Vincent Ward (director)

Vincent Ward ONZM
Ward in 2018
Born	(1956-02-16) 16 February 1956 Greytown, New Zealand
Occupation(s)	Film director, screenwriter
Years active	1978–present

Vincent Ward ONZM (born 16 February 1956) is a New Zealand film director, screenwriter and artist, who was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2007 for his contribution to film. His films have received international recognition at both the Academy Awards and the Cannes Film Festival. The Boston Globe called him "one of film's great image makers", while Roger Ebert, one of America's foremost film critics, hailed him as "a true visionary."

Life and career

Vincent Ward was born on 16 February 1956 near Greytown, New Zealand. He was educated at St Patrick's College, Silverstream and also trained at Ilam School of Fine Arts at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand where he received a Diploma in Fine Arts (with Honours) in 1978 and in 2014 the University awarded him an Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts and an adjunct professorship.

In 1978, at he age of 21, he shot A State of Siege, a medium-length film that adapted a novel by his countrywoman Janet Frame. Ward describes 'A State of Siege' as his first "public" film. At least five predated it. Whilst still at art school he had found his interest drifting from painting and sculpture towards filmmaking and animation. The Los Angeles Times reviewed A State of Siege commenting that it was, ‘Rigorously constructed with one exquisitely composed image following another … film becomes poetry’. It won a Special Jury Prize at the Miami Film Festival 1978 and a Golden Hugo Award at the Chicago Film Festival that same year.

In 1978–81, Ward lived on and off in the rugged hills of Te Urewera with an old Tūhoe woman named Puhi and her schizophrenic son Niki. He made a documentary about them called In Spring One Plants Alone, which won the 1982 Grand Prix at Cinéma du Réel (Paris), and a Silver Hugo at the Chicago Film Festival.

His debut feature-length movie, Vigil (1984), follows "a solitary child who imagines, fantasises and dreams". Partly inspired by Ward's partly rural upbringing in the Wairarapa. It was produced by John Maynard and shot in Taranaki after an exhaustive search for the right location, and the right person (Fiona Kay) to play the central role.

Ward's first three feature length films, Vigil, The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey (1988) and Map of the Human Heart (1993) were the first films by a New Zealander to be officially selected ‘in competition’ at the Cannes Film Festival. Between them they garnered close to 30 national and international awards (including the Grand Prix at festivals in Italy, Spain, Germany, France and the United States).

After Vigil, Ward continued working with producer John Maynard and co-wrote and directed The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey (1988), a fantasy film which follows a group of 14th-century Cumbrian villagers who tunnel through the earth, and find themselves in modern-day Auckland. Ward describes it as “a collision, a juxtaposition of two time periods which enables you to see your own time through fresh eyes”. Rolling Stone's review hailed it as “A visionary film of rare courage and imperishable heart.” And The New York Times said it’s “a thrilling fantasy that places Ward…amongst the most innovative and authoritative young film makers.” The film won the Grand Prix at four film festivals including; Sitges Film Festival, Fanta Film Festival, and Oporto Film Festival 1998/89. And took home Best Film and Best Director at both the Australian and New Zealand film industry awards in 1989.

In 1990, Ward wrote the story for Alien 3, a proposed sequel to the film Aliens, he was the fourth of ten different writers to tackle the Alien 3 project. Much of the plot and several of the characters from Ward's script were later fused with the prison setting from David Twohy's proposed script to form the basis of Alien 3 as it was ultimately made. Ward received a ‘story by’ credit on the final film. The heart of his story, known as ‘the monks in space’ version, was however not captured in the final film and has since been recognised by the London Times Online, who in 2008 gave it the top spot on their list of 'greatest sci-fi movies never made’.

Ward’s next film Map of the Human Heart (1993) charts the ebbs and flows of a relationship between an Inuit boy, a Métis girl and a visiting British cartographer. Ward and his co-writer Louis Nowra spent time travelling and researching the project together in Canada and Vincent went on to travel extensively in the Arctic before they began writing the script. Ward suffered minor frost bite whilst location scouting in the Arctic that was still visible throughout the shoot. The film stars Jason Scott Lee, Anne Parillaud and Patrick Bergin, and features John Cusack in a minor role. It was produced by Tim Bevan and Ward with Tim White who produced A State of Siege for Ward acting as Australian co-producer. It was screened as a work in progress at Cannes Film Festival in 1992, it was later nominated for best film at the Australian Film Institute Awards. American critic Roger Ebert praised its unpredictability and sense of adventure and said it had "two of the most astonishing romantic scenes I've ever seen in a movie".

