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| Issue 48: November 2001 |
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Passionate and Purposeful
A filmmaker is not a confectioner or a cosmetician to the society
in which he or she lives and works but the builder of its hopes,
its dreams and its heroes, the steward of its conscience and the
champion of its vitality.
— John O’Shea (1920-2001)
John Dempsey O’Shea died in Wellington in July this year
aged 81. He has been variously described as the grandfather, doyen,
godfather, and founder of the New Zealand film industry. John hated
these labels believing they implied inactivity and placed him firmly
in the realm of the past. John O’Shea’s contribution to
New Zealand film history is indisputable.
John was always actively involved in the industry, whether making
feature films when no one else was, lobbying government to establish
a Film Commission, or lobbying the Film Commission for funding.
Eulogies described him as independent, passionate and purposeful,
stubborn, strong, determined, a nurturer and mentor.
Alun Falconer and Roger Mirams established Pacific Films in 1948,
John joined in 1950. He wrote the script for his first feature,
Broken Barrier (1952) and was co-director and producer
with Mirams. John felt that he knew the theory of filmmaking while
Roger knew the practise. It was learning on the job.
Between 1948 and 1970 Pacific Films almost single-handedly kept
independent filmmaking alive in New Zealand. Broken Barrier
was the first feature film made in New Zealand since 1940 when Rudall
Hayward’s second version of Rewi’s Last Stand
premiered. In fact, Broken Barrier, Runaway (1964)
and Don’t Let It Get You (1966) were the only New
Zealand feature films released between 1940 and 1970. John directed
all three for Pacific Films. After 1966 the focus of his career
shifted from directing to producing. As well as feature films he
produced items for television, most notably the landmark series
Tangata Whenua (1974).
Pacific Films’ work between 1948 and 1970 consisted mainly
of commercials, newsreels, sponsored training films, sports coverage,
and road safety films. These paid the bills and helped to produce
the collateral for bigger projects. They also provided a training
ground at a time when there were no other opportunities – filmmakers
like Gaylene Preston, Barry Barclay, Tony Williamson and Michael
Seresin started their careers at Pacific Films.
John liked to provoke debate. In the Evening Post in 1994 he said:
"If you make films in New Zealand, of course you’ll be
concerned about the significant and unique feature of this country
– a European culture and consciousness living alongside a Maori
culture and consciousness, with only the Maori being bicultural.
The drama of New Zealand, surely, is to do with the relationship
of Maori and pakeha." From Broken Barrier to Te
Rua (1991), his films tackle issues of cultural heritage.
John believed in the power of film as a means of shaping a cultural
revolution and influencing opinion. Commentators have also used
adjectives such as staunch, outspoken and visionary to describe
him.
Outspoken about the lack of funding and attention given to films
made in New Zealand he lobbied government for a Film Commission.
After the formation of the Commission in 1978 he became part of
the group calling for a Film Archive.
For the Film Archive, adjectives to describe John include commitment
and continuity. Representing the Minister for the Arts, he was a
founding Board Member in 1981, was still on the Board in 1999 and
always retained an active interest in the Archive. The Pacific Films
Collection of films, production records and files was deposited
with the Archive in 1992. The Collection reflects the extraordinary
output of the company and is a significant reflection of our culture
and society.
In 1990 John received an OBE for his services to film and in 1992
he received the first Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the
Film Commission. In July this year it was announced that an annual
Film Fellowship for young filmmakers would be established in his
name.
Nareria e te rangatira haere, haere, haere atu ra.
— Diane Pivac
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Saving Tape
Part 3 - Why Save Videotape?
You may as well ask why save films, books or paintings? The
content of videotape is just as important. The third in a series
by video conservator, Jamie Lean. Part 2 of this series can be found
in Newsreel Issue 47
Whether a personal record of a 40th birthday party complete with
topical references or the proceedings of the Royal Commission on
Genetic Modification (both recently deposited with the Archive),
videotape provides a basis for research into life in the early 21st
century. As with film, the Archive collects and preserves videotape
from across the spectrum – from broadcast masters to digital
media and home video.
In terms of access, preserved images provide a rich source of
programming and research. Over the last few years we have seen many
television programmes, both foreign and New Zealand, that have relied
extensively on archival footage. The People’s Century,
The Colour of War, The New Zealand Wars, Our
People Our Century and Magic Minutes have all been
popular. These programmes relied on nitrate film and early newsreels.
