Gaylene Preston

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Gaylene Preston is a noted film-maker with a particular interest in the documentary format. She lives and works in Wellington, New Zealand.

[edit] Biography

Gaylene Preston has been celebrated as one of New Zealand's leading filmmakers, having made some of the most enduring popular classics of New Zealand cinema.

Preston is a storyteller whose films have a distinctive flavour, that entertain while presenting serious subjects with humour and warmth. Her compassion and understanding of real life, real people, combined with her immense talent for portraying on film metaphoric stories has contributed to Gaylene’s peerless reputation as a distinct local voice.

In 2001, she was honoured by the New Zealand Arts Foundation, becoming New Zealand’s first Filmmaker Laureate.

Since her first film All The Way Up There, she has constantly returned to documentary; a highlight being the popular cinema documentary War Stories: Our Mothers Never Told Us. 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 films, Mr Wrong, Ruby and Rata, and the mini series Bread & Roses (with producer Robin Laing) have garnered multiple awards in New Zealand and abroad and become New Zealand classics.

Gaylene Preston is writer, director and producer of Perfect Strangers a darkly humorous, perverse tale about the overriding human need to love and be loved, starring Sam Neill and Rachael Blake. In accepting the award for Best Actress at Vladivostok Film Festival in 2004, Rachael Blake acknowledged the authenticity within the work and thanked Gaylene Preston for “…creating on set an invaluable, limitless arena of flexibility, trust and ease.”

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).

Preston has recently finished a second term as a member of the Board of New Zealand on Air (The NZ Broadcasting Commission) and was awarded the Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to filmmaking.

[edit] Filmography

Earthquake (2006) - Producer / Director

A documentary presenting eyewitness accounts of Napier earthquake, New Zealand's most devastating earthquake in modern times.

Lands Of Our Fathers – my African legacy (2004) - Executive Producer

Opening an old leather suitcase compels a New Zealand filmmaker to revisit her Rhodesian childhood, and reconcile herself with the effects of the colonial past

Perfect Strangers (2003) - Writer / Director / Producer

The dangerous deception of desire. A chilling romance.

Female Eye festival 2005 Toronto Best Film; Fantasporto Film Festival 2004 Portugal Best Actress Rachael Blake; Vladivostok Film Festival 2004 Best Actress Rachael Blake

Selected: Melbourne, London Montreal, Film Des Femmes Paris, Fantasporto ( in competition ), Stockholm, Seattle, Chicago, Fantasy Film Festivals Brussels ( in competition ), Germany, Hof, Shangahai, Vladivostok (in Competition), Cincinnati, Vancouver among others

Coffee, Tea or Me? (2002) - Producer

The surprising tale of the underestimated trollydolly.

Selected: NZ International Film Festival 2002, Sydney, Melbourne, Vancouver

Titless Wonders (2001) - Producer/Director

Emotional journeys after a breast cancer diagnosis.

NZ Media Peace Awards 2001 Winner Premier Award; Selected: NZ International Film Festival 2001; Keynote presentation World Breast Cancer Symposium 2002

Wahine Requiem (2001)

Semi-permanent cinema installation for the Museum of City and Sea.

Getting To Our Place (1999) - Producer/Co-Director

A fly-on-the-wall behind the scenes look at the remarkably bumpy road to Te Papa.

Selected NZ Film Festival 1999

Punitive Damage (1999) - Producer

The true story of a death in Timor and the power of a mother’s grief.

Munich Film Festival Awards Silver Medianet; Sydney Film Festival Awards Best Documentary 2nd place; Selected Critics Week Locarno International Documentary Festival

Survivor Stories (1998) - Producer/Director

The Hawkes Bay Earthquake of 1931 remembered. Semi-permanent cinema installation.

No Other Lips (1996) - Director/Co-Producer

A documentary portrait of Māori poet, Hone Tuwhare.

Selected NZ International Film Festival 1996

WAR STORIES Our Mothers Never Told Us (1995) - Producer/Director

Seven New Zealand women share stories of love and loss during the Second World War.

Best Film – NZ Film & TV Awards 1995; Most Popular Film – Sydney Film Festival 1995; Best Documentary – Sydney Film Festival 1995

Selected: Venice Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival 1996, AFI Assoc. Charity Screening, Los Angeles 1996, Toronto, Montreal, Seattle, Chicago, Los Angeles, London, Melbourne, Hong Kong, Gothenburg, Munich

Bread And Roses (1993) - Director/Co-writer/Associate Producer

A four-part mini-series for television based on the autobiography of Sonja Davies.

New Zealand Film & Television Awards 1994: Film: Best Performance in a Dramatic Role – Female, TV: Best Performance in a Dramatic Role – Female, TV: Best Supporting Performance – Male, TV: Best Design; Melbourne Film Festival – 3rd Popular Choice

Selected: New Zealand, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Seattle, London, Toronto, San Francisco among others

Ruby & Rata (1990) - Director/Co-Producer

An old lady, a would be rock singer and a delinquent child – with more in common than they realise. A comedy/drama

New Zealand Film & Television Awards: Best Editing, Best Film Score, Best Contribution to a Soundtrack, Best Male Performance; Winner - 3rd Place-Popular Choice, Best Feature Sydney & Melbourne Film Festivals; Gold Medal Award Giffoni Childrens Film Festival, Italy; Top 10 selection most popular, Toronto Film Festival

Selected: New Zealand, Sydney, Melbourne, Toronto, London, Milan, Seattle, Los Angeles, Hawaii and Palm Springs International Film Festivals

Kai Purakau The Story Teller (1987) - Producer/Director

A documentary for Thames Television (UK) on Booker Prize winning author Keri Hulme.

Selected: New Zealand International Film Festival

Mr Wrong, (The Dark Of The Night - USA) (1985) - Director/Producer/Co-writer

A genre bending thriller about a young woman who buys a haunted car. Based on a short story by Elizabeth Jane Howard.

New Zealand Film and & Television Awards Best Female Performance; 2eme Prix du Public Festival de Films de Femmes de Creteil 1986

Selected NZ, Seattle, Chicago, Melbourne and Munich Film Festivals

Patu (1983) - Co-ordinator

Merata Mita’s feature-length documentary about the protest against the Springbok tour of New Zealand (1981).

Making Utu (1982) - Producer Director

A documentary about the making of Geoff Murphy’s feature-film UTU, looking at the issues involved in exploring New Zealand’s racial past.

Hold Up (1981)- Director/Co-Producer

A deaf dress designer, a blind radio announcer and a spastic film critic witness the robbery of a cinema.

Australian Teachers of Media (1983). Best Overseas Film for under 12year-olds; Best Overseas Film. Rehabilitation Film Festival (New York 1983); First Prize – Dramatisation category – Rehabilitation International World Congress (Lisbon 1984)