Artists Prepare: Sam Hunt and Gary McCormick - Poets

Artists Prepare was a 1980 TV series from the National Film Unit, which featured prominent performance-based artists. This edition follows poets Sam Hunt and Gary McCormick (the "John Travolta of New Zealand poetry") on a tour of the Nelson region. They give poetry readings, talk to high school girls, drink whiskey, and muse about poetry and life — while Minstrel, Hunt's dog, lies patiently under bar tables. Ultratight stovepipe jeans, rock star scarves, and scenes in a milk bar and out on the open road in a Valiant evoke a time when 'poetry' and 'heartthrob' could comfortably sit in the same sentence.

I've been performing since I was born! Um, about 33 years. As far as doing the poems, I did my first public reading when I was about 17...

– Sam Hunt talks about his life as a poet, at the start of this documentary

Key Cast & Crew

Steve Gibb

Cinematographer

Sam Hunt

Subject

Gary McCormick

Subject

David Keene

Sound Recordist

Hugh Macdonald

Producer

Chris Dillon

Director