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KeithAberdein

  • Writer
  • Actor
Keith-Aberdien-Key-Profile.jpg

Keith Aberdein is probably best known for playing the small-town policeman who arouses Bruno Lawrence's ire in classic 1980s movie Smash Palace. But his screen work covers many angles: from reporting on the Wahine disaster, to producing and directing, to writing arguably the most ambitious television drama in New Zealand's history.

Screenography

Biography

Keith Aberdein is a journalist turned scriptwriter, who has also done some acting. Aberdein dramatised historical conflicts between Māori and Pākehā at a time when Kiwi screen creatives treated the past as if it was a foreign country. Long conscious of a "deep injustice" within imperial systems, he was a writer on The Governor and Utu, two ambitious, trailblazing dramas about colonial conflict.  

Awards

1995 New Zealand Film and Television Awards
Nominated for Best Screenplay - Film: for The Last Tattoo

1993 CableACE Awards (United States Cable Television Awards)
Nominated for Best International Comedy or Dramatic Special or Series (with six others): for The Paper Man

“People look at us and think, ‘three million people, how do you do it?'”

— Keith Aberdein in a 1985 issue of Onfilm, on New Zealand’s film and television industry

Related images

The-Venus-Touch-Gallery-1.jpg
Angela D’Audney as Virginia Quirke and Grant Tilly as her husband Rufus in The Venus Touch. 14 March 1982.
Kindly suppled by The Dominion Post.
The-Governor-Gallery-6.jpg
Corin Redgrave as Governor George Grey (left) and Martyn Sanderson as General Sir Duncan Cameron, during on location filming for the fifth episode of The Governor, 'The Lame Seagull'.
Kindly provided by The Dominion Post.
The-Governor-Gallery-2.jpg
At right, actor Don Selwyn (who played Wiremu Tāmihana) explains some of the finer points of a greenstone mere to Eastbourne antique dealer Helen Jenkinson, at an auction of props from historical epic The Governor.
Kindly provided by The Dominion Post
Utu-Gallery-4.jpg
Behind the scenes on Utu. From left to right: actor Tim Shadbolt (in top hat), director Geoff Murphy, first assistant director Lee Tamahori, grip Alister Barry and camera operator Paul Leach.
Kindly provided by The Dominion Post.
Utu-Gallery-7.jpg
A poster for the original 1983 release of Utu.
Photo appears courtesy of the NZ Film Commission
Smash-Palace-Galley-2.jpg
The official poster for Smash Palace.
Photo appears courtesy of the NZ Film Commission