Obituary: John O'Shea

Pioneer film-maker. Died aged 81

He was referred to variously as the father, grandfather, even the godfather of New Zealand film-making.

But John O'Shea was irritated by these descriptions, though they meant well, because he felt they implied he wasn't an active film-maker, when almost to his final days he had projects on the go, scripts to read, people to see.

Whatever the description, his was a pivotal place in an industry he cared passionately about, especially for the chance it gave him to hold up a mirror to images of a society many preferred were left unseen.

His Pacific Films studio in Kilbirnie, Wellington, was the dynamo, generating a huge outpouring of work, commercials, newsreels, training films, coverage of rugby tours, road-safety films and often groundbreaking documentaries.

But it was his feature films, beginning with Broken Barrier in 1952, made with his then partner Roger Mirams, that most defined his role in creating a New Zealand film industry.

Despite the successes it was always hard going financially. In 1992 the Film Commission chose O'Shea for its first lifetime achievement award.

He got a framed, illuminated citation along with a cheque for $50,000.

The money was a big bonus. A friend remembers him saying that while the cheque pleased him, it pleased his bank manager more.

He was raised in Wanganui, and after leaving school worked for the Public Trust as a law clerk, then moved to Victoria University to do a law degree.

From his student days he was a big film fan. He also wrote a lot, and had at least one short story published.

Part-way through his course he switched from law to history, earning an MA with honours and lecturing for a time before heading off for service as a medic in Italy and the Pacific during the Second World War.

The experiences stayed with him for life and found their way into his films. O'Shea saw New Zealanders close up, Maori and Pakeha together. It made him think about the way things were in New Zealand and the way they could be.

He was able to express this in Broken Barrier, a story of a Maori and Pakeha in love and a bold plea for racial tolerance - a controversial theme, and one many were not keen to confront at that time.

New Zealanders, whose movie diet was mainly escapist English and American flicks, were unused to seeing themselves on the screen, especially portrayed with such gritty realism.

Broken Barrier did reasonably at the book office, but there was a 12-year gap to his next feature, Runaway, about a young man on the run from the law, featuring cameo appearances by Barry Crump and Selwyn Muru.

Between times Pacific Films increased its output of everything else, including a major production on the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, and royal tours.

These paid the bills but, equally importantly, they offered some young New Zealanders a chance they had never had to learn the craft of film-making.

The Pacific Films tearoom was daily the venue for debate and argument with O'Shea promoting a lively, stimulating environment where success was measured in ideas, not seniority.

Don't Let it Get You, in 1966, a lighthearted comedy with music starring Howard Morrison and Kiri Te Kanawa, did well here and also made money in Australia.

There were only three New Zealand feature films in the three decades to the end of the 60s, all of them out of the Pacific stable.

Pacific seized a rare chance to display its professionalism in 1974, with its magnificent six-part documentary, Tangata Whenua, The People of the Land, by the country's first Maori director, Barry Barclay.

Tangata Whenua aired in prime time and is widely acknowledged to have provided a unique insight into the aspirations of Maori.

Other Pacific feature films included Pictures (1981), Leave All Fair (1985) and Te Rua (1991).

O'Shea had strong views on cultural issues, and while he expressed them in many of his films he was no grim polemicist.

He had a bubbling personality and a finely honed sense of humour. He was a fine scriptwriter and, according to a colleague, marvellously literate.

He had the intellect and people skills to have succeeded in any number of careers - most would have been better paying - but he never seriously contemplated getting out of films, not even when the financial stresses were at their most pressing.

Almost all the Pacific Films output is now housed in the New Zealand Film Archive in Wellington.

O'Shea was also a research historian (with the war history branch of Internal Affairs) and assistant film censor. He was a founding member of the NZ Film Commission and the Film Archive.

Next to making films, watching them was closest to John O'Shea's heart. He had been to every Wellington Film Festival. When this year's festival opens this weekend, he will be missed.

- NZPA