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Hero image for Early Days Yet

Early Days Yet

Television (Full Length) – 2001

Early Days Yet, directed by Shirley Horrocks, is a full-length documentary about New Zealand poet Allen Curnow, made in the last months of his life. The poet talks about his life and work, and visits the places of some of his most important poems. It includes interviews with other New Zealand poets about Curnow's significance as an advocate for New Zealand poetry. As Curnow famously mused in front of a moa skeleton displayed in Canterbury Museum: "Not I, some child, born in a marvellous year / Will learn the trick of standing upright here."

It is good that Curnow allowed a film-maker as deft and careful as [Shirley] Horrocks to finally tell us about him ... While a raft of fellow poets has lined up to praise and explain, Horrocks has mostly chosen to let her subject, through his words, memories and presence, acquaint us with who he was and what he means.
– Greg Dixon in The NZ Herald, 4 October 2001

Produced by

Logo for Point of View Productions

Point of View Productions

Source

Logo for Point of View Productions

Point of View Productions

Acknowledgements

Made with funding from Creative New Zealand, NZ On Air, and TV One

Music

Music composed by Jonathan Besser and Douglas Lilburn
Lilburn's 'Landfall in Unknown Seas' performed by the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Peter Scholes

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