Dame Gaylene Preston | |
|---|---|
 Preston in 2018 | |
| Born | Gaylene Mary Preston 1 June 1947 Greymouth, New Zealand |
| Occupation(s) | Film director, film producer |
| Known for | documentary films |
| Relatives | Chelsie Preston Crayford (daughter) Jan Preston (sister) |
Dame Gaylene Mary Preston DNZM (born 1 June 1947) is a New Zealand filmmaker with a particular interest in documentary films.
Born in Greymouth on 1 June 1947, Preston was educated at Colenso High School (now William Colenso College) in Napier. [1] She went on to study at the Ilam School of Fine Arts at the University of Canterbury from 1966 to 1968, and then the St Albans School of Fine Art in Hertfordshire, England, where she completed a Diploma of Art Therapy in 1974. [1]
Preston's sister is the pianist and songwriter Jan Preston. [2] She has one daughter, the actor Chelsie Preston Crayford, who was born in 1987. [1]
Preston's first film was All The Way Up There (1979). As a producer she has contributed to the award-winning feature documentaries Punitive Damage (1999) and Coffee, Tea or Me? (2001) and Lands of our Fathers (executive producer). Her feature film Home By Christmas was a dramatised oral history based on her father's memories of his wartime experiences, contrasted with her mother's perspective. [3] The music for the film was composed by her sister Jan Preston. [2]
Her other feature films include Mr Wrong , Ruby and Rata , and the mini series Bread & Roses (with producer Robin Laing). She was writer, director and producer of Perfect Strangers , a black comedy starring Sam Neill and Rachael Blake. [4] In 1982 Gaylene directed a documentary called Making Utu about the making of Geoff Murphy's iconic feature Utu. [5]
Preston chaired the Academy of Film and Television Arts (1997–99) and was a member of the board of the NZ Film Commission (1979–85) as well as chair of the Film Innovation Fund (1981–85).[ citation needed ] [6] She has been a member of the Board of New Zealand On Air (The NZ Broadcasting Commission), [7] and in 2001 she was the first filmmaker to be made a Laureate by the New Zealand Arts Foundation, recognising her contribution to New Zealand film and television. [8]
In the 2002 New Year Honours, Preston was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to film making, [9] and in 2016, she received the New Zealand Women of Influence Award for Arts and Culture in recognition of her work on New Zealand-focused films and documentaries. [7]
In May 2011 she publicly protested plans for Wellington Airport to erect a Wellywood sign on the hill beside the Miramar Cutting, the highest-profile industry opponent of this initiative. [10]
Preston was awarded the Lia Award at the Stranger with my Face film festival in Tasmania in 2017. The award recognises an influential and innovative figure in the field of genre storytelling. At the festival they screened Preston's films Mr. Wrong and Perfect Strangers, which were reviewed in depth by Lauren Carroll Harris for RealTime. [11]
She wrote, directed and produced Hope and Wire (2014) a drama mini series about the aftermath of the 2010/2011 Christchurch earthquakes. [5]
Preston's most recent documentary feature film My Year with Helen (2017) premiered at the Athena Film Festival in February 2018. [12]
In the 2019 New Year Honours, Preston was appointed a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to film. [13]
John Dempsey O'Shea was a New Zealand independent filmmaker; he was a director, producer, writer and actor. He produced the only three feature films that were made in New Zealand between 1940 and 1970.
Perfect Strangers is a 2003 New Zealand film directed by Gaylene Preston and starring Sam Neill and Rachael Blake.
Cinema of Unease: A Personal Journey by Sam Neill is a documentary about the history of New Zealand cinema written by Sam Neill and co-directed by Neill and Judy Rymer. The film was released in 1995, and was New Zealand's contribution to the British Film Institute's Century of Cinema series. The title refers to the dark and brooding nature of many of New Zealand's most notable films, which Neill considers a reflection of the nation's struggle to find, or form, its own identity. The film screened in the 1995 Cannes Film Festival, and won Best Documentary in the 1996 TV Guide Film and Television Awards of New Zealand.
