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| Issue 58: Summer 2007-08 |
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We Got Our Eye On You
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Photo: Robert Catto. L-R: Larry Parr, Geoff Murphy, Ian Mune, Bernard Kearns, Don Brash |
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Often credited as the film which kick-started the feature film making industry in New Zealand, Sleeping Dogs premiered on 6 October 1977. To celebrate three decades since this landmark event, the Film Archive hosted a Special 30th anniversary screening for cast and crew on 6 October 2007. This evening was part of an anniversary season of features from the late 1970s and early 1980s entitled Sleepers Awake, curated by projects developer Diane Pivac.
An invitation went out for the original cast and crew members, now spread all around the country and overseas, and garnered a fantastic response. Marketing and Communications Coordinator Anna Dean said, “We talked to everyone from Iroquois pilots, to a member of the catering team now resident in Vancouver who recalled feeding the crew on fresh puha and the occasional stolen pumpkin! Farm owners shared stories of their properties being blasted by bombs and flame-throwers, and we heard an exceptional number of comments about the partying that went on at the time.”
The screening on 6 October was a reunion for many who travelled from as far away as the Gold Coast, Dunedin, Auckland, Wanaka and Gisborne. Ian Mune was the special guest of honour who delighted the audience with personal anecdotes from the film making process and read by torchlight from an email sent by director Roger Donaldson who could not attend the event. While Mune added his own comments here are some of Donaldson’s recollections on the creation of Sleeping Dogs:
“The 6th of October 1977 was a big night for the New Zealand film industry and it was the beginning of my film making career. The premiere of Sleeping Dogs was held at the Civic Theatre in Auckland and I was a nervous wreck I remember. My mum and dad came over from Australia for the event and I hired a Rolls Royce so we could arrive in style. The entranceway into the theatre was lined with security guards dressed in riot police outfits (the costumes from the film). It was, for me, an unforgettable night!
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Sleeping Dogs (1977) Original Poster (cropped) |
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The making of Sleeping Dogs was a memorable experience. One of the more amusing moments during the shooting of the film happened when Graham McLean, or ‘Super Fly’ as we knew him, made contact with the New Zealand Defence Forces requesting their cooperation. A man with a very poncey voice phoned me and I thought it was Ian Mune pretending to be the Wing Commander. However, it wasn’t Ian; it was the real deal. The Wing Commander informed me that the New Zealand Air Force would be prepared to supply Iroquois helicopters and Sky Hawk jets for the climactic sequence of the film; I couldn’t believe my ears.
I got to fly in one of the Sky Hawks to do the filming for what was to be the most exhilarating ride of my life. The Air Force had let it be known that they would be letting off a considerable amount of their year’s supply of rockets and I was very nervous not to cock anything up. I remember being strapped into the plane after being fitted out with a G-suit and instructed on how to operate the ejector seat if necessary. We flew out over the Coromandel Peninsula and all three planes went into a steep dive in tight formation; I got the camera rolling and yelled into my oxygen mask – ‘Let it rip!’
All around me the sky lit up with fire from the rockets and it was all over in a second. Then, I looked down at my camera. I was horrified! It appeared that I had set the aperture on the lens to the incorrect setting. ‘Holy shit!’ I thought; ‘I’ve missed the whole sequence.’ It was a big relief when the fi lm came back from the lab a few days later and everything was okay. I must have set everything correctly after all. And the shot was in the can.
I’m honoured that 30 years later this screening is being held. Making Sleeping Dogs was a great group effort from a very dedicated bunch of individuals; a great cast and crew; the accommodating financiers; and an incredibly supportive community. Making the film cut across political lines and New Zealand came together as a whole to make this film a reality.”
Thirty years on, Sleeping Dogs still packs a powerful punch. The public screening, held four days after the anniversary, was a near sell-out.
