Popular Culture Review Vol. 11, No. 1, February 2000 | Page 19

John O’Shea and the Tradition of New Zealand Cinema

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Williams), this in itself was a considerable accomplishment.
But the toll on O’Shea was inexorably mounting. While directing Don \t Let It
Get You, O’Shea still had to post-produce and write sponsored documentaries at
night to keep Pacific Films financially afloat, and he began falling asleep on the
set in the middle of takes from sheer exhaustion. The fact that one of the industrial
films that he was producing at the time was about cancer did little to aid his already
shaken morale. As a result, when Don’t Let It Get You completed production, and
O’Shea found that he had no money for a “wrap” party for his cast and crew, he
decided that he could no longer produce and direct feature films on such perilous
financial footing. And so, with three feature films as a director, Broken Barrier,
Runaway, and the slight but enjoyable Don’t Let It Get You (which, predictably,
was an enormous commercial success), John O ’Shea ceased to direct feature films,
and went back to cranking out promos, advertisements, and sponsored films to
make a living, although he subsequently served as producer on some New Zealand
films much later, in the 1980s. Pacific Films was now a commercial production
house, and an era was over. It was not until 1977, and Roger Donaldson’s Sleeping
Dogs, that the New Zealand feature film again began to flourish, and then only
because of lucrative tax breaks that made investing in films attractive to the financial
community.
As for John O’Shea, in addition to the three feature films he directed, he
produced five more features in later years, while directing and producing more
than two hundred documentary films, as well as producing and/or directing countless
commercials and promotional spots. In 1990, O ’Shea was awarded the Order of
the British Empire (OBE), and in 1992 he was honored with the New Zealand
Film Commission’s first Lifetime Achievement Award. His children have followed
him into the business. Kathy, his daughter, is a much sought after film and
commercial editor in Britain; his son Pat is a cameraman for the BBC; his other
son, Rory, works in the United States as a Director of Photography (Churchman
60). And yet John O’Shea still exerts considerable influence within the New Zealand
cinematic community, and his opinions of contemporary cinema are often quite
acerbic.
Perhaps it’s best to let O ’Shea himself have the last word. In our interview,
O’Shea told me that he laments
the Americanization of the world, which looms as an ominous thing.
Today’s film audiences are used to opulence and special effects —
Hollywood bedazzles the world and seduces the innocents, the
teenagers and children, with this confection. [This can only lead] to
indigestion and early heart attacks. Morals are corrupt. People look up
to the wrong people. Power is all. We can’t emulate Hollywood, and