In the 1990s Ward spent several years in and out of Hollywood, where he developed multiple projects before he signed on to direct What Dreams May Come (1998) a screenplay adapted by Ronald Bass from Richard Matheson’s 1978 novel. Ward came up with a new plot idea which allowed him to develop the films unusual painterly look. What Dreams May Come was released in the United States on 2,600 screens and starred Robin Williams, Annabella Sciorra, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Max von Sydow. It got ‘two enthusiastic thumbs up’ from Siskel and Ebert who lauded it as ‘one of the great visual achievements in film history’. Overall reviews were divided amongst critics it reached US 90 million in theatrical sales and performed strongly in the video market, with long term reach winning a Best Renting Drama Award with Video Ezy. The film was nominated for Best Production Design and Best Visual Effects at the 1999 Academy Awards and won an Oscar for visual effects. It continues to be popular with audiences scoring 84% on Rotten Tomatoes, 7.1/10 stars on IMDb and 4.7/5 stars on Amazon where is ranks highly with viewers.

The 2003 epic, The Last Samurai was based on a project Ward spent four years developing with the films producers. Eventually, after Ward approached several directors, including Francis Ford Coppola and Peter Weir, he got Edward Zwick to helm the film. Ward is an executive producer of the film.

During his time in Hollywood, Ward became interested in acting and trained under acting coach Penny Allen. He had a small part in Mike Figgis’ film Leaving Las Vegas (1995), and a larger role in Figgis’ next film One Night Stand (1997). He was given one of the leading role in a US independent feature film The Shot (1996), and a role in Geoff Murphy’s film Spooked (2004).

In 2005, he returned to New Zealand and made River Queen. The film won respectable audiences at home, but initial reviews crossed the gamut, and tales of the troubled winter shoot dominated the film's release.

Rain of the Children followed in 2008, wherein Ward retells the story of Puhi, the elderly Tuhoe woman who was the subject of his earlier documentary In Spring One Plants Alone. Chosen by the audience from among 250 feature films, Rain of the Children won the Grand Prix at Era New Horizons Film Festival. The film was nominated for best director and won best composer at the Qantas Film and TV Awards in New Zealand. Vincent Ward was also nominated for best director at the Australian Directors Guild Awards.

Ward has had 2 full retrospectives of his films. In 1984 at Germany’s Hof International Film Festival and in 2008 at Poland’s Era New Horizons Film Festival.

Since 2010 Ward has launched a second career as a painter and video artist whilst still actively developing new film projects. In 2012 Rhana Devenport curated, Breath, a major solo show of Ward’s paintings and video work at New Zealand’s cutting edge public gallery, the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery/ Len Lye Centre in New Plymouth. This was followed by two other public gallery showings in Auckland and a solo pavilion at the 9th Shanghai Biennale 2012.

In October 2020, filming began in Ukraine on Ward’s new feature Storm School with further shooting planned in China, UK and Australia in the new year. It is based on a script cowritten by Ward and long term collaborator Louis Nowra.

Painting and photography

In 2010 Craig Potton Publishing published Vincent Ward: The Past Awaits, part mid-career chronicle and part large-format film photo book. The book collects together images from all of his feature films, including Vigil, The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey, Map of the Human Heart, What Dreams May Come, River Queen and Rain of the Children, as well as earlier films and others developed but never made. Interwoven with the images in The Past Awaits is also a part-memoir in which Ward writes about the people he has worked with, both behind and in the films. He says: "This book is about the search to stay whole through making films, of being inspired by the people I have worked with and made films about, and how by seeing these lives it is perhaps easier to see more clearly into my own." German filmmaker Wim Wenders said of the book:

I don't know if ever a book of pictures and stories moved me so much like Vincent Ward's The Past Awaits. It will go into my suitcase for that lonesome island.

While his fellow New Zealand filmmaker Peter Jackson said:

To read The Past Awaits is to take a journey, not just into the imagination of Vincent Ward, but into his heart and soul. These images have a power and strength that goes way beyond the context of the film they belong to. They present the spirit of New Zealand.

