Film Retrospective
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GAYLENE PRESTONfilm retrospective Gaylene Preston has been making feature films and documentaries with a distinctive New Zealand flavour and a strong social message for more than 30 years. Join us to celebrate her work … ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Managing editor: Mary M. Wiles Co-ordinating editor : Bruce Harding This event was originally to have taken place at the Christchurch Art Gallery and was cancelled three times in Copy editor: Catherine Hurley the wake of each successive earthquake. It could not have got o! the starting blocks at Te Papa without the Photos: Courtesy of Gaylene Preston support of the following people: (unless stated) Mere Boynton (Team Te Papa) for graciously agreeing to host the Retrospective at Te Papa Tongarewa in the Artwork: Jane Blatchford adopted home city of Gaylene Preston Printer: Canterbury Educational Professor Jim Tully (Head, School of Humanities, UC) for his vision in supporting the funding of the proposal Printing Services and staying with it through all its permutations Professor Te Maire Tau, Director, Ngai Tahu Research Centre (UC) Dr Bruce Harding (Adjunct Professor, Ngai Tahu Research Centre) for co-ordinating the move to Te Papa; for the photographs of Keri Hulme and Graeme Tetley; and for his zealous assistance in the final stages of the project Dr Deborah Shepard and Dr Marian Evans for their scholarly contributions to this collection Catherine Hurley for her dedication and technical skill as our copyeditor With fond memories of Jane Blatchford for the layout and design of this catalogue Graeme Tetley, colleague and creative participant par excellence. Aileen O’Sullivan for serving as our liaison with the TVNZ Archives (Lower Hutt) 1942 – 2011 Peter Sugden (Research Consultant) at the New Zealand Television Archive (Avalon) X GP Dr Patricia Wallace and Moana Matthes, Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies (UC) Keri Hulme and Paul Sutorius, for producing such lively and honest testimonials about working with Gaylene Gaylene Preston herself, the inspiration of this homage, without whom… ISBN: 978-0-473-19907-4 Mary M. Wiles 1 GAYLENE PRESTON FILM RETROSPECTIVE Sponsored by Cinema Studies SATURDAY "" OCTOBER SUNDAY "# OCTOBER MONDAY "$ OCTOBER and The School of Humanities at the University of Canterbury EARTHQUAKE WAR STORIES OUR MOTHERS GAYLENE PRESTON MASTER A documentary account of the devastating NEVER TOLD US CLASS In association with Te Papa Napier earthquake of 1931. Seven New Zealand women – including Join Gaylene Preston for a discussion Tongarewa, The Museum of 11:00am / 44mins the director’s mother – discuss their about the film restoration and re- New Zealand. Fundraiser for Christchurch earthquake wartime experiences. mastering of her acclaimed mini-series Screenings will be followed by recovery 11:00am / 94mins / free Bread and Roses. Gold coin donation at the door 1:00pm a question and answer session HOME BY CHRISTMAS with the director. GETTING TO OUR PLACE A remarkable memoir of resilience, BREAD AND ROSES A fly-on-the-wall documentary about determination and love – based on the This moving epic tells the story of the lead up to the opening of Te Papa director’s interviews with her father. pioneering trade unionist, politician and Tongarewa, the Museum of New Zealand, 1:30pm / 95mins / free feminist Sonja Davies. in 1998. 2:00pm / 200mins 1:00pm / 72mins / free 'The Film Portrait of a New Zealand Fundraiser for the Sonja Davies Storyteller: Gaylene Preston’s Home by Peace Award KAI PURAKAU Christmas' Gold coin donation at the door A rare insight into the life of Booker Dr Mary M. Wiles, University of Canterbury Prize-winning author Keri Hulme. 3:30pm 3:00pm / 27mins / free ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION: LOVELY RITA – A PAINTER’S LIFE GAYLENE PRESTON AND GUESTS A documentary portrait of celebrated New Zealand artist Rita Angus. A round table discussion with Gaylene 4:00pm / 70mins / free Preston, Dr Bruce Harding, Dr Deborah Shepherd and guests, moderated by Mary M. Wiles. 4:00pm BOOK SIGNING Dr Deborah Shepard will sign copies of her recent book Her Life’s Work: Conversations with Five New Zealand Women, which features Gaylene Preston. 5:00pm 1 2 CONTENTS Introduction 4 Earthquake 5 Getting to Our Place 7 Lovely Rita – A Painter’s Life 8 Kai Purakau 9 From Keri Hulme 10 War Stories our Mothers Never Told Us 11 Home By Christmas 13 Bread And Roses 15 From Paul Sutorius 15 ‘A Gentle Voice in a Noisy Room’ – An Interview with New Zealand Filmmaker Gaylene Preston 17 Mary M. Wiles A Decent Sense of Outrage: Gaylene Preston – Film Director 23 Deborah Shepherd Agonistic Gender Psychodrama, Angstlust, and Sympathetic Insight in the Work of Gaylene Preston, Bricolage Cineaste and Documentarian. 