When it comes time to review the late 20th and the beginning of
the 21st centuries the raw material will be found on magnetic tape.
People love to see themselves on screen and local content reinforces
a sense of cultural identity. At a recent meeting of Pacific Island
television producers, concern was expressed that local culture was
being swamped by American programming beamed in by satellite. One
solution to combat this is to raise the level of local content through
the use of archival footage. Cook Islands TV, for example, asked
people to bring in home movies and videos that could be put to air.
These proved to be very popular broadcasts.
On a domestic level, the large number of camcorders in use today
means videotape is beginning to take over the role of the family
photo album. Movement, sound and colour define our memories at the
start of the 21st century as surely as we see the beginning of the
twentieth in black and white. These images represent a culture that
defines itself through its audiovisual record.
Next : Part 4 - How do we save tape?
Tape Tips #3
If the picture from the tape you are watching starts to break-up
rapidly and turns to snow, it is most likely that dirt has clogged
the video heads. Sometimes this can be cleared by cueing the tape
back then forwards again but usually the VCR will need cleaning.
A common source of dirt is from tapes that are used frequently,
such as rental titles.
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Stubborn Bloody Mindedness
Monika Ahuriri talks to Gaylene Preston, one of this year’s
Arts Foundation of New Zealand Laureates
Congratulations Gaylene. What does award mean to you?
I've got a car that goes! (joke) It's very unexpected, both for
me personally and also for our craft, because when we're talking
about the arts in this community film is often not mentioned. Yet
a really vibrant film industry, supports the Arts in important ways.
Over 25 years I have worked with some of the best creative people
in the country. The Laureate Award is an acknowledgement of that
from the home crowd, which is just marvellous. This is a tremendous
boost and has made me feel very positive.
Tell us about the changes you have seen in the industry over
the past 25 years.
Because I kind of flopped in at the tea room at Pacific Films
(which was the best university of New Zealand filmmaking that you
could possibly flop into in 1977) I've been part of major moves
forward in building the infrastructure for filmmaking in this country.
The film industry had been banging on doors to establish its own
institutions and its own modus operandi, in a time when even the
idea of a freelance industry was so foreign. Now the film industry
is a 'sector' and because it is seen to be successful the Government
is leaping in on the coat tails. So we're actually getting institutions
foisted on us now. We're being 'scoped'. Well-meaning, not very
informed people are writing reports on the industry, and I have
cause for real concern that the information is skewed. It is not
on the button. When you've been doing it for as long as I have,
you can get really crabby about having to educate up yet another
batch of people who have been appointed to positions in new institutions,
who haven't come from our industry. Unfortunately the film industry
has never been able to gain its own voice as an expert in its own
field.
How do you see the film industry today?
The people who were around in 1977 were a bunch of scruffy layabouts
who refused to have a job and who basically looked as though they
were having too much fun anyway - right? They were clever and they
were resourceful and they were iconoclasts, by and large. Which
describes a very different sort of industry than the one we have
now. We're much more internationalised and careerist. I have always
viewed the career idea for an artist as a dangerous path.
In what sense?
Films are the mass media. They don't just reflect, they shape.
I despair when I look at our film culture, and I don't mean New
Zealand film culture particularly, I mean the global film culture.
If our films have a spiritual, emotional and psychological role,
then there's a lot of work to be done to counter the overriding
cynicism emanating from our screens, large and small. Here at home
we have, in my view, been making calling- card films for the last
10 years. Films designed to impress the Jury at Sundance. Then there
are the rules, put in place by our own film bureaucracy, which demand
that filmmakers must demonstrate 'market interest' in their projects.
That, by definition, means partnerships with overseas sales agents.
This defines certain approaches to genre-based storytelling and
casting. We have demonstrated that our filmmakers are fantastically
good at achieving the set task. The day we decide to set out consciously,
and with stubborn bloody mindedness, to celebrate New Zealand national
film and filmmaking then we'll have something really special. And
I can't wait for the day, I wish it would hurry up.
Where did the idea for your latest film Titless Wonders
(2001) come from?