In 2011-2012 Ward launched his art career alongside his filmmaking. In an 8-month period he had three solo exhibitions at public art galleries. These shows included large-scale painting, print, photographic and cinematic installation work. In 2011 he presented Breath an exhibition of paintings, photographs and cinematic installations at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery/ Len Lye Centre in New Plymouth. This was followed by the 2012 Auckland twin solo exhibitions Inhale and Exhale at the Gus Fisher Gallery and TSB Bank Wallace Arts Centre, respectively. To celebrate the dual exhibitions Gow-Langsford Gallery also showed his video work in their Wellesley Street Window. This same year Ron Sang Publishing published Inhale | Exhale, a 180-page large format art book to coincide with Ward’s twin Auckland shows. To culminate the year Ward was invited to the 9th Shanghai Biennale 2012. He was New Zealand's first entrants to the Biennale and held a solo pavilion show in an historic cathedral on the Bund that was called Auckland Station: Destinies Lost and Found.

Art writer and reviewer Anthony Byrt (Art Forum) described the work as “intense… stunning… virtuosic” and said “Ward has never shied away from the truth: he digs and digs until he gets somewhere other filmmakers and artists don’t often visit: a psychic space where violence, memory, myth, sex and religion mingle in a landscape scarred by history”

Rhana Devenport, director Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, wrote in her catalog for the exhibition: Ward’s ongoing concerns with metamorphosis, falling, light, fear, memory, darkness and the transformative moment have led him to create a series of vast, physically imposing works that delve into other-worldly landscapes and transcendent states, to evocations of loss, redemption and unconscious realms."Art". Vincent Ward. Retrieved 26 October 2014.</ref> on The Bund.

Four years on from the Shanghai show, Ward revealed a new series of work at Trish Clark Gallery  in Auckland, Palimpsest / Landscapes (30 August – 23 September 2016). And more recently Loom (4 June — July 20, 2019).

In 2014 Ward received and honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts from the University of Canterbury, Christchurch and an adjunct professorship. In 2015 he held a guest professorship at the China Academy of Art, in Hanzhou, as well as spending five weeks on residency at the Shanghai University School of Fine Arts.

Filmography

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Producer	Notes
1978	A State of Siege	Yes	Yes	No	Short film
1981	In Spring One Plants Alone	Yes	Yes	Yes
1984	Vigil	Yes	Yes	No
1988	The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey	Yes	Yes	No
1992	Alien 3	No	Story	No
1993	Map of the Human Heart	Yes	Yes	Yes
1998	What Dreams May Come	Yes	No	No
2003	The Last Samurai	No	No	Executive
2005	River Queen	Yes	Yes	No
2008	Rain of the Children	Yes	Yes	Yes

Bibliography

By Vincent Ward

• The Navigator, A Medieval Odyssey. Screenplay (Faber and Faber: 1989).
• Edge of the Earth: Stories and Images from the Antipodes (Auckland: Heinemann Reed, 1990).
• The Past Awaits, people, images, film. Large-format, full-colour photographic book of images and stories (published in New Zealand by Craig Potton Publishing, 2010).
• Inhale | Exhale. Large format. Full color reproductions of Vincent Wards artwork from his 2011–2012 exhibitions (Breath Govett Brewster Art Gallery, Inhale | Exhale Gus Fisher Gallery and Pah Homestead, Auckland Station Shanghai Biennale) (Ron Sang Publications, 2012).

About Vincent Ward

• Making the Transformational Moment in Film: Unleashing the Power of the Image (with the Films of Vincent Ward), by Dan Fleming, (Michael Wiese Productions, 2011).

Awards and honours

His films have earned critical acclaimed and festival attention.

• In Spring One Plants Alone won the 1982 Grand Prix at Cinema du Reel (Paris), and a Silver Hugo at the Chicago Film Festival.
• Vigil, The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey and Map of the Human Heart were the first films by a New Zealander to be selected for the Cannes Film Festival. These films earned close to 30 national and international awards (including the Grand Prix at festivals in Italy, Spain, France and the United States). All three films have compelling and powerful performances by child actors.
• The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey won major awards at both the Australian and New Zealand film industry awards.
• What Dreams May Come was nominated for two Academy Awards and won the Oscar for best visual effects in 1999.
• "Rain of the Children won the Grand Prix at Era New Horizons Film Festival. The film was nominated for awards and won at the Qantas Film and TV Awards in New Zealand. Vincent Ward was also nominated for best director at the Australian Directors Guild Awards for "Rain of the Children."

External links

• Vincent Ward Films
• Vincent Ward at IMDb