the first woman ever to be invited there
since it began 18 years ago. She joined pianists from USA, UK and Italy who
play, without prior viewing, for the festival’s week-long, dawn-dusk programme
of silent films. Margaret accompanied 66 films ranging in length from a mere
minute, to a marathon two and a half hours. Amongst them were Haxan: Witchcraft
Through the Ages, a Danish David Copperfield and some of D.W. Griffith’s
short films from his Biograph years.
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The Last Chance
The Last Film Search, the seven-year nation-wide hunt for films ends in Wellington
and Horowhenua in December 1999.
The Bank of New Zealand and New Zealand Film Archive Last Film Search travelled
thousands of kilometres, from Kaitaia to Stewart Island, looking for amateur
and professional New Zealand film of historical and social importance.
The Wellington / Horowhenua Last Film Search is the finale of the search and
runs from December 1 – 16, 1999. Archive staff at the Film Centre in Wellington
will be available to take enquiries during the two week search. They will also
be setting up information desks at Bank of New Zealand branches during day trips
to Lower Hutt, Petone, Waikanae, Levin, Paraparaumu and Porirua.
Free screenings of early films from the Archive’s collection will be held
in Wellington, Upper Hutt and Levin to highlight the search. The project was
launched with Principal Sponsor Bank of New Zealand in 1992.
Last Film Search Coordinator Jane Paul says “It has been enormously successful
and exciting. We’ve found a huge range of early films from all over the
country, even from the most isolated areas. These films provide a fantastic
record of what life was like and what people were doing around New Zealand this
century.”
When the Search began the urgency was to locate nitrate based
films because of their instability. The focus has extended to films
made on safety film, which are vulnerable to fading and ‘vinegar
syndrome’ if stored incorrectly. To date more than 7000 (about
10% nitrate), have been collected and deposited with the Film Archive.
All films deposited remain the property of the depositor.
Jane Paul says highlights among the discoveries are New Zealand troops leaving
for the Boer War in 1900 (New Zealand’s earliest surviving film), the original
All Blacks versus England at Crystal Palace in 1905 and several community comedy
films made around New Zealand in 1928 including Mary of Marton and Daughter
of Dunedin.
Memorable venues include the Swamp Palace at Oruru in Northland, Cinema Paradiso
in Wanaka and the old town hall on Stewart Island in 1998 where three quarters
of the local population attended the island’s first film screening in 25
years.
Last Film Search extended Across The Ditch to Australia in early 1999 where
research at large film institutions and television holdings located hundreds
of New Zealand items including a newsreel of the third Maori King, Mahuta, footage
of the Wahine disaster and prison riots in 1960.
Jane Paul later travelled on a Winston Churchill fellowship, with the support
of Bank of New Zealand, to Europe and America looking for early New Zealand
films. She says her research at film archives, libraries and television stations
uncovered thousands of news items, documentaries and travelogues relating to
New Zealand.
These range from one of the earliest films ever made of boxing, starring Timaru
boxer Bob Fitzsimmons against Jim Corbett at Nevada in 1807, the visit of Lord
Jellicoe to the Chatham Islands in 1924 and a 1910 film of a New Zealand Parliamentary
delegation at Stonehenge. The Archive is now working on selecting the most significant
items found for repatriation.
Bank of New Zealand & New Zealand Film Archive Wellington / Horowhenua
Last Film Search until December 16, 1999. For more details check with local
Bank of New Zealand branches or phone the Film Archive, (04) 384 7647.
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News Clips
Cinema Europe
Following the successful season of Cinema Europe in 1999 the Film Centre, in
conjunction with the European Union, will host Cinema Europe in May 2000. The
focus will be on the youth of Europe.
Sell Out
The New Zealand made, British produced Under The Southern Cross (1927)
screened to a sell out audience at the London Film Festival in November. Film
historian and broadcaster Jonathan Dennis introduced the screening which was
preceded by his documentary Mouth Wide Open: A Journey In Film with Ted
Coubray. Mouth Wide Open was also selected for the 10th Documentary
Film Festival in Portugal.
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