Yvonne Mackay

As a director at Television New Zealand, Yvonne Mackay was at the helm of more than 100 hours of programming, including 50 episodes of the soap opera Close to Home, and iconic rural series Country Calendar.

In the mid 70s, Mackay co-founded Gibson Film Productions (now the Gibson Group) with Dave Gibson, one of New Zealand's longest-standing independent production companies. One of her first films there as director was a half-hour adaptation of Frank Sargeson's Old Man's Story.

At Gibson Group, Mackay began directing a run of programmes about and usually for children. The majority were dramas, but some were documentaries. They were rarely child's play to make: aside from the complications of directing younger actors, short film Blackhearted Barney Blackfoot (1980) required telling a story without any dialogue, while the sets for live action fantasy series Cuckoo Land were actually almost entirely miniatures. The NZ Sunday Times said of the result: "It's Lewis Carroll meets Elvis Costello. It's terrific." Mackay also directed one-off tales The Monster's Christmas (scripted by cartoonist Burton Silver) and the Alun Bollinger-shot Nearly No Christmas.

Aside from the above, Mackay has directed a broad range of material aimed at adults, from detective series (Duggan) to the offbeat Insiders Guide to Happiness, to docu-drama Clare (2000). Starring Robyn Malcolm in the title role, the tele-movie was based on Clare Matheson's book Fate Cries Enough, in which she relates her personal experience of the unfortunate experiment at National Women's Hospital.

Mackay made her feature debut with The Silent One (1984), the first New Zealand feature directed solely by a woman (1972's To Love a Māori is thought to have been co-directed by Ramai Hayward and husband Rudall). Based on Joy Cowley's myth-like novel, this tale of an outcast boy and his friendship with a white turtle was shot largely in Rarotonga. The film went on to win awards at children's film festivals in Germany, Italy and France, and became the first Kiwi feature to win theatrical screenings in China.

A second feature-length drama followed in in 1991. Tele-movie Undercover starred William Brandt as a rookie copy who goes undercover to investigate a heroin operation. The film scored a NZ Film and Television Award for Best Television Drama, plus another for Jennifer Ludlam's portrait of the ex-prostitute who Brandt's character becomes romantically involved with.

Mackay's children's series Cuckoo Land, scripted by internationally-renowned author Margaret Mahy, won a gold medal at the 1986 New York Film Festival. The impressive cast, including Grant Tilly and Jennifer Ludlam, worked entirely within a cramped studio in central Wellington. Cuckoo Land marked the beginning a happy collaboration with Mahy that has included tele-feature The Haunting of Barney Palmer (1986), mini-series thriller Typhon's People (1993), documentary A Tall, Long Faced Tale (2008) and fantasy series Kaitangata Twitch.

Mackay also directed episodes of Public Eye and awardwinning ensemble dramas The Insiders Guide to Happiness (2003-04) and The Insiders Guide to Love (2005).

Her documentary work includes producing and directing episodes of The New Migration (about talented young Māori returning home), directing doco Leo's Pride (about Sister Mary Leo) and co-directing STD doco Safer Sex.

For 2006 arts documentary Aspiring (shown as part of the Artsville series), she acted as sleuth as well as director: tracking down lost footage of a legendary 1949 trip up Mount Aspiring by poet James K Baxter, photographer Brian Brake, composer Douglas Lilburn and artist John Drawbridge.

In 2006 Mackay formed her own production company, Production Shed TV, under whose banner she has made a documentary about Justice Eddie Durie for Māori Television (Te Koha o Whaea Irihapeti), a second project involving Brian Brake (Painting with Light) and Margaret Mahy doco A Tall, Long-Faced Tale.

In 2009 Mackay collaborated again with Mahy on developing novel Kaitangata Twitch for television. Mackay directed all 13 episodes. The series debuted on Māori Television in May 2010, and was repeated the following year, with a cast that included George Henare, Charles Mesure, and 13-year-old Te Waimarie Kessell. The show has won or been nominated for a number of awards, including the highly-regarded Prix Jeunesse, and taking the top award at the long-running WorldFest in Houston.

Sources include
Yvonne Mackay
Productionshed.TV website. Accessed 30 January 2011
Sian Clement, 'KAITANGATA TWITCH wins scifi, fantasy awards' (Press Release). The Big Idea website. Loaded 25 June 2011. Accessed 18 July 2011
Michael Dean, 'What you see is what you get' (Review of Cuckoo Land) - New Zealand Sunday Times, 10 August 1986, Page 12