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JonathanDennis

  • Archivist
  • Producer
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Described by author Emma Jean Kelly as a flamboyant "champion of New Zealand culture", Jonathan Dennis was the founding director of The Film Archive in 1981 and led the organisation into a bicultural era. Dennis, who headed the Film Archive for nine years, was praised for making films more accessible. He also made documentaries (Mouth Wide Open, Mana Waka) and presented Radio New Zealand's Film Show.

Screenography

Friendship is the Harbour of Joy
2004 Subject Film
New Zealand Centenary of Cinema by John O'Shea
1996 Producer Short film

Biography

Jonathan Dennis was just 27 years old when he became the founding director  — and sole employee — of The Film Archive in 1981. Armed with $5,000 from the NZ Film Commission, the film archivist and passionate cinephile set out to discover hidden Kiwi films from around the country, preserve them and take them out on the road.

Awards

1993 Le Giornate Cinema del Muto (Pordenone Silent Film Festival - Italy)
Jean Mitry Award for services to silent film

1990 Queen's Service Medal
Public Service award for establishing the NZ Film Archive  

“Starting a film archive thirty or forty years after most other developed countries had some advantages. I could start with a pretty clean knowledge of what I didn't want it to be like, and then gradually shaped it into what I hoped would be a real kaitiaki or guardian of the taonga placed in its trust.”

— Jonathan Dennis, in a July 2001 interview with Film Archive magazine Newsreel, July 2001

Related images

Jonathan-Dennis-Gallery.jpg
Jonathan Dennis at his home.
Stills Collection, Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision. Unknown photographer. Courtesy of Kirsten and Simon Dennis