The Sleepers Awake season began with a recreation of the 1977 double bill screening of Wild Man and Dagg Day Afternoon, and included Roger Donaldson’s award-winning Smash Palace along with Geoff Murphy’s Goodbye Pork Pie and Utu – films that defined the 1980s in New Zealand. The season ended with Spooked and The World’s Fastest Indian – the most recent New Zealand films by both directors. Author and ex-Film Commission Marketing Manager, Lindsay Shelton, introduced the screening of The World’s Fastest Indian and gave a talk about the last thirty years of New Zealand feature film making.
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The medialaboratory
After two years of trials, based largely on the Chapman Archive project and the feature film digitisation programme, the Film Archive has established a full-scale transfer facility to begin the task of migrating the analog formats in its collection to digital access and storage. The new medialaboratory has been built with significant support from NZ on Air and is due to begin production before Christmas.
The 150m2 suite integrates the conservation of film and video material with a range of specialist equipment to transfer it to digital formats. It also includes a large-scale digital storage facility.
Key components in the laboratory include:
- film and tape cleaning and checking equipment;
- analog replay machinery for up to 20 original film and video formats – many of them no longer in commercial use;
- electronic correction devices to remove electronic errors and strengthen analog signals;
- digitising devices for real-time conversion;
- computer workstations;
- a multi-disk RAID server
- data tape decks for back-up
An efficient migration programme requires an average of four working hours of conservation, preparation, meta-data input, equipment set-up and maintenance for every hour of film-based content processed and two hours for video tape. The lengths of individual titles vary widely according to genre and format, but have been assessed at an average 15 minutes per title for film and 30 minutes for video.
On that basis, a full-time film and video technician could transfer around 1,750 titles in a working year. It would take him or her 62 years to digitise all of the current collection, followed by an estimated 18 further years to deal with the analog material subsequently acquired. In the face of such overwhelming arithmetic, the Archive has implemented a digitisation programme focusing on the highest priority holdings for access via the internet and other digital tools.
There is still fierce international debate about archival standards for digital video and the Film Archive is continuing to research and monitor the position. In the interim the best option is to hold material in uncompressed form. On that basis the proposed throughput will demand around 45 terabytes of primary storage each year, along with another 45 terabytes for backup and a further 15 terabytes for lower-resolution access versions.
At full capacity, the medialaboratory will be able to process simultaneously up to six different film and video formats. All the titles will be transferred to master digital video files, access material and long-term data back-up tape.
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From Bikers to Babies
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Video Still Daddy Doo, Bryce Galloway |
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This year the mediagallery has attracted both critical, national and art world attention with a consistently strong and engaging selection of live performance and exhibitions.
In July local artist Bryce Galloway’s meditation on fatherhood Daddy Doo, eschewed the usual family album. Absurd, comic and fuelled by a terror of domesticity the exhibition drew over a hundred visitors to the opening. Artist and Film Archive Cataloguer Kathy Dudding’s exhibition This is not a family album was an altogether different take on ‘The Family’. Juxtaposing dark poetic narratives against unrelated home movies the exhibition coincided with International Home Movie Day gaining the Film Archive international exposure. In celebration of this worldwide event Kathy presented a collection of her favourite home movies from the Film Archive’s collection and a paper on amateur experimental film.
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Photo: Sarah Munro. Local members of the Kiwibiker Network |
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Next up was Auckland artist Alex Monteith whose show 996cctv exposed and re-examined two iconic moments in cinema: the ‘classic chase scene’ and the ‘spinning wheel’ of a vehicle. At the opening event 30 Wellington Ducati enthusiasts rode laps of the block around the Film Archive forming a guard of honour fuelled by smoke, heat and noise. TV3’s Nightline captured the event. The exhibition presented an opportunity to screen Monteith’s magnificent Pause the Rising Tide, winner of the 2004 Surrealist Film Festival in Houston, USA.
