Ian John

Ian John has edited everything from pioneering Māori series Tangata Whenua to breakthrough New Zealand movies Sleeping Dogs and The Scarecrow. After adding directing and producing to his kitbag, he worked everywhere from the Himalayas to the Amazon. His subjects have ranged from tourism to the America’s Cup, and from sportspeople to medical documentaries.

Born in the Cotswold village of Painswick, John would make his first films while studying graphic design and still photography in Gloucester. At age 20 he began a six month trainee-editor programme at the BBC in London. He went on to cut current affairs, drama and documentary, and worked with David Attenborough and director Ken Russell. He also went on location to Yugoslavia to help marshal the footage for an adaptation of War and Peace.

In late 1971 John relocated to Wellington. It was Tony Williams who got him there. Williams was a director and editor at John O'Shea's company Pacific Films. Williams suggested getting in a senior editor to help ease a growing workload. He had met Ian John while living in London in the late 60s, when they worked on a show together at the BBC. Williams suggested that John would make a good addition.

As John Reid outlines in Whatever It Takes, his book on Pacific Films, O'Shea wrote a letter to John in England, outlining the setup. "We work nine to five Monday to Friday but find that films are rarely made that way so from time to time just work to get the job done — then go to a movie some afternoons when we want to."

John paid his own way to New Zealand, but the landing almost never was. As he recalls, "the turboprop Electra crabbed sideways to face a ferocious Wellington southerly, then a sudden wind gust forced the plane to abort and accelerate up over the airport buildings. We were badly shaken. But the second time around a big cheer announced our safe arrival."

John's first job at Pacific Films was an open brief to dazzle one of O'Shea's traditional corporate clients. "There was all this footage shot over several years, and I soon realised this was a test to see if I could impress." John says that O'Shea got "enormous pleasure finding talent and allowing them to blossom". The diet was diverse: John cut adverts and documentaries, although the definition of documentary was sometimes stretched. John and Tony Williams cut a number of innovative TV documentaries — including The Unbelievable Glory of the Human Voice, whose finale speeds through the history of rock music via 2000 photos, mockumentary Deciding, and Rally - Like Little Boys in a Man-sized Sport, which incorporated footage taken by 14 camera people.

John was on board for what was arguably Pacific's most groundbreaking production: Tangata Whenua. The six part documentary opened the doors of many Pākehā to the world of the Māori. Author John Reid describes the series as "the single largest local television production" to that date. Production began with what would become the first episode, The Spirits and the Times Will Teach, which explored people with moko. Director Barry Barclay wanted to avoid commentary — and judgement — and included extensive interviews in te reo, something unheard of at the time. When NZBC executive Michael Scott-Smith saw the result, he was wise enough not to ask for any changes.    

John was also starting to direct. He helmed documentaries about lawn bowling (The Fastest Greens in the World) and a submarine hunting exericise in the Hauraki Gulf, named after the captains of the competing aircraft  (Hemson Carpenter Ruming and Medcalf). In 1975, he left Pacific Films to go solo. He travelled to Nepal to direct Never Go Near Him, a documentary about an attempt to climb the north face of Mount Jannu, and The Valley of the Sacred Fire, about a UNESCO project to restore temples in Kathmandu.

John did a stint looking after commercials at Roger Donaldson's company Aardvark Films. Then John and ex Pacific staffer Craig McLeod set up Nimrod Film Productions. The timing was good: opportunities were growing for independent filmmakers. John got busy on varied gigs, from editing to directing documentaries, to cutting 100s of commercials and tourism films. The pair made two Eye of the Storm documentaries about Burma and Thailand. The pilots screened, but a planned series never eventuated.

Kiwi feature films were also starting to take off, after a long period when Pacific Films had been one of the only companies to make any. John was one of a number of ex-Pacific staff to work on breakthrough New Zealand feature Sleeping Dogs (1978).

John would cut another two feature films, and recut a third: coming of age tale The Scarecrow was based on the novel by Ronald Hugh Morrieson, while Katherine Mansfield movie Leave All Fair was shot in France by Pacific Films. Both features made their mark at overseas festivals. The Scarecrow was the first New Zealand film to win official selection at key global festival Cannes, while Leave All Fair played at 14 fests, and won awards for British actors John Gielgud and Jane Birkin. The final gig was an unusual one: a major re-edit of Geoff Murphy's ambitious 'Māori Western' Utu, aimed at winning more overseas sales.

From 1983 John and Gary Hannam ran a company called Pacific Tourism Promotions. In the mid 1980s John managed Air New Zealand's film library and directing several films about yachting, including one on Mew Zealand's first challenge for the America's Cup, and A Nation Afloat, which screened in cinemas alongside Footrot Flats. Later he would set up company Omnicron Productions.

In 1988, John produced Inquiry - Cervical Cancer, A Suitable Case for Treatment, which examined botched cancer treatments at National Women’s Hospital. He also produced two documentaries on traditional waka, directed by Pita Turei: Waka – The Awakening Dream and Kupe – Voyaging by the Stars. The first chronicled a major project to build and assemble waka to mark the 150th anniversary of the Treaty of Waitangi.

In 1990 he executive produced the first season of TV3's documentary slot Inside New Zealand. The following year he directed Sale of a Nation, which explored the controversial sale of state-owned enterprises under Rogernomics. Meanwhile Heartbreak Hotel – Life on the Ledge (1997) chronicled a radio contest in which people competed to see how long they could live on an Auckland billboard.

During his first two decades in New Zealand, John worked on 1000+ commercials (he also cut trailers for 20+ Kiwi features, including Smash Palace, Goodbye Pork Pie and Vigil). After spending much of the 1980s directing and producing documentaries, he began focusing increasingly on corporate work in the 1990s. "I often felt that the corporate sector had been overlooked by filmmakers, so I started to introduce documentary skills and techniques to inspire clients to aim higher."

The work ranged from capturing a company's culture in order to motivate staff, to presenting medical information for doctors and patients on both sides of the Tasman. En route, he amassed 25 global awards for clients including Westfield, Air New Zealand and Auckland University

In 2005 John produced NZ Screen Award nominated series The Chosen Ones, for Sky TV. Alongside sporting footage, Cricketer and broadcaster Ian Smith interviewed local legends like Michael Campbell and Irene van Dyk. John followed it by joining Owen Hughes to produce The Band, which captured the struggles of a Scottish pipe band to find new members, or face extinction. It screened on Prime TV on Anzac Day in 2010.

In 2015 he directed and produced The Dick Henderson Story, which recounts the story of how a WWl Kiwi medic used a donkey to rescue the wounded from the battlefield at Gallipoli. It screened on TV One, on Anzac Day in 2017. 

John has celebrated his long love of travel through films about trips he has taken to Africa and the Galápagos Islands. His 2020 documentary The Pelagonauts follows an expedition retracing Ernest Shackleton's journey across the island of South Georgia. "I'm not done yet," says John. "I still think I have another story left in me. "

Profile written by Ian Pryor; published on 10 October 2025

Sources include
Ian John
John Reid, Whatever It Takes - Pacific Films and John O’Shea 1948 - 2000 (Wellington: Victoria University Press, 2018)
Ngā Taonga catalogue. Accessed 10 October 2025