Bryan Bruce

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Bryan Bruce (born 1948) is a New Zealand documentary maker and author. [1]

Contents

Early life

Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Bryan Bruce emigrated with his family to New Zealand in 1956.  He grew up in Christchurch and attended the University of Canterbury, where he graduated with an M.A. in Sociology and Philosophy. Bruce earned a Diploma in Teaching from Christchurch Teachers' College and taught for ten years.

Career

He was a professional musician for 20 years before he took up a career as a documentary maker. While moonlighting as a bar pianist, a chance meeting with Dunedin Producer, Ross Johnson, led him to hosting and writing scripts for the TV series The Late Late Show in 1982. [2]   Presenter Ian Johnstone, accepted Bruce's proposal for We’re Only Human, a pop-psychology program which ran for two successful seasons on TV2, followed by Just Testing.   In the mid to late 1980s, TVNZ’s documentary department dissolved, but launched Bruce's career as an independent filmmaker.  He partnered with New Zealand’s Department of Health to write and present Safer Sex, an educational documentary dealing with sex in New Zealand in the age of AIDS.   He then decided to follow New Zealand yachtsman Peter Blake as he competed and won the 1989 Whitbread Round the World race, and sold the documentary internationally.

Under his company banner, Red Sky Film & TV, Bryan Bruce is involved in most, if not all aspects of the documentary production, including writing, producing, directing, editing and often presenting.  Often, he travels around the world to see how other people and systems operate to help provide perspective on the documentary topic.

Bruce's feature-length documentaries cover diverse topics, from natural history, biography, psychology, sociology, social justice, mental health and crime.   Over his career, Bruce has written, produced and/or directed 30+ documentaries and docudramas. In addition to many one-off documentaries, Bruce also wrote, produced and directed the real crime show series, The Investigator [3] that debuted on TVNZ1 and CBS Reality in 2007.  The second series in 2009 won a Qantas Award for Bruce’s directing, and sold to a number of overseas channels. [4]

To help make many of his documentaries freely available to the public, Bruce launched a Substack in April 2024. [5]

Publications

Bruce's published non-fiction works include the following:

Awards

Source: [6]

Controversies

Some of Bryan Bruce's documentaries have been controversial, and garnered media attention particularly in New Zealand.

Inside Child Poverty, which exposed the plight of children living in New Zealand's poorest homes on the eve of the 2011 election, contributed to the establishment of a Ministry for Children, The Children's Act and the setting of Child Poverty Reduction Targets. [15]

Another controversial documentary was Bryan Bruce's award winning Jesus: The Cold Case, which looked at the roots of antisemitism. TVNZ was initially reluctant to release the 90 minute documentary, [16] and after doing so, Bruce received criticism from some reviewers and members of the fundamentalist Christian community. In spite of this, it won the NZ AFTA for Best Documentary and was a Silver and Bronze Medal Winner in the Religion and History categories at The New York Festivals Television and Film Awards in 2011. [17]

Documentaries

A number of Bruce's documentaries are lodged at The New Zealand Film Archive [18] and can be viewed on Substack. [19]

Filmography

Documentaries

Source: [20]

Documentary Series

Source: [20]