Hey Student! was an exhibition of work from ten students enrolled in Massey University’s School of Fine Arts programme. The exhibition showed a dynamic range of art practice in the moving image, drawing on animation, live action and recycling of footage from the internet and television. The exhibition was assisted by Gemma Syme, a Massey intern to the gallery for 12 weeks. At the opening Syme’s art performance group Trimasterbate performed a sound/visual/performance piece that turned the café into a raucous hive of seething lycra and gaudy fluorescence. A collection of 1970s videos made by local artists was screened on campus by Gallery Manager Mark Williams, and these projects created new awareness of the Film Archive amongst Massey University staff and students. This relationship is set to continue with a variety of projects in 2008.
Eugene Hansen’s Insidious Pop 2 (drift) was a multimedia installation drawing on an avalanche of popular imagery from 20th century moving image sources. His exhibition featured two live performances with local artists who reworked and remixed imagery and sound live in the cinema to enthralled audiences.
Christchurch artist and internationally renowned experimental musician Greg Malcolm installed malcontent, an exhibition of video works dealing with his travels throughout Europe and his view of sound as the poor cousin of the art world. In the cinema Malcolm assembled a group to perform Any Suggestions? a ‘customer-based experimental music performance’. As with all of the exhibition related performances this year the show had a great audience response.
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Film Archive Around the Globe
In late September Director of Operations Jamie Lean attended the Committee meeting on International Non-Governmental Organisations in Paris. He was representing SEAPAVAA which receives funding from the Bangkok Office of UNESCO for many of its training activities.
“The two day meeting was quite an eye-opener with official voting delegates from over 20 countries and dozens of representatives from NGOs worldwide all seated in a large 1970’s modernist room at the UNESCO headquarters near the Eiffel Tower. There were presentations with special emphasis on issues surrounding Small Island Developing States (SIDS), which include economic development, the migration of youth to larger states, political stability and the influence of larger powers. Dominating all facets of discussion were concerns over global climate change and the dramatic effects it is having upon SIDS.”
From 25 – 28 September, Film Collection Developer Geoff Rogers, attended the 2007 AMIA (Association of Moving Image Archivists) Conference in Rochester, New York. The conference was co-hosted by George Eastman House and Eastman Kodak where Geoff was able to attend sessions and events including: Kodak Film & Digital Imaging Technology Workshop, Eastman Kodak Plant Tour, Kodak’s Continued Support for Archival Media, Evolving Rituals: Home Movie Day at Five and Documentary Outtakes: Challenges for Acquiring, Processing and Providing Access. Geoff returned full of enthusiasm and the most up-to-date knowledge in his field.
From 22-25 November Registrar Virginia Callanan attended a conference of the AEI, European Association of Amateur Film, held at the Cinematheque des Pays de Savoie, France. While there she presented Tainui Robins’ film Cars to Carrington of early Model T Fords driving around Arthur’s Pass, at the members’ screening night.
During October and November Exhibitions Manager Mark Williams presented 12 screenings of New Zealand experimental film and video at six venues in North America. Programmes included Free Radical: The Films of Len Lye, Scratching the Surface (a collection of recent New Zealand experimental animation), Films in Real Time (post-object artists using video and film to document performance events in the 1970s) and Explosions into Colour: New Zealand Experimental Film 1980-84 (a group of films mixing psychodramatics with issues of race, politics and industrial culture). The tour continues until mid December 2007. Screenings in New York warranted mention in The New York Times while contacts and links were established with institutions in Los Angeles, San Francisco as well as the East Coast.
On Friday 5 October the Passchendaele Museum at Zonnebeke (Flanders) hosted a screening of On the Road to Passchendaele, a selection of films from our World War One collection. Dr Chris Pugsley introduced the screening, co-curated by mediaplex Manager Steve Russell, which was part of the commemorations for the 90th Anniversary of the 1917 Passchendaele battles. From 9-18 October Steve visited ECPAD (Etablissement de Communication et de Production Audiovisuelle de la Défense), La Cinematheque Francaise, Gaumont Pathé Archives and INA (Institut National de l’Audiovisuel) in Paris with the aim of discovering “lost” New Zealand film fragments held overseas.
