RudallHayward
- Film pioneer
Legendary filmmaker Rudall Hayward, MBE, directed seven features over five decades — decades in which the concept of Kiwi movie-making was still an oxymoron, or meant a foreigner was in charge. Inspired by New Zealand’s crosscultural history, Hayward remade his own Rewi’s Last Stand in 1940. Later he married Rewi star Ramai Te Miha, launching a filmmaking partnership that lasted until Rudall’s death on 29 May 1974.
Screenography
Biography
'Pioneer' is an overused word, but Rudall Hayward’s claim to the title is strong. He was directing and shooting feature films in New Zealand in the 1920s, an age when movies were usually made by people in — or visiting from — other lands. A half century later his final movie To Love a Māori (1972), made in partnership with second wife Ramai, became the first colour feature directed by New Zealanders on home soil.
Awards
1973 Member of the British Empire
1971 Feltex Television Awards (New Zealand)
Special Feltex Award for the first television screening of a New Zealand film: Rewi's Last Stand
“In New Zealand, it suddenly occurred to me, was material for film plays just as exciting and dramatic and colourful as any Hollywood western.”