Shirley Grace Puts Out the Washing

In the 1980s, video cameras were becoming all the rage for family videos and amateur filmmakers. After buying one in 1981, Gaylene Preston gave herself a "homemade film course" with her bulky new Panasonic VHS camera. She made experimental work, and many home videos. This video is of Preston's longtime friend, actor and artist Shirley Grace (née Gruar) at home in Pakiri, a small beach town north of Auckland. Filmed in January 1983, the video, edited by Preston as she filmed, sees Grace at the washing line, hanging clothes, as the sound of jazz and birdsong fills the air. Grace died in January 2000 of breast cancer, at age 51. 

I'd love her to be still around now to challenge me as I write this ... She was a courageous, provocative thinker. She sits at my side occasionally. I'd like to jump in a car with her and go off on a Thelma and Louise jaunt.

– Gaylene Preston on Shirley Grace, in her 2022 autobiography Gaylene's Take - Her Life in New Zealand Film, page 118

Key Cast & Crew

Gaylene Preston

Camera Operator, Editor

Shirley Grace (aka Shirley Gruar)

Subject