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Capacity Audiences for Canterbury Film Show
Cantabrians turned out in force for Canterbury Life 1910 – 1965, seven film shows held around the region in November. Technician Johnny Morris and i packed the big screen, digital projector and sound gear in venues in Christchurch city, Sumner, Oxford, Tai Tapu, Springfield, Lyttelton and Akaroa. Many of the venues were full to bursting and in Lyttelton people even had to stand on the street looking in through the glass doors.
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Capacity audience at the Harbourlight Theatre, Lyttelton. Photo: Johnny Morris |
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The compilation of fourteen short films began with the cinema trailer, God Save the Queen and traversed across decades of Canterbury life with films of official events, work place gatherings, home movies, promotional films and the runaway hit Cars to Carrington made by Tainui Robins of the Canterbury Mountaineering Club in the late 1930s. Nothing was too reckless for these young men who are seen careering around the roads (without brakes) in their Model T Fords and taking their Dodge truck cross-country over the Waimakariri River bed. On more than one occasion I heard children exclaiming in amazement – “What do those men think they’re doing?”
We received a fantastic response to the programme which rewarded all the hard work. The musicians who provided musical accompaniment, Chris Archer and Danielle Wood, were exceptional and added to people’s enjoyment of the silent films.
In December Outreach programmes are taking place in Putaruru, looking at the history of South Waikato, and a special Christmas show at Paekakariki on 19 December, featuring home movies with a festive theme.
— Jane Paul, Outreach Services Manager
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The Magma Short Film Festival
The Magma Short Film Festival is held in Rotorua every year and features short film, documentaries, screen-writing workshops and awards ceremonies. This year a special programme was put together for the Te Arawa Film Day featuring archival footage from the area.
Te Arawa are represented in the largest collection of early footage in the Archive’s Taonga Maori Collection. This is due to the huge interest in the physical nature of the thermal area which attracted many amateur and professional film makers from all over the globe. Notably, the earliest surviving film footage of Mäori was shot at the Rotorua racecourse in 1901. In this fragmentary record iwi from all over the country gathered to greet the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York. The film includes images of many rangatira including Te Keepa Te Rangipuawhe, Mita Taupopoki, Guide Sophia (one of the few survivors of the Tarawera eruption of 1886), and Makereti (Maggie) Papakura. The screening programme included silent and sound titles filmed between 1901 and the 1950s.
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Te Atairangikahu: The Soaring Hawk of the Dawn
An exhibition dedicated to Te Atairangikahu opened at Waikato Museum on 8 December 2007. It is an exceptional exhibition of photographs taken by Waikato Times Chief Photographer, Peter Drury, of the Tangi for Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikahu, who passed away on 15 August 2006. Te Arikinui was a Queen and leader, loved by her community and respected internationally for her wisdom and vision. Following 12 months of mourning the exhibition captures the grief and loss of a nation. As a contribution to this exhibition the Film Archive curated several screening programmes. A programme for Kohanga Reo and primary aged children includes titles from Fred O’Neill’s collection of claymation. Several educational segments from the landmark 1970’s Tangata Whenua series were included for secondary schools. A general public screening programme of Waikato taonga features Mana Waka, Tahere Tikitiki – The Making of a Maori Canoe and The Spirits and the Time Will Teach. Screenings have been scheduled throughout the exhibition which runs until May 2008.
— Himiona Grace, Poutakawaenga
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Final Credit: Ron Ritchie
Ron Ritchie 15/10/1924 – 24/10/2007
Ron Ritchie’s commitment to film culture began in the 1940s when he was an early committee member of the newly-formed Wellington Film Society and the New Zealand Federation of Film Societies. This began an involvement which continued for more than four decades, in the roles of Treasurer, President and Secretary.