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References

  1. ↑ Screen, NZ On. "Bryan Bruce | NZ On Screen". www.nzonscreen.com. Retrieved 25 March 2024.
  2. ↑ "THE LATE LATE SHOW - KATHERINE MANSFIELD". www.ngataonga.org.nz. Retrieved 25 March 2024.
  3. ↑ The Investigator (Crime), Bryan Bruce, Macgregor Cameron, Jessica Aaltonen, Red Sky Film and Television, retrieved 25 March 2024{{citation}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  4. ↑ "Stuff". stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 25 March 2024.
  5. ↑ Bruce, Bryan. "Bryan Bruce Investigates | Substack". bryanbruce.substack.com. Retrieved 17 April 2024.
  6. ↑ Screen, NZ On. "Bryan Bruce | NZ On Screen". www.nzonscreen.com. Retrieved 9 December 2023.
  7. ↑ "Winners Gallery - New York Festivals". tvfilm.newyorkfestivals.com. Retrieved 17 April 2024.
  8. ↑ "Winners Gallery - New York Festivals". tvfilm.newyorkfestivals.com. Retrieved 26 March 2024.
  9. ↑ "NZTVA FINALISTS 2023". NZTVA 2023. Retrieved 26 March 2024.
  10. ↑ "New York International Film and TV Festival (2015)". IMDb. Retrieved 26 March 2024.
  11. ↑ Mediaworks (10 April 2014). ""'Mind the Gap' Doco Wins Gold at New York Festivals | Scoop News"". Scoop. Retrieved 25 March 2024.
  12. ↑ "Jesus The Cold Case". afta.co.nz. Archived from the original on 20 December 2011. Retrieved 20 January 2012.
  13. ↑ "2002 Winners - TV Guide NZ Television Awards". www.lonely.geek.nz. Retrieved 5 December 2023.
  14. ↑ "1997 Winners - TV Guide Television Awards". www.lonely.geek.nz. Retrieved 5 December 2023.
  15. ↑ "Strong reaction to damning TV child poverty doco". NZ Herald. 5 December 2023. Retrieved 5 December 2023.
  16. ↑ PEPPERELL, SUSAN (17 April 2011). "TVNZ sits on controversial Jesus doco". Stuff. Retrieved 9 December 2023.
  17. ↑ http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv/4897546/TVNZ-sits-on-controversial-Jesus-doco For one of numerous examples of critique: http://www.beretta-online.com/wordpress/2011/jesus-the-cold-case/ Archived 9 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine http://tvnz.co.nz/close-up/jesus-christ-ultimate-cold-case-3446019
  18. ↑ "National Library of New Zealand search: Bryan Bruce". natlib.govt.nz. Retrieved 17 April 2024.
  19. ↑ Bruce, Bryan. "Bryan Bruce Investigates | Substack". bryanbruce.substack.com. Retrieved 17 April 2024.
  20. 1 2 Screen, NZ On. "Bryan Bruce | NZ On Screen". www.nzonscreen.com. Retrieved 25 April 2023.
  21. ↑ "YOU'RE SOAKING IN IT!". www.ngataonga.org.nz. Retrieved 10 December 2023.
  22. ↑ Screen, NZ On. "Ruud Kleinpaste: The Bug Man... | NZ On Screen". www.nzonscreen.com. Retrieved 10 December 2023.
  23. ↑ "A QUESTION OF JUSTICE". www.ngataonga.org.nz. Retrieved 10 December 2023.
  24. ↑ Screen, NZ On. "Credits | What's Your Verdict - Mark Lundy | Television | NZ On Screen". www.nzonscreen.com. Retrieved 5 December 2023.
  25. ↑ "'Why Robin is innocent of murder'". NZ Herald. 26 March 2024. Retrieved 25 March 2024.
  26. ↑ "CHILD POVERTY. A SPECIAL REPORT". www.ngataonga.org.nz. Retrieved 5 December 2023.
  27. ↑ "Major Gong for Maker of Controversial Jesus Documentary". infonews.co.nz. Retrieved 5 December 2023.
  28. ↑ Smithies, Grant (24 August 2013). "Mind the Gap: Why most of us are poor". Stuff. Retrieved 5 December 2023.
  29. ↑ BELFIELD, JAMES (18 May 2016). "World Class: Bryan Bruce doco investigates New Zealand schools and how to fix them". Stuff. Retrieved 5 December 2023.
  30. ↑ HAWKES, COLLEEN (11 September 2017). "'Who owns New Zealand now?' New doco tackles our housing crisis". Stuff. Retrieved 5 December 2023.
  31. ↑ Nealon, Sarah (16 November 2022). "Inside Child Poverty Revisited: Bryan Bruce's sequel documentary". Stuff. Retrieved 5 December 2023.
  32. ↑ Croot, James (2 September 2023). "The Food Crisis: The urgent, timely documentary every Kiwi voter should watch". Stuff. Retrieved 5 December 2023.
  33. ↑ TELEVIEW, Jane Bowron- (3 June 2011). "Slick investigator sheds light on case". Stuff. Retrieved 9 December 2023.
  34. ↑ "TV preview: A Sexual History of New Zealand". NZ Herald. 9 December 2023. Retrieved 9 December 2023.
  35. ↑ Croot, James (13 October 2022). "A Question of Justice: Don't expect answers from Prime's fascinating, but flawed legal series". Stuff. Retrieved 9 December 2023.
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