Draft 2 PhD Introduction - ResearchSpace@Auckland

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essential footage”. After the crew left, Ward remained to spend time with Puhi and
Niki, who stayed in the house he had rented. Ward and Miles Hargest (the still-
photographer) were given permission to film a tangi and they operated two cameras to
get the results they wanted. Although there were still some pickup shots and sounds to
be recorded, Ward decided not to return until two thirds of the way through editing,
when they would know precisely what was needed. Despite the fact that the shooting
for the film had effectively finished, Ward added: “I will see Niki and Puhi again and
again. Too often a researcher or filmmaker comes, stays to gather material and leaves,
never to return”. 507
Alun Bollinger recalls that they were never able to work for long – perhaps two or three
days a week – because the filming was stressful for the old lady. He remembers one
occasion when she said to the crew “Today you’ve taken enough” and they realised that
she meant not only that they had shot enough footage, but that she felt they had “taken”
from her. She did at least let them know when she felt they were being intrusive or
behaving in a way that she found unacceptable. He recalls that one day, the driver
delivered her groceries to the gate, rather than bringing them to the house, and “there
was a reasonable hike up the drive for her to get the groceries, so when she ordered
them, we were keeping an eye out for the van and we snuck out and hid behind the
meeting house on the marae […]. We waited for her to go out and get the groceries and
filmed her bringing them back, which was the figure of this bent old lady. But she
spotted us and […] she gave us a right bollocking – that all these able young men were
hiding behind the meeting-house while she carried her own groceries. It was mostly in
Maori, actually, but we knew exactly what she was telling us off for”. 508
On another occasion, Ward hid her teapot, her “teapoura”, as she called it, in order to
film her making tea in the billy, which is what she normally did unless there were
visitors. She managed to find it, but Ward hid it again, so as Bollinger points out there
was “a bit of manipulation”. 509 This would seem to contradict Ward’s assertion that, in
order to capture the minutiae of Puhi’s world, he decided to “set up the camera and hope
that she would walk into the frame”. He felt this would “underline a meditative quality
that was inherent in the situation”, and that by filming her in this manner, his presence
507
Ward, “A Documented Account of the Making of In Spring One Plants Alone,” Section on
Production: 13-20 August 1979.
508
Lynette Read, interview with Alun Bollinger, 3 December 1998.
509
Lynette Read, interview with Alun Bollinger, 3 December 1998.