Ritchie represented the film society movement at the 1980 planning meetings which established the Film Archive, and followed on as the Film Societies’ representative and a founding member of the Archive Board. He continued as a most active and thorough Trustee until 1999 after which time he continued to serve as a Convocation member. Ritchie also served as the Film Archive’s first Treasurer.
Ron was a founding member of the Friends of the Film Archive, serving several terms as Chairperson and Treasurer. His generous contribution and support was recognised by the awarding of a Life Membership to the Friends in 2007. And as part of the Archive’s 25th Anniversary celebrations in 2006, Ron was named an inaugural recipient of a Taiki Ngapara award presented by the Honourable Mahara Okeroa, Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage.
It was over twenty years ago as a fresh-faced committee member with the Wellington Film Society that I first met Ron. I was immediately struck by his gentlemanly and engaging manner. Over the intervening years, whether first when working for the Federation of Film Societies and more latterly for the Film Archive I have valued Ron’s support and friendship on both a personal and professional level. I will never forget the discrete delivery of a carefully chosen bottle of red wine around Christmas time or at the completion of a particularly gruelling Film Festival season.
There were any number of qualities to admire in Ron: a lovely sense of humour, a rare generosity of spirit and liberalism, his quiet attention to the minutiae of accounting practice and committee protocol, both of which he was a master. All these and more will be sadly missed.
— Steve Russell, mediaplex Manager
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Auckland Roundup
In July the Auckland Office contributed to the inaugural Auckland International Film Festival Lounge at the Civic Theatre’s Winter Garden. This initiative created a space for film makers and enthusiasts to share their experiences and opinions about film. The Film Archive set up a temporary audio visual reference library of 20 titles which the public could view, as well as search the Film Archive database and website.
Once again we participated in the annual Auckland Heritage Festival, which ran for an extended period from 15 – 30 September. The Auckland office curated three separate programmes and held a total of 16 screenings in the Festival. Programmes included Auckland: City of Sails, an exploration of Aucklanders’ love of all things nautical, and Auckland in the 1950s, which screened over two weekends at the Auckland Art Gallery. William Green accompanied the silent programme on piano.
The third weekend of the Festival was taken up with The Additional Touch, a fashion accessories programme screening at the beautiful historic home Highwic. The Additional Touch also screened in three shopfronts along Broadway in Newmarket. We were delighted to contribute to the festival which celebrates Auckland’s unique cultural heritage.
We will be rounding off a successful year with a function on 5 December to mark the opening of a new exhibition This Serene Machine by Auckland artists Richard Frater and Martyn Reynolds. The ASB Community Trust will be officially acknowledged at this event for their generous support, which has enabled our library and office expansion and essential equipment upgrade.
The Auckland Office will be closed to the public over January and will reopen on Monday 4 February.
— Siobhan Garret, Auckland Operations Co-ordinator
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News Clips
Comings and goings
The Film Archive welcomes Amelia Harris to the newly created role of Programmer, Auckland Operations, new Research Librarian Kiri Griffin and Collections Officer Don Roa. Hope Tioro has also joined the Wellington staff as Administration Assistant. We farewelled Monika Ahuriri who was Kaiwhakahu, Developer – Taonga Maori Collection.
Book Release
A History of The New Zealand Fiction Feature Film by Bruce Babington has just been released. Published by Manchester University Press the book is described as “the only comprehensive account of the New Zealand feature film from its beginnings to the present.” Bruce Babington is Reader in Film Studies at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and this publication is essential reading for all students and followers of New Zealand cinema as well as those interested in the local post-colonial culture and its products.
Film Festival
Back in August the Film Archive operated a well-oiled International Film Festival programme over 17 days. There were 85 screenings, three panel discussions, 23 sell-outs and 5,948 bums on cinema seats. Edith Collier: A Light Among Shadows was brought back after the festival for lunch and evening sessions and proved very popular.
New Home
Regular visitors to the Film Archive website will have noticed some changes recently. Our friends at Chrometoaster have designed a new homepage for us with more improvements to follow.
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