Lord of the Flicks

Thursday 21 August 2008 8:30AM (view full episode)

The current head of the New Zealand Film Commission, Dr Ruth Harley, has just been appointed to head-up the Australian film industry's new uber-agency 'Screen Australia'. She tells us about her background and the direction she intends to take in her new role.


Antony Funnell: Today on the program we'll talk about the licensing arrangement known as 'Creative Commons' and we'll also take a closer look at the Russian cyber attacks on Georgian websites.

The Georgians maintain that they've been the victims of cyber-warfare, but as we'll hear, there's division in internet security circles about whether what's happened is in fact cyber-warfare, whether the Russian government is actually involved, and also how significant the event really is.

So we'll try and unpack some of that.

But that's all to come. First though, let's head for New Zealand.


Antony Funnell: 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy of films, directed by Peter Jackson, did much to promote New Zealand to the outside world and it also cemented the reputation of the New Zealand film industry as highly skilled, edgy and successful.

In some ways the success Kiwi film makers have had over the past decade and a half has paralleled the decline of the Australian movie industry.

Many would argue the Australian sector has floundered and at times bogged down in dispute.

Now earlier this year, Australia's Arts Minister, Peter Garrett, announced the setting up of a new funding, research and development body called Screen Australia. The body was formed from the merger of the Film Finance Corporation, Film Australia Limited, and the Australian Film Commission. And last Friday Mr Garrett made the surprise announcement that the head of Screen Australia will be a Kiwi, not an Australian.

She's Dr Ruth Harley and for the past decade she's been the CEO of the New Zealand Film Commission.

Well Ruth Harley, congratulations on your appointment. What do you see as the biggest challenge facing you and the Australian film industry as you take the reins of Screen Australia?

Ruth Harley: Getting Australian films to connect with Australian audiences is the way that everybody's expressed to me their biggest concern.

Antony Funnell: Because there has been a lot of criticism that Australian films really haven't hit the mark with Australian audiences. You're based in New Zealand, you've worked in the New Zealand industry; do you have a perspective on why that is? Why the Australian industry hasn't performed the way it did say a few decades ago?

Ruth Harley: No, I truly don't know why they don't, but I think it's something I'll be wanting to talk to a lot of people about, and I think a lot of people have got theories, and with luck we can pull those theories together into something that can make a difference.

Antony Funnell: Well you must have watched some Australian films over the years; what's your view about the Australian industry?

Ruth Harley: I've seen lots of great Australian films, which is why it's not possible to generalise. I mean for instance one of my favourites is 'Ten Canoes', I think 'Ten Canoes' is a breathtakingly good film, and as I understand it, it did do reasonably well with the audiences. I recently saw 'Romulus, my Father', I thought it was an absolutely terrific film. 'Radiance' is a wonderful film. There's so many good films, so you can't answer a question like that on the basis of whether you've seen a few good films, because it doesn't lead you to the right answer.

Antony Funnell: Now you're credited with having been an influential force in the development of the New Zealand film industry. What's given New Zealand the edge over the last decade or so?

Ruth Harley: I think it's a lot of things. I don't think there's any one thing. One thing you might put on the very front of the frame is 'The Lord of the Rings'. Now 'The Lord of the Rings' made an enormous difference to the New Zealand film industry, but it didn't improve any one script, you know what I mean? So what it did is create an atmosphere, it created an ambition, it created a confidence, it created a wealth of sensational facilities which are full of very, very good technicians. So all of that gave us sort of an underpinning and a world reach that we perhaps hadn't, well we certainly hadn't had before. But inside that we've also managed to grow a domestic industry, or domestic film making, whereby we've had some very, very good films that have been successful nationally and internationally, and I think that has to do with the fact that film makers see themselves in the international film business, they aren't parochial, I think that's very, very important.

I think that we've placed a huge emphasis on script development, and I don't think you can overdo that. I think you also have to take a multi-path approach to script development because there is no one recipe. And sometimes any one project might go through four or five different recipes for how to go about it. And you never know what exactly is the right way, so you also need enormous patience. But then in Australia, everybody knows that, I mean it's legendary that 'Shine' took 11 years and it was worth waiting for. So I do think that there's a lot of different elements to it, and they all need to line up.

Antony Funnell: Now you're a bit of an unknown quantity in Australia. Tell us a bit about your background and experience, and what you think you'll bring to this role at Screen Australia.

Ruth Harley: My background and experience, I've got a PhD in Literature, it's a particular period in New Zealand literature 1930-1950 which had a nationalist consciousness develop in our literature, so for instance, writers quite literally stopped writing about spring in April. Now you live in Sydney and know perfectly well that spring isn't in April, but up until about 1928 New Zealand poets wrote about spring as if it was in April, because they were basically writing English literature just translated a few thousand miles across the sea.

So that sense of art forms within a very specific time and place and people, is my basic training, and since then I've worked in theatre and dance, and arts and business and television and advertising itself.

Antony Funnell: And what will you bring to the role? I mean what do you see as your major talent I guess?

Ruth Harley: Well I'm very good at pulling together teams of people and creating a common language so that everybody can go forward and produce the results.

Antony Funnell: What do you believe will be the benefits for the Australian film industry, in having a body like Screen Australia? Because it will handle a whole lot of roles that were once held by three separate individual organisations.

Ruth Harley: Well I think that some of the thinking behind that is very specifically to bring together development, production financing and marketing, and I think that's absolutely right. We've (New Zealand have) got an enormous success out of having those three things very close together in our own environment, and I do think that that underpins this merger and I think it's right.

Antony Funnell: Now you'd be aware that Brian Rosen, a former head of the Australian Film Finance Corporation, which has been merged into this new Screen Australia entity, that he's been very critical of this new model, saying that it's over-staffed, that it will lean towards bureaucracy, and he thinks it needs a staff cut by at least a half to make it work. What's your feeling about that? I know you haven't started with the role, but is that idea of ending up being too large, too bureaucratic, is that a worry for you?

Ruth Harley: Well I listened to what Brian said with great interest, and you're right, I haven't started, so it's way too early for me to have an opinion about that, but I take his view seriously.

Antony Funnell: Now the Australian film industry employs around 50,000 people. We've talked about what you'll bring to the Screen Australia job, but what are you expecting from the senior members of the industry itself? How much involvement will you be having with them, and how much advice will you be seeking from them?

Ruth Harley: Well I think that there's a lot of advice there that I can take from senior producers, from senior writers and directors, from the people working in state agencies, from the festivals, from other people who've worked in similar organisations across the sector, such as in the television companies at the AFTRS, all of those people, I just see an enormous wealth and talent, and not to mention the distribution community. I have absolutely no worries that there isn't the talent out there who knows the answers to these questions once everybody pulls together and thinks about it in a holistic way.

Antony Funnell: Well Dr Ruth Harley, thank you very much for joining us.

Ruth Harley: Thank you.

Antony Funnell: And Ruth Harley will take up her new position as the CEO of Screen Australia, the Federal government's new uber film-funding, promotion and support body, in mid-November.


Dr Ruth Harley
Incoming CEO of Screen Australia


Antony Funnell
Andrew Davies