CLASSIC: Kelly Johnson (left) and Tony Barry in Goodbye Pork Pie.
CLASSIC: Kelly Johnson (left) and Tony Barry in Goodbye Pork Pie.
FILM director Geoff Murphy will raise the curtains at a Kokomai Creative Festival screening of his classic Kiwi road-trip film Goodbye Pork Pie in Masterton on Sunday.
Murphy, 78, was a trumpeter who co-founded and performed in music and drama collective Blerta (Bruno Lawrence's Electric Revelation and Travelling Apparition), beforea shift to film-making that helped ignite a late-1970s New Zealand film industry renaissance.
He directed and co-wrote with Ian Mune the domestic 1981 hit Goodbye Pork Pie, which was the first Kiwi feature to score major box-office success at home. He also directed the critically acclaimed Utu, which is sometimes described as a "Maori Western", and The Quiet Earth, a science-fiction film that won international plaudits and cult status in the US.
His work as a director took him to Hollywood in the 1990s and also led, on his return home, to work as a second-unit director on the Peter Jackson trilogy, The Lord of the Rings.
Geoff Murphy: A Life on Film is his memoir that hits the shelves on Monday. He will answer audience questions about his career as a director, screenwriter, and sometime stuntman and actor at the festival screening of Goodbye Pork Pie at Regent 3 Cinema, and will be accompanied by Masterton book-shop owner David Hedley.
The film tracks the adventures of a trio - played by Bruno Lawrence, Tony Barry and Kelly Johnston - who travel from the top to the bottom of New Zealand, while living a line from the feature: "I'm taking this bloody car to Invercargill."
Murphy's memoir reveals the film was based on a true story about two travellers who had traded a jack and spare tyre to fuel their vehicle.
Murphy also admits to naming the feature after a little-known tune called Goodbye Pork Pie Hat, written as a memorial to sax player Lester Young by jazz giant Charles Mingus.
Murphy's book will be available at Hedley's Booksellers from Monday , and as a special combo of tickets and a copy of the book at the Kokomai Creative Festival screening of Goodbye Pork Pie, playing at Regent 3 Cinemas, Masterton, at 5.30pm on Sunday. To book tickets, call Regent 3 Cinemas 377-5479.
