John Maynard (film producer)

At the age of 23, having working as a secondary school fine arts teacher for a short time, Australian John Maynard was appointed as the first director of the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in New Plymouth, New Zealand.[1] Maynard worked with local architect Terry Boon[2] to redevelop an existing movie theatre into a contemporary art gallery that opened in February 1970. He also laid the groundwork for the gallery's programming through ‘progressive exhibition and collection policies."[3] For the opening exhibition Maynard invited the young Auckland artist Leon Narbey[4] to develop an immersive light installation titled Real Time to fill the whole gallery.[5] Narbey went on to work again with Maynard in his film career both as a cameraman and director. and Maynard would produce Narbey's second feature film The Footstep Man in 1992.[6]

Maynard left the Govett-Brewster in 1971 to travel overseas. In 1975 he took over the position of Exhibitions Officer at the Auckland City Art Gallery, a job previously held by Peter Webb. In that year Maynard developed Project Programmes, the first large-scale presentation of Conceptual art in New Zealand. In discussing the programme, art critic Wystan Curnow described Maynard as ‘the man who made New Plymouth the place to see new Auckland sculpture’.[7] The series began with Formal Enema Enigma[8] by John Lethbridge and was followed over the next three months with installations by Jim Allen, Bruce Barber, Kim Gray, David Mealing, and a group show that included Maree Horner.[9] In 1976 Maynard developed the first Pan Pacific Biennale: Colour Photography and its Derivatives for the Auckland City Art Gallery.[10] It included 20 artists from New Zealand, Australia, Japan and the USA including John Baldessari with his Pathetic Fallacy Series.[11]

Maynard continued his connections with the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery through his work with the American-based New Zealand artist Len Lye. In 1977 Maynard curated the first solo exhibition of Lye's work in New Zealand for the Gallery.[12]

In 1977 the film production company Phase Three Films, in which Maynard was a partner,[13] produced its first feature-length movie Skin Deep. Directed by Geoff Steven and produced by Maynard, Skin Deep was the second feature supported by the New Zealand Film Commission which had been set up in the same year.[14]

Variety, Hollywood's trade magazine, said of the production, 'No better launch for a fledgling film industry can be imagined'.[15] For Maynard it was the beginning of a long career in film production, distribution and industry support. In the mid-eighties, Maynard produced About Face a series of half-hour dramas for television with producer Bridget Ikin,[16] as well as working with 27 year old writer and director Vincent Ward. Through Maynard Productions, Maynard produced Vigil in 1983. The film was shot on and around Mount Messenger in north-eastern Taranaki, a location familiar to Maynard from his Govett-Brewster days.[17] Four years later Maynard and Gary Hannam co-produced The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey through the production company Arenafilm that Maynard and director Robert Connolly had formed in 1987. Directed by Vincent Ward, Vigil was the first New Zealand film to be selected for competition at the Cannes Film Festival[18] and in 1998 Ward's film The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey was the second New Zealand feature selected for official competition at Cannes. In New Zealand the film received eleven nominations at the New Zealand Film and TV Awards and went on to win all eleven, including Best Film and Director.[19] Maynard moved from New Zealand to Australia in 1989 and in the same year produced Jane Campion’s first feature film Sweetie and co-produced An Angel at my Table with Bridget Ikin.[20] This film was the first NZ feature selected for the New York Film Festival and won the Silver Lion at the 1990 Venice Film Festival.[21]

From the nineties, Maynard focussed on the distribution and marketing of independent films which would otherwise have been limited to screenings in film festivals[22] Well-known films he has worked with through the company Footprint Films include Lee Tamahori’s feature Once Were Warriors 1994 and Warwick Thornton's Samson & Delilah 2009. Footprint films was closed in 1998 after having distributed 14 New Zealand films including Peter Jackson's third feature Braindead.[23]

In 2011 Maynard and Ikin combined their production and distribution skills and set up Felix Media.[24] This specialist production company focusses on feature films made by visual artists and on media environments including Angelica Mesiti’s installation at the 2019 Venice Biennale.[25]

Geoff Steven Strata[26] 1983

Gerard Lee All Men are Liars[27] 1995

Robert Connolly Balibo 2008

Richard Roxburgh Romulus my Father 2007

Rowan Woods The Boys 1998

Jane Campion An Angel at my Table 1990 (Co-producer)

Jane Campion Sweetie 1989

Vincent Ward The Navigator 1998

Vincent Ward Vigil 1984

Robert Connolly The Bank[28] 2001

NOTE: a complete list of Maynard's films can be found on the Internet Movie Database[29]

2003 Honorary master's degree, Australian Film Television and Radio School

2005 Cecil Holmes Memorial Award from the Australian Directors Guild[30]

Now Showing[31] A history of the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery and Len Lye Centre

New Zealand Film: An Illustrated History[32]

• Arenafilm
• Footprint Films
• Felix Media
• John Maynard at IMDb