26 Bruce Harding Select Filmography 30 Marian Evans 3 INTRODUCTION A pioneer in the world of New Zealand film, and early training in painting. Indeed, in and historical material in this retrospective Strangers, and the documentary short, Kai Gaylene Preston has produced a body of work those documentaries that focus on a singular exhibition of Preston’s work will help to Purakau. He stresses the importance of over the course of four decades that draws individual such as Lovely Rita, Preston draws facilitate the interrogation of documentary landscape in both Kai Purakau and Perfect on diverse traditions, from documentary on the tradition of film portraiture, reshaping form, the interplay of the personal story and Strangers, which were both filmed on the portraiture to American film genres, from oral it to suit her own distinctive, nationalist the political film, and the use of film as a director’s ‘home turf’ of the West Coast of the history to fairy tale and the fantastic. agenda. Her work in this vein can be traced means to create an oral history. South Island. This retrospective does not pretend to to the documentary short, Kai Purakau, Given the necessarily restrictive focus of Without dismissing the impact of her work provide a comprehensive assessment of the and later evolves into epic drama form in this retrospective, I have chosen to include in fiction, Harding concludes that Preston’s Preston oeuvre but rather features a selection Bread and Roses. These two films rework essays in the catalogue, specifically Deborah real strength as a filmmaker lies in her the portrait genre to showcase the lives and of Preston’s films, focusing exclusively on Shepard’s 'A Decent Sense of Outrage: documentaries, citing films such as Lovely stories of important New Zealand women – documentaries and biographical drama. Gaylene Preston – Film Director,' and Bruce Rita, Kai Purakau and her recent ‘faction’ (fact- Booker-prize winning author, Keri Hulme, and This idiosyncratic approach to the Preston Harding’s ‘Agonistic Gender Psychodrama, fiction) feature Home by Christmas. feminist politician, Sonja Davies. The next Angstlust, and Sympathetic Insight in the oeuvre may reflect my own desire as an I also have included an interview with section of the programme pairs War Stories Work of Gaylene Preston, Bricolage Cineaste American film scholar to come to grips with Preston that I conducted in 2010, “’A Quiet My Mother Never Told Me and Home By and Documentarian’, which address Preston’s what is peculiar to this Kiwi director and Voice in a Noisy Room’: An Interview with Christmas, two very di!erent films that each purely fictional work (notably Mr Wrong, Ruby distinguishes her from others working within Gaylene Preston,” which complements the bring to light New Zealanders’ experiences and Rata, and Perfect Strangers). Shepard’s the international film community – creative perspectives expressed in the two essays, of World War II. A documentary classic, War essay o!ers a warm and lively account of her use of the matrix of the family, the chronicling providing the director’s own perceptions on Stories provides consecutive portraits of relationship with Preston and an overview of distinctive people, places, and events – the profound influence of her family, her seven New Zealand women, including the of the director’s life and career. Shepard not within New Zealand, and the commitment early career path, her roots in documentary director’s own mother, Tui. Tui’s ‘war story’ only touches upon both fiction feature films to an indigenous and political focus. Gaylene filmmaking, her relationship with other New of a secret love a!air subsequently a!ords and documentaries, but also provides us with Preston is a national treasure: it is thus Zealand filmmakers, her work with actors, her Preston with the opportunity to explore the her own behind-the-scenes insight into what entirely fitting that she be feted at the methods of filming, the production history di!erences between the female and male makes the director tick – describing Preston’s Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa. of War Stories and Home by Christmas, and experience of the war in the companion work, experience in London, her start in film and her future plans. The medley of di!erent Our programme opens with four Home by Christmas, a film memoir culled video production, her interest in and empathy documentaries, Earthquake, Getting to from recorded interviews with her father, Ed, with her subjects, her inspiration, and the perspectives o!ered in this catalogue must be Our Place, Kai Purakau, and Lovely Rita, in which he recounts his memories of active often intensely personal nature of her work. understood as the mere opening gambit to a which prioritize the places and people of duty. The subtle disparities between female Harding’s essay looks at Preston’s work as larger conversation about the director’s work. New Zealand and the events that shaped and male voices revealed within the two a reflection of time and place, examining I am hopeful that both our retrospective them. While Earthquake and Getting to Our films form what the filmmaker calls, “a story influences and intertextual references in both exhibition and this publication will prompt Place document public events of national net,” that extends beyond the borders of the her fiction and documentary work.