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GarthMaxwell

  • Director
  • Writer
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Long conscious that New Zealand is made up of many minorities, "all with something to say", Garth Maxwell has brought his distinctive sensibility to gay love story Beyond Gravity, two features (the dark and offbeat Jack Be Nimble, and relationship drama When Love Comes), and chalk and cheese TV series Rude Awakenings.

Biography

Garth Maxwell got his first taste of professional filmmaking on 1984 feature Other Halves. After waiting at Auckland Airport for the latest footage to arrive from a lab in Sydney, he would hurry to synch up pictures and sound for the waiting film crew. Sometimes the rush was so desperate, there was blood running down the edge of the film. The explosion in local screen production in thie 1980s provided many opportunities for Maxwell to "saturate" himself in filmmaking — including working 20 hour days on the soundtrack of Came a Hot Friday, and helping edit Peter Wells and Stewart Main's pioneering AIDS drama A Death in the Family.

Screenography

Tricky Business
2012 Director Television
SLiDE
2011 Director Television
Rescue Special Ops
2009 - 2011 Director Series
Legend of the Seeker
2008 - 2010 Director Series
The Strip (Australian series)
2008 Director Series

Awards

1999 Verzaubert Gay and Lesbian Film Festival (Germany)
Nominated for Best Film: When Love Comes

1994 Fantasporto Festival (Portugal)
Best Screenplay: for Jack Be Nimble
Nominated for Best Film: Jack Be Nimble

“The idea of one New Zealand is a complete myth. There are many New Zealands within New Zealand, and when we start celebrating our differences we’ll start to realise what we can do together.”

— Garth Maxwell in an interview with The NZ Herald, in 1988

Related images

Jack_Be_Nimble_Poster_2.jpeg
An image created in 2022 to promote the release of the restored version of Garth Maxwell movie Jack Be Nimble.
Image courtesy of Altered Innocence
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A publicity photo of Jack Be Nimble stars Alexis Arquette and Sarah Smuts-Kennedy. Said director Garth Maxwell: "Sarah had this massive black volume of hair which we used in many ways visually. Hair was a real theme." (The NZ Herald, 22 May 2014)
Photo by Pierre Vinet
Jack_Be_Nimble_Poster_1.png
An image of actors Alexis Arquette and Sarah Smuts-Kennedy, created in 2022 for the Blu-Ray release of Jack Be Nimble. Graphic art by Aaron Needham.
Image courtesy of Altered Innocence
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