Titless Wonders came from seeing a close friend go through
a gruelling death from breast cancer and from coming from a 'breast
cancer family' myself. One day I was driving into the supermarket
and there was Dame Kate Harcourt standing in front of my car saying,
"You have to see this dance that Jan Bolwell does. It's just
marvellous." And then she said, "Oh I'm sorry – you
must get this all the time, people telling you which films to make."
And I do, but I don't mind. Because if something bothers me, and
it bothers others, well it must have something there for everyone
to chew on, so there will be an audience for it I figure. Titless
Wonders came to me, from the community that I live in. It became
obvious that it had to be done, and that I was the one who could
hold the pencil as it were, that I was the one who could make the
film.
What's been your motivation?
Two things really. One is being unemployable in any other sphere.
And it's kind of like having acquired a very expensive habit. There
is always a little bit of my brain that's ticking away – it's
like my heart beating – working out how to get the money to
make the next one. It's just helps me make sense of my world.
A full transcript of this interview is available at the Film
Archive.
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On Line
In December, the redeveloped Film Archive website will be launched
at www.filmarchive.org.nz.
With a stunning new look and greatly expanded information about
the Archive, the site contains online video drawn from the collection,
including The Departure of the Second Contingent for the Boer
War (1900) and extracts from Goodbye Pork Pie (1981),
Patu! (1983) and music video Tally Ho (1981).
The video clips are presented in case studies focussing on topics
about New Zealand and film history. "The case studies are a
wonderful opportunity to show off the best of our collections",
says Website Co-ordinator, Miranda Kaye. "With such a large
and varied collection, we have endless stories to tell about New
Zealand’s moving images. Putting them online is one way to
share these stories with everyone."
As part of the Bank of New Zealand Reeltime Project, the site
will be developed further over coming years, with a searchable database
of the Film Archive’s collections expected to go online next
year. The site will also be used as the hub for a range of interactive
services for schools and tertiary institutions. "Our goal",
says Kaye, "is to make the Film Archive website the best place
in cyberspace to enjoy and learn about New Zealand’s moving
images."
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Adventures in Brittany
The New Zealand Film Archive was invited to participate in the
annual Douarnenez Film Festival in Brittany, France in August this
year.
The Douarnenez community began the film festival in 1978 to celebrate
not only their own Breton culture and language but as a means of
exploring other indigenous and/or minority cultures around the world
with similar experiences.
This year the Festival was dedicated to ‘The Maori of Aotearoa’
and the programme featured material which highlighted major issues
for Maori. Films such as Te Matakite o Aotearoa (1975)
and Bastion Point: Day 507 (1980) highlighted land rights
issues, Ngati (1987) and two episodes from the acclaimed
Tangata Whenua series (1974) spoke to cultural values and
community, Patu! (1983), Hei Tiki: Adventures in Maoriland
(1985) and Broken Barrier (1952) raised the subject of
race relations.
Invited guests were Tama Poata, Patricia Grace, Toby Mills, Moana
Maniapoto, Melissa Wikaire, Lisa Reihana, Joseph Te Rito and Huia
Kopua. It was an extremely busy time for the delegation with several
film sessions per day to be introduced, twice daily forums which
gave the community opportunities for more focussed questions over
a range of issues such as the Treaty of Waitangi and land claims,
Maori spirituality, what it means to be Maori and the future of
Maori in New Zealand society.
It was gratifying to note just how genuinely interested this community
was as they patiently awaited the translations from English to French
and/or Breton language. They were equally receptive to the films
in the week-long programme which screened at three separate venues,
each holding six sessions per day.
Festival organisers were delighted with the unprecedented response
from 22,000 attendees and sustained interest from local, national
and international press.
Ka nui nga mihi ki a Barry Barclay, Diggeress Te Kanawa, Angeline
Greensill, Turangawaewae Board of Trustees, Ngati Tuwharetoa Maori
Trust Board, Sharon Hawke, Huhana (Bubbles) Mihinui, Merata Mita,
Geoff Steven and the New Zealand Film Commission for allowing their
taonga to be included in the festival.
— Huia Kopua
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A New Partnership
On 7 September 2001 the Prime Minister and Minister of Culture
and Heritage, Helen Clark, made the announcement of the single biggest
deposit ever into the collections of the Film Archive.
