John Feeney

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Two-time Academy Award nominee John Feeney (August 10, 1922 - December 6, 2006) was a director with the New Zealand National Film Unit, National Film Board of Canada (NFB) and in Egypt.

1 NFB
2 New Zealand National Film Unit
3 Egypt
4 Education and military service
5 External links

[edit] NFB

Feeney directed ten NFB productions 1954 to 1963, working most often with producer Tom Daly. Most of his NFB films focused on the Canadian Arctic and the Inuit.

In 1958, Feeney received his first nomination for an Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject for The Living Stone, about Inuit carving.[1]

In 1964, he was nominated again, for Eskimo Artist: Kenojuak (1963), a groundbreaking look at the work of Inuit graphic artist Kenojuak Ashevak.[2] Regarding the use of the term "Eskimo" in the title, Feeney wrote in 1993 that he had suggested using the now-accepted term "Inuit" in the film, but had been told that it would be confusing for non-Inuit audiences of the day.

Eskimo Artist: Kenojuak found new life again in 1992, when filmmaker Colin Low and Tony Ianzelo combined archival and contemporary footage of Kenojuak in Momentum, Canada’s film for Expo '92. [3]

[edit] New Zealand National Film Unit

His New Zealand film credits include Legend of the Wanganui River and Hot Earth.

[edit] Egypt

After Canada, he spend much of his life in Egypt, making films and photographing. His photography is collected in his book Photographing Egypt: Forty Years Behind the Lens, published by The American University in Cairo Press.

[edit] Education and military service

Educated at Victoria University of Wellington, Feeney served in the Royal New Zealand Navy from 1941 to 1946. He then served as a research assistant with the War History Branch of the Navy Department in Wellington until 1948.