Barry Barclay
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Barry Barclay is a New Zealand film-maker, and writer of Maori (Ngati Apa) and Pakeha (European) descent. Barry was born in the Wairarapa district of New Zealand's North Island in 1944.
His early career in radio, then in film and television led to great recognition as a documentary maker in the 1970's and 80's. Barry's career with Pacific Films in Wellington included directing Tangata Whenua, a six part television documentary series that presented the language, culture and politics of New Zealand's Maori people to a mainstream prime-time audience for the first time. The series was made in collaboration with producer John O'Shea (Pacific Films) and historian Michael King.
After this success, Barry left New Zealand for a time to live in Europe. He returned to make The Neglected Miracle, a documentary on the legal and societal challenges presented by assertions of ownership of genetic material, especially seed stocks, and a documentary on the then Prime Minister of India,-Indira Gandhi.
After these documentary projects, Barry collaborated with the writer Tama (Tom) Poata on the feature film Ngati (Pacific Films 1987), which was very well received at several international film-festivals, and which attracted great critical acclaim:
1987 - Cannes Film Festival: Critics Week. Taormina Film Festival, Italy: Gold Charybdis Award, Best Film. New Zealand Music Awards: Best Soundtrack, Dalvanius. 1988 New Zealand Listener Film and Television Awards: Best Film, Best Original Screenplay, Best Male Actor - Wi Kuki Kaa, Best Female Actor - Judy McIntosh.
Barry's second feature film was Te Rua (Pacific Films 1991), concerns an Iwi's attempts to repatriate stolen carvings from a German museum back to their rightful place in Aotearoa. Te Rua was a German/New Zealand co-production, and is acknowledged as being a more complex, and possibly more compromised work than Ngati.
Since the 1990's, Barry has completed The Feathers of Peace- a documentary on the persecution of the Moriori people, and The Kaipara Affair, on the wide-ranging implications of dwindling fish populations in the Kaipara harbour.
In 2006 Barry published the book Mana Tuturu (Auckland University Press) which interrogates the concept of Indigenous intellectual property rights. He is presently engaged in a number of diverse projects.
[edit] Filmography
As Director.
1. The Feathers of Peace (2000)
2. Te Rua (1991)
... aka The Store House
3. Ngati (1987) 4. The Neglected Miracle (1985)
5. Aku Mahi Whatu Maori (1977)
... aka My Art of Maori Weaving (International: English title)
6. Ashes (1975)
7. Autumn Fires (1975)
8. Hunting Horns (1975)
9. Indira Gandhi (1975)
10. "Tangata Whenua" (1974) TV Series
11. The Town That Lost a Miracle (1972)
Also credited as Writer.
1. The Feathers of Peace (2000) (screenplay)
2. Te Rua (1991)
... aka The Store House
3. Aku Mahi Whatu Maori (1977)
... aka My Art of Maori Weaving (International: English title)
