Shirley Horrocks

Shirley Horrocks is one of New Zealand's leading social and arts documentary filmmakers. Her film portraits of photographer Marti Friedlander, writer Albert Wendt and artist Len Lye, among others, have won awards and at screened at festivals around the world.

Born in Auckland, her first career was as a high school English teacher in the 1970s, before she studied drama at Auckland University and switched to documentary making.

In addition to a Diploma in Drama, Horrocks holds a BA, MA (Honours), and MBA from the University of Auckland.

In 1984, she started her own production company, Point of View Productions, which she directs with husband Roger Horrocks. The company specialises in documentaries, drama, education and training programmes.

Since the mid eighties, Horrocks has produced and directed an impressive collection of documentaries that illuminate New Zealand art, culture and society.

She scored a hit in 1996 with Kiwiana, a congenial documentary about icons of 20th Century New Zealand life and culture. From gumboots and buzzy bees to jandals and pavlova, the series was a treat for all the senses and spawned a sequel of sorts in Kiwi As (1996).

Horrocks continued her lively exploration of New Zealand pop culture in The Real New Zealand (2000), about tourists who choose to stay off the beaten track, and Putting Our Town on the Map (1995), about the quirky things small towns do to get noticed.

Since 2000, Horrocks has specialised in a series of intimate documentary portraits of well-known New Zealand artists, musicians and writers. Many of these have screened as part of the Artsville series on TV One.

The most successful of these is Marti: The Passionate Eye, about photographer Marti Friedlander. The film won best documentary at the 2006 Jewish Eye - World Jewish Film Festival in Israel, and screened at festivals in Sydney, Rome, Berlin, Toronto and Washington.

In addition, Horrocks has directed Flip and Two Twisters about artist Len Lye; The New Oceania, about writer Albert Wendt, which screened on ABC Australia; and Early Days Yet, about poet Allen Curnow.

In 2007, she released two documentaries: The Comics Show, about the creative subculture of comic makers in New Zealand, and Questions for Mr Reynolds, about contemporary artist John Reynolds.

Shirley is married to Roger Horrocks, who founded the Department of Film, Television and Media Studies at Auckland University, and continues as Emeritus Professor.