Ngati Filmmaker Remembered

Barry Barclay, New Zealand film director and the first Maori to direct a feature film has died, aged 63, in Rawene.  Barclay’s Ngati won best film at Italy’s Taormina Film Festival in 1987 and screened at the Cannes Film Festival. He also wrote and directed Te Rua, a fictional story about a group of Maori who set off for a Berlin museum to claim back  tribal carvings. New Zealand Film Commission chief executive Dr Ruth Harley said Barclay holds an honored place in New Zealand film. “His legacy will be not only in his films and creative work but also in his outstanding contribution to the development of New Zealand film though his support for developing filmmakers,” Harley said. Barclay was made a Member of the Order of New Zealand in the 2007 Queen’s Birthday Honours and was appointed one of New Zealand’s Artist Laureates in 2004, in recognition of his contributions to cinema. Barclay was of Ngati Apa descent and lived at Omapere in the Far North’s Hokianga district.

Barry Barclay: 12 May 1944 – 19 February 2008