- John Feeney
John Feeney (
August 10 ,1922 -December 6 ,2006 ) was aNew Zealand -born director of documentary films. He worked with theNew Zealand National Film Unit ,National Film Board of Canada (NFB) and made films and didphotography inEgypt . He was nominated for twoAcademy Awards .Early life
Feeney was born in
Ngaruawahia and attended at Victoria University. During theSecond World War he served as a lieutenant in theRoyal New Zealand Naval Reserve , escaping fromSingapore and taking part in theD-Day landings on June 6, 1944. He then served as a research assistant with the War History Branch of the Navy Department in Wellington until 1948.New Zealand National Film Unit
His
New Zealand film credits include "Legend of the Wanganui River " and "Hot Earth ".NFB
Feeney directed ten NFB productions 1954 to 1963, working most often with producer Tom Daly. Most of his NFB films focused on the
Canadian Arctic and theInuit .In 1958, Feeney received his first nomination for an
Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject for "The Living Stone", about Inuit carving. [http://www.nfb.ca/trouverunfilm/fichefilm.php?id=10609&v=h&lg=en&exp=]In 1964, he was nominated again, for "Eskimo Artist: Kenojuak" (1963), a groundbreaking look at the work of Inuit graphic artist
Kenojuak Ashevak . [http://www.nfb.ca/trouverunfilm/fichefilm.php?id=11019&v=h&lg=en&exp=] Regarding the use of the term "Eskimo" in the title, Feeney wrote in 1993 that he had suggested using the now-accepted term "Inuit" in the film, but had been told that it would be confusing for non-Inuit audiences of the day."Eskimo Artist: Kenojuak" found new life again in 1992, when filmmakers Colin Low and
Tony Ianzelo combined archival and contemporary footage of Kenojuak in "Momentum", Canada’s IMAX HD film for Expo '92. [http://www.nfb.ca/trouverunfilm/fichefilm.php?id=28411&v=h&lg=en&exp=${momentum}]Egypt
After Canada, he spend much of his life in
Egypt , making films and photographing. He first arrived in Egypt in 1963 to make the documentary "Fountains of the Sun", at the request of that country's ministry of culture. [http://www.adhamonline.com/News/Spring05news/feeney.html]His photography is collected in his book "Photographing Egypt: Forty Years Behind the Lens", published by The
American University in Cairo Press.External links
*imdb name|id=0270346|name=John Feeney
* [http://www.nfb.ca/trouverunfilm/listerecherche.php?type=fonction&idFcr=5255&idFct=01&v=h&lg=en&exp=John%20Feeney&dureeMin=0&dureeMax=0&anneeMin=&anneeMax= NFB filmography]
* [http://www.nfb.ca/enclasse/doclens/visau/index.php?film=&_onfplr_sel=plr&mode=view&language=english&filmId=10609&formats=default&speeds=default&use_cc=no&use_dv=no Watch "The Living Stone" online]
* [http://data.filmarchive.org.nz/search/results.php# Search for John Feeney's work and interviews at the New Zealand Film Archive]
* [http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=18&objectid=10416574 "New Zealand Herald" obit]
* [http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/200603/the.last.nile.flood.htm "The Last Nile Flood", John Feeney]
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