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	Niki Caro Tim Sanders John Barnett Frank Hübner Bill Gavin Linda Goldstein Knowlton Leon Narbey Grant Major Witi Ihimaera David Coulson Lisa Gerrard Niki Caro DIRECTOR "WHALE RIDER is essentially about leadership and the fact that leadership presents itself in the form of a young girl," explains director Niki Caro. "It's Pai's destiny to lead, but that is in direct opposition to her grandfather's beliefs, and he's the person she loves more than anything in the world. So the film deals with his struggle to accept her destiny and the extraordinary lengths to which she'll go to make him understand and prove her love to him." Caro is a highly successful, young director whose feature film debut, Memory & Desire, was selected for the prestigious Critics Week at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. It was voted Best Film in the 1999 New Zealand Film Awards, also winning a Special Jury Prize for Caro's work as both writer and director. Her shorter films have been similarly honoured. Footage, an offbeat study of footwear fetishism was in Official Selection at the Venice Film Festival in 1996. Sure To Rise, Caro's powerful, hypnotic love story was selected to screen In Competition at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival. Her television drama has been consistently acknowledged in both New Zealand and internationally. The Summer the Queen Came, an affectionate look at the small, twisted details of life in suburbia, earned Caro both a Best Writer and Best Director nomination in the 1994 NZ Film and Television Awards. Plain Tastes, a Montana Sunday Theatre drama, was nominated in the Best Television Drama and Best Writer categories in the 1996 New Zealand Film and Television Awards. "I believe very strongly that the story of WHALE RIDER chose to be told on film now," says director Niki Caro. "The Paikea legend has been around for over 1,000 years. But it chose to be told in book form through Witi Ihimaera in 1987 and it chooses to be told on film now. I don't think the world was really ready for it 10 years ago. I think we are now. We're ready to accept things spiritual." "The 11-year-old that I was, is not unlike parts of Pai," says Niki. "But I also see myself in Koro as well. In order to tell this story I need to understand what leadership is." "As the leader of this film, as the director of this film, I understand that leadership is not about being the guy up the front shouting and screaming. It's about being the person that serves the rest of them and makes an environment that people can do their best in, that they feel encouraged to do their best work; to go to places they might not ordinarily go, to feel safe enough and brave enough to go there." Caro rehearses a lot with her cast. "We talk a lot about the feelings the characters are experiencing and I expect actors to go there. I won't cast somebody who won't. You can have a brilliant actor and a brilliant director but if an actor isn't prepared to go to those places then it can be a very hollow experience. There's not a single actor on this film that has held back from going where they needed to go to and that's the way this film had to be. But that's what makes for a very rare and compelling performances." "In terms of a visual style for the film, I wanted to aim for a big, international look. Like The Piano, which framed the West Coast of New Zealand in such a way as to enchant the international movie-going community, my aim was to do the same for the East Coast. This meant having a cinematographer and designer of the highest calibre. My intention was to make WHALE RIDER totally universal, not just local." "Niki has delivered the picture I've dreamed about for the past ten years" says Producer John Barnett. "The emotion, the characterisation and the spirit of the story have all been captured superbly by Niki." Tim Sanders PRODUCER Tim Sanders received a BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television) Award for Best Film as producer of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring. He also co-produced Jackson's The Frighteners, starring Michael J. Fox for Universal Pictures. Previous feature film credits include executive producer for The Price Of Milk; producer of Aberration in 1997; line producer on Traps, shot in Vietnam, starring Saskia Reeves and Jacqueline McKenzie, Reckless Kelly, directed by and starring Yahoo Serious for Warner Bros. and John Seale's Til There Was You, starring Mark