ScreenTalk

Sam Pillsbury is a self-described American-Kiwi who has made films in both New Zealand and the US. He began his prolific career at the National Film Unit directing the notable documentaries Ralph Hotere and Men and Supermen. In 1975 he directed the award-winning Birth with R.D. Laing, which became a teaching aid in hospitals around the world. Pillsbury’s first feature film was The Scarecrow starring John Carradine, which was the first New Zealand film to be invited to the Cannes Film Festival.

Pillsbury co-wrote the script for The Quiet Earth, but “fired himself” from the director role on the movie. His next major film was Starlight Hotel which was received well overseas but flopped in New Zealand. Pillsbury has directed a number of American TV movies and feature films including Free Willy 3 and Endless Bummer. His most recent Kiwi film was Crooked Earth starring Temuera Morrison.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Pillsbury talks about:

• How his documentary on Ralph Hotere changed the way art films were made
• The fun, chaos and deprivation of making Goodbye Pork Pie
• Mixing necrophilia into a children’s film on The Scarecrow
• Making breakfast for screen legend John Carradine
• Thinking The Quiet Earth was a dog but then watching it go on to commercial success
• The disappointing reaction to Starlight Hotel in New Zealand
• Getting great reviews in America and negative ones in New Zealand for Crooked Earth
• Feeling frustrated by the process of making movies in Hollywood
• How funders in New Zealand need to talk to directors rather than producers

This video is available on YouTube to embed and distribute via a Creative Commons licence.

Credits: Interview, Camera & Editing – Andrew Whiteside

Kiwi acting icon Sam Neill (The Piano, Jurassic Park) talks to NZ On Screen. Neill recalls the time in his twenties when he apprenticed as a director at the National Film Unit (“about a hundred thousand years ago”) after being inspired to join by his university mate John Laing. He reflects on the unofficial film school it provided:

• there was an attitude of making “one for them – the post office, railways or banana company – and one for yourself”.
• the challenge of getting through personal projects under the auspices of tourism – the NFU was mandated with making promotional films for the tourism dept. Neill, a skiing fan, remembers the challenges they faced shooting retro classic ‘ski ballet’ Flare atop The Southern Alps and Ruapehu.
• on how he’d do things differently with hindsight (“I’d cut them quicker!”)
• “there were one or two I quite liked”; he fondly remembers a doco on innovative NZ architect Ian Athfield: “‘Ath’ was fizzing with ideas … he was one of those outstanding New Zealand individuals.”
• on ditching pretensions to direct as his acting career took off. Neill muses that he hasn’t quite decided (between acting or directing) but remarks that “the acting seems to have taken precedence over the last thirty years or so …”

Neill offers a precis of his career, from debuting as a priest in Barry Barclay’s Ashes, which was seen by Ian Mune and Roger Donaldson, which led to him being cast as the lead in breakout feature Sleeping Dogs, which in turn saw him cast in Aussie director Gillian Armstrong’s My Brilliant Career and … the rest has been “a weird game of dominos …” through to his latest film: starring alongside screen legend Peter O’Toole and Bryan Brown in Toa Fraser-directed Dean Spanley.

Watch Neill’s NFU docos on NZ On Screen:
Flare – A Ski Trip || Architect Athfield || Red Mole on the Road || Surf Sail

This interview is available to embed and distribute on YouTube.

Credits: Direction and Interview – Clare O’Leary, Camera and Editing – Leo Guerchmann