Leanne Pooley ONZM is a Canadian filmmaker based in Auckland, New Zealand. Pooley was born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, she immigrated to New Zealand in the mid-1980s and began working in the New Zealand television and film industry before moving to England where she worked for many of the world's top broadcasters. She returned to New Zealand in 1997 and started the production company Spacific Films. Her career spans more than 25 years and she has won numerous international awards. Leanne Pooley was made a New Zealand Arts Laureate in 2011 and an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the New Year's Honours List 2017. She is a member of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Robyn Jane Malcolm is a New Zealand actress, who first gained recognition for her role as nurse Ellen Crozier on the soap opera Shortland Street. She is best known for playing Cheryl West, matriarch to a sometimes criminal working-class family, in the television series Outrageous Fortune. She has also worked in Australia, including roles in the TV series Rake and Upper Middle Bogan. She plays the lead role in the six-part 2023 NZ drama After the Party.
Peter Northe Wells was a New Zealand writer, filmmaker, and historian. He was mainly known for his fiction, but also explored his interest in gay and historical themes in a number of expressive drama and documentary films from the 1980s onwards.
Dame Cheryll Beatrice Sotheran was a New Zealand museum professional. She was the founding chief executive of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa and was credited with the successful completion of the museum, considered the largest international museum project of the 1990s.
Merata Mita was a New Zealand filmmaker, producer, and writer, and a key figure in the growth of the Māori screen industry.
Riwia Brown is a New Zealand playwright. She is the screenwriter of the popular and award-winning New Zealand movie Once Were Warriors (1994). The Once Were Warriors screenplay, adapted from the book of the same name by Alan Duff, gained Brown the Best Screenplay award at the 1994 New Zealand Film and TV Awards. Brown has written for theatre, television and films.
Dame Miranda Catherine Millais Harcourt is a New Zealand actress and acting coach.
Diggeress Rangituatahi Te Kanawa was a New Zealand Māori tohunga raranga of Ngāti Maniapoto and Ngāti Kinohaku descent. At the time of her death she was regarded as New Zealand's most renowned weaver.
Shirley Yeta Horrocks is a New Zealand documentary filmmaker, specialising in social and art topics. She was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to documentary filmmaking, in the 2019 New Year Honours. The citation notes that "Horrocks is a leader in documentary films on the arts in New Zealand and has directed and produced documentaries for 35 years".
Jan Preston is a pianist, composer and songwriter, known as Australasia's Queen of Boogie Piano due to her mastery of the 1930s boogie-woogie piano style. Originally classically trained, she has released over ten solo albums, often featuring her boogie-woogie piano playing.
Kate JasonSmith is a New Zealand actor, film producer, playwright, filmmaker, photographer, and businesswoman. Based in Wellington, she has studied and worked elsewhere, including Australia, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. A feminist, as a theatre and film practitioner, she has been most recognised throughout her career for her role in establishing and producing Hens' Teeth, a platform for dozens of Kiwi female actors, musicians, and comedians that became a staple of the New Zealand theatre and comedy scene between 1988 and 1996. Her short film, Xmas for Lou (1992), won the Best Drama – Television award in the New Zealand Film and Television Awards of 1994. From 2018 on, the one-woman show I'll Tell You This for Nothing: My Mother the War Hero has received national and international praise for both the play, which she wrote, and her performance. JasonSmith is a member of the New Zealand Society of Authors/Te Puni Kaituhi O Aotearoa.
Patu! is a 1983 New Zealand documentary film directed by Merata Mita about the controversial 1981 Springbok tour. It follows the inner workings of the campaign against the tour, and captures scenes of violent conflict between police and protesters. It is a significant work of activist and indigenous filmmaking, and of New Zealand filmmaking in general.
Shirley Frances Whitley Maddock was a New Zealand producer, television presenter, author and actress. After early work in theatre and radio, she became a pioneering figure in early New Zealand television. She produced and presented a number of award-winning documentaries, including New Zealand's first ever locally produced television documentary series, Islands of the Gulf (1964). Later in her career she wrote a number of non-fiction books about New Zealand's history and landscapes, worked as a book reviewer, and continued to make appearances on television and radio throughout the 1970s and 1980s.
Miriama McDowell is a New Zealand actor, director and playwright. She is a graduate of Toi Whakaari.
Elizabeth Anne Hakaraia is a New Zealand film producer and director.
War Stories Our Mothers Never Told Us is a 1995 New Zealand documentary film, directed by Gaylene Preston.
Catherine Madigan is a New Zealand film producer.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