Harmon and Deborah Unger. In 1992 Sanders also worked on Bernado Bertolucci's epic feature Little Buddha, starring Keanu Reeves and Chris Isaak. Additional film credits include Peter Weir's The Year of Living Dangerously, starring Mel Gibson and Sigourney Weaver; Race For The Yankee Zephyr with George Peppard, Leslie Ann Warren, Donald Pleasance and Ken Wahl; The Survivor starring Joseph Cotton, Jenny Agutter and Robert Powell; Peter Weir's Gallipoli, starring Mel Gibson and Mark Lee and Russell Mulcahy's Razorback. Sanders' television credits include Plainclothes, starring Rhonda Findleton; the mini-series Fallout, shot on locations in Hawaii, New Zealand, the US and UK; The Last Frontier, starring Linda Evans, Jack Thompson and Jason Robards; Return To Eden; White Fang, Turner Network Television's Which Way Home, starring Cybill Shepherd and John Waters; HBO's A Dangerous Life and the CBS television movie Angel in Green. Sanders also served as Head of Production for South Pacific Pictures and executive produced numerous episodes of Shortland Street and Marlin Bay. His film and television location work has taken him to 18 countries around the world. John Barnett PRODUCER John Barnett is responsible for the transition of WHALE RIDER from page to screen. He first read the novel more than 10 years ago and his commitment has resulted in WHALE RIDER the feature film. He has actively led the project through its development into production. John Barnett began his career as an independent producer in 1974. Over the past 20 years, he has produced television drama, documentaries and fifteen feature films, including Jubilee, starring Cliff Curtis; Middle Age Spread; Beyond Reasonable Doubt; Race for the Yankee Zephyr and the Australasian animated hit, Footrot Flats. He also served as Executive Producer on What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?, the sequel to Once Were Warriors. Barnett has been active in the politics of the business throughout his career and was a founder of New Zealand's industry magazine, OnFilm. He has also been actively involved in film, television and video distribution and in the development of multiplex cinemas throughout the country. Barnett joined South Pacific Pictures as Managing Director in late 1993. Since then, he has overseen the company's move into longer run series and the establishment of a presence in Australia. He has also developed a number of European co-production projects. In early 1998, he led a management buy-out of South Pacific Pictures, and together with Chrysalis Plc, he is the owner of New Zealand's largest film and television production company. In 1999 he moved the company into a new studio complex developed specifically for South Pacific Pictures. Barnett also set up Sundance Channel (NZ) - the first Sundance affiliated channel outside the United States. Until this year, Barnett also sat on the Board of the New Zealand Film Commission. Frank Hübner PRODUCER Since October 1999, Frank Hübner has been CEO of the Filmfunds ApolloMedia GmbH where he has been involved in a number of international productions including Bruce Beresford's Bride of the Wind; Alan Rudolph's Investigating Sex, starring Nick Nolte; Amerikana, starring Lukas Haas and Vincent D'Onofrio; My First Mister, starring Leelee Sobieski, Albert Brooks and John Goodman; The Musketeer, starring Catherine Deneuve and You Stupid Man, with Milla Jovovich. ApolloMedia also have many features in post-production including Diggity, with Andrew McCarthy; The Extremists, starring Rufus Sewell; Feardotcom, starring Stephen Dorff and Stephen Rea; Boat Trip, starring Cuba Gooding Jnr; I Am Dina, starring Gerard Depardieu; Paradise Found, starring Kiefer Sutherland and Natassja Kinski and No Good Deed, with Samuel L. Jackson and Milla Jovovich. Hübner studied Law at the University of Cologne before joining the License Department of Westdeutscher Rundfunk from 1986-1991. He later became head of the Department for Foreign Productions and since 1988 was a member of the WDR commission for copyright agreements between WDR and German unions. Since 1989, Hübner has been a member of the committee for the foundation of the Filmstiftung and worked for Filmstiftung Nordrhein-Westfalen GmbH from February 1991, as Executive Director and the following year as Deputy Director. In October 1996 Hübner set up as a freelance media consultant and broker for media Insurances and 1998-2000 served as Chairman of the Association of TV, Film and Video Industry and was a member