Last Days at McVay Street

With the increasing accessibility of video cameras, home videos became a craze in the 1980s. New Zealand filmmaker Gaylene Preston made many home videos during this era — including this one, which casually observes her family at her parent's home in Napier, shortly before they moved. Featured is Gaylene's then partner, musician Jonathan Crayford, their baby (and future actor) Chelsie Preston Crayford, and Gaylene's parents Tui and Ed. Tui appears in Gaylene's documentary War Stories Our Mothers Never Told Us, whilst Ed and Tui are both dramatised in Gaylene's film Home By Christmas. 

I didn't have the time, the gear or the inclination to spend long days editing my VHS footage, so I devised a way to shoot that edited in the camera. It was intuitive and not always successful. But without realising it, I was giving myself a homemade film course, the only course I've ever had. It has stood me in good stead.

– Gaylene Preston, in her 2022 autobiography Gaylene's Take - Her Life in New Zealand Film, page 210

Key Cast & Crew

Gaylene Preston

Director, Camera Operator, Editor

Jonathan Crayford

Subject

Chelsie Florence

Subject