THE FATHER OF NEW ZEALAND FILM

In 2005 the Progressive Silent Film List nominated the 1925 film Rewi’s Last Stand as one of the best 100 silent films ever made. This put Rudall Hayward on the same level as Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford, Cecil B DeMille, Frank Capra and Charlie Chaplin as a great film director.

Rudall Hayward (nzonscreen.com)

Rudall Hayward was born in England in 1900 but moved with his family to New Zealand when he was five. His parents brought a movie camera and projection equipment with them to introduce colonials to the marvel of motion pictures. Within a few years Rudell’s father and uncle formed Hayward’s Picture Enterprises and opened a number of small cinemas around the Coromandel Peninsula. Young Hayward operated the projector and also acted in a series of short films to screen at their cinemas. read more