of the Board of the Directors of Westdeutscher Rundfunk. Bill Gavin EXECUTIVE PRODUCER Bill Gavin produced the feature films What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?, starring Temuera Morrison and Jubilee starring Cliff Curtis. He also served as Head of Feature Films at South Pacific Pictures Ltd. Born in Wellington, New Zealand, Gavin began his career in Europe as a journalist before joining the music business at the GTO group. He established GTO Films in 1974 and was Managing Director until 1978. In 1978 Gavin was recruited by 20th Century Fox as General Manager of their Australian subsidiary, Hoyts Theatres Ltd. He established Hoyts Distribution where he spearheaded the company's entry into production. He has also served Director of Sales for ITC Films, responsible for worldwide sales of their theatrical product including On Golden Pond and Sophie's Choice. Gavin joined Goldcrest Film & Television in 1982 as Director of Distribution and Marketing and also served on the Board. He established the sales company, Gavin Film Ltd. in 1984, which specialised in the financing and marketing of quality independent films. He was Executive Producer on such pictures as Stephen Frear's Prick Up Your Ears; Mike Figgis' Stormy Monday; Whit Stillman's Metropolitan; David Hare's Strapless; Peter Greenaway's Belly of an Architect and Dennis Hopper's The Hot Spot. Gavin returned to New Zealand in 1991 where he produced the feature The Last Tattoo, starring Rod Steiger and Kerry Fox in 1994. In 2001 he returned to the United Kingdom to set up Bermondsey Films - a new film sales company. Linda Goldstein Knowlton EXECUTIVE PRODUCER Linda Goldstein Knowlton is President of Ladylike Films, her independent production company established in 1992. She made her feature debut in 1998 producing two films: Crazy in Alabama, starring Melanie Griffith and Lucas Black, with which Antonio Banderas made his directorial debut and Mumford, written and directed by Lawrence Kasdan. She recently produced The Shipping News, the film adaptation of E. Annie Proulx's Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning novel, directed by Lasse Hallstrom and starring Kevin Spacey, Dame Judie Dench and Cate Blanchett. Among her other projects currently in development are Margaret Attwood's Alias Grace with Jodie Foster's Egg Pictures; For Love, from the novel by Sue Miller, to star Meryl Streep and The Feast of Love, from the novel by Charles Baxter, to be directed by Patricia Rozema. Born and raised in Chicago, Linda studied Neuroscience at Brown University. She began her career in the office of the Governor of Rhode Island in Intergovernmental Relations and later worked at the American Film Institute, first in Washington DC and then in Los Angeles, as a fundraiser for film preservation. Leon Narbey DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY Leon Narbey is one of New Zealand's most acclaimed directors of photography. He received the Best Cinematography Award at the 2000 Nokia NZ Film Awards for Harry Sinclair's The Price of Milk and in 1994 for Desperate Remedies, which was also selected for Un Certain Regard at Cannes the previous year. Additional film credits as cinematographer include Jubilee, starring Cliff Curtis, Annie Goldson's award-winning Punitive Damage; Savage Honeymoon; Ruby and Rata; Other Halves; Trespasses, Strata and Skin Deep. Narbey also directed the feature films The Footstep Man and Illustrious Energy, both of which he co-wrote with Martin Edmond. The latter won eight national and two international awards including the Hawaiian International Film Festival Best Film award in 1988. He has also directed many television commercials and documentaries including Visible Evidence, an arts programme for TVNZ on eight social-documentary photographers and was director of photography on Early Days Yet: Allen Curnow, about the eminent New Zealand poet. His numerous short film credits include director of photography on Michael Hurst's I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry; Flying; Snap; Act of Murder; Beyond Gravity; The Transformers; Harry Sinclair's Lounge Bar; and Possum, which received an Honorary Distinction for Best Cinematography at the 1998 Athens Short Film Festival, and the NZ Film and TV Awards Best Cinematography in a Short Drama Award. Whale Rider was shot on Kodak 5245 and 5284 stock. "One is the fine grain daylight stock which is ultra fine grain. I love it, I've been using it for about 15 years. The other is the new