The Prime Minister joined her former teacher and employer, Professor
Robert Chapman of the Department of Political Studies at Auckland
University, to celebrate the transfer of responsibility for the
care and preservation of over 30,000 television programmes and films
to the Archive. The tapes are drawn from the Politics Department
and the School of Film and Media Studies and are the result of more
than 30 years of commitment by Professor Chapman and his wife Noeline,
and by Professor Roger Horrocks, to capturing and preserving a vital
part of New Zealand’s political and cultural history.
The tapes – mainly VHS – will be assessed by Film Archive
staff so that a long-term preservation plan can be drawn up. This
will enable continued access to the material by Auckland University
staff and students while progressively transferring programmes to
master video for storage by the Archive. The agreement also includes
the sharing of catalogue information.
Ultimately, according to Archive Chief Executive Frank Stark and
Professor Horrocks, both institutions plan to combine their Auckland
activities in a single site.
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Wagner’s Dungeons and Dragons
This summer the Film Centre is engulfed by the epic sights and
sounds of Wagner’s The Ring.
In 1999 award winning animators, Alan Platt and Max Stewart, were
commissioned by Channel 4 (UK) to produce a 30-minute animated version
of Wagner’s Das Ring des Nibelungen. The aim of the
film was not only to introduce young people to a world of music
they might otherwise feel unable to enter, but, by abandoning the
vocals, show how clearly and excitingly music can tell a story.
Grownups with a passing interest in opera, terrified by the thought
of sixteen hours of dense German libretto, will appreciate the sentiment.
For the filmmakers, self-confessed "perfect Wagnerites",
this approach presented no problems. The music is the key to The
Ring’s great magic and allure, and has always been the
best known and most accessible part of the complete opera. By dropping
the voice parts and letting the orchestra and the pictures tell
the story the saga could be effectively condensed to only half an
hour.
Of all the great works in the operatic canon, The Ring
is perfectly suited to puppet animation. What better way to recreate
a world of gods and heroes, giants and dwarves, dragons and flying
horses!
Don’t think, though, that reducing the running time reduced
the work involved in bringing The Ring to the small screen. The
essential skill in crafting puppets for animation is not only to
have them so finely finished that they look good in close-up but
also to be robust enough to survive the hours of handling they endure
in the filmmaking. Leading puppet characters, like Siegfried, took
at least five weeks each to make. And as with all stop-frame animation
there is the painstakingly slow process of actual filming.
Stewart and Blenheim-born Platt returned to New Zealand from London
to make the film. The music was performed by the Auckland Philharmonia
and recorded by Concert FM in the Auckland Town Hall. Six days after
its first broadcast the film won the prestigious Prix de Bale.
The Ring exhibition features the original drawings and
sketches, sets and puppets used in the production and continuous
screenings of the completed film in the TV Lounge.
The Film Centre, November 2001 – February 2002
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News Clips
Sacile screening
As winner of the Haghefilm Award 2000, the newly restored print
of Rudall Hayward’s feature The Te Kooti Trail (1927)
screened at Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, the annual silent film
festival in Sacile, Italy. Pianist Tama Karena accompanied the film.
Monograph madness
In association with the screening the Film Archive published Rudall
Hayward’s ‘The Te Kooti Trail’ by Diane Pivac,
the second in its developing monograph series. Copies of this, along
with an earlier monograph A Work in Progress: Archiving Len
Lye by Sarah Davy, are available on request.
International Relations
Website Co-ordinator, Miranda Kaye, attended Computing Arts 2001
at the University of Sydney in September. Video Conservator, Jamie
Lean, presented a paper at the SPC/UNESCO regional meeting, Pacific
TV in the New Millennium, in Nadi in October. Chief Executive, Frank
Stark, attended the annual AMIA conference in Portland, Oregon in
November.
Travelling South
Bank of New Zealand Travelling Film Show 2001 took screenings to
ten Canterbury venues during September. Audience numbers reached
2000. Hugely popular was Cars to Carrington (ca1938) with
recorded commentary by local legend Tainui Robins.
Vaccess site
A sixth Vaccess site opened in Christchurch in November. The site
is hosted by Te Puna Toi (Performance Research Project), located
in the Arts Centre. The selection of videos include a strong focus
on performing arts material. Vaccess, a reference only facility,
is free and available during the opening hours of the host institution.
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