expression 500 ASA stock which is very soft chroma film. It's very, very sensitive to low light," he explains. "Our key concern was naturalism. We wanted it to look almost unlit. But that can never be - you need light, you need big reflectors and dealing with the darker complexion of the Maori people, you need more light." Grant Major PRODUCTION DESIGNER Grant Major received an Oscar nomination this year for Best Art Direction for Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring. It has already earned him an American Film Institute and US National Board of Review award as well as a BAFTA nomination (British Academy of Film and Television Awards). He also designed Niki Caro's first feature film, Memory and Desire. "Although WHALE RIDER is a very local story, particular to Whangara, it's a classic story which can be re-told in different ways," says Major. "I think also the Maori look, particularly the Meeting House, is very rich and beautiful to look at. It's quite similar to Japanese architecture in some ways - its huge, heavy, wooden, beautifully carved sculptures which have ancestral resonance to them is fantastic. I think visually it's going to be a very strong film." The award-winning production designer has worked on many of New Zealand's most acclaimed productions. He received the New Zealand Film and Television Best Design Award for his work on Jane Campion's An Angel At My Table and Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures and also designed Jackson's The Frighteners. Additional film credits include Jack Be Nimble and The Ugly for director Scott Reynolds. Major began his career as a Set Designer for Television New Zealand before re-locating to the UK where he served as Assistant Set Designer at the BBC in London and Belfast for four years. He then returned to New Zealand where he worked productions such as Network News for TVNZ; TV3's National News and Nightline; the NZ/UK co-production The Grasscutter and the internationally successful television series Hercules for Renaissance Pictures. He has also worked as set designer on Vincent Ward's highly acclaimed motion picture The Navigator, as well as numerous short films. Away from the camera Major, working with Logan Brewer has designed the 'New Zealand Pavilion' for Expo 88 and 92; the Opening and Closing ceremonies at the 1990 Commonwealth Games; proposals for a New Zealand Theme Park in Japan, a tourist aquarium complex in Christchurch and the concept and production design for the International Rugby Hall of Fame. Witi Ihimaera WRITER/ASSOCIATE PRODUCER Witi Ihimaera is an award-winning New Zealand writer. His works include the book of short stories Pounamu, Pounamu and the novels Tangi and Matriarch. Ihimaera was interested in writing from an early age. From the start, he saw writing as a valuable opportunity to express in print his experience of being a Maori. Whale Rider was written in New York and Cape Cod in the space of three weeks and was inspired by the arrival of a whale in New York which Ihimaera saw from his apartment overlooking the Hudson River. This extraordinary incident made him think of his home back in New Zealand and the whale mythologies of his people. From this came Whale Rider, a magical, mythical work about a young girl whose relationship with a whale ensures the salvation of her village. It is, says Ihimaera, the work of his 'that the Maori community accepts best'. He followed this in 1989 with Dear Miss Mansfield, a response to the Katherine Mansfield centenary celebrations which rewrites her stories from a Maori perspective. Additional credits include Whanau, The Matriarch, The New Net Goes Fishing, Maori and Bulibasha. He is also co-editor of Into the World of Light and general editor of the five-volume series Te Ao Marama series. He also produced libretti for opera and his first play, Women Far Walking, premiered in 2000 and has subsequently toured throughout New Zealand. Ihimaera served as a diplomat with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, working for the New Zealand High Commission in Canberra as well as four years in New York and Washington, two of them as New Zealand Consul. He has been granted writing fellowships at the Universities of Otago and Victoria University. Since 1990 he has lectured in the English department of Auckland University. David Coulson EDITOR David Coulson has won numerous awards for editing in film, television and commercials. He has received the New Zealand Film and Television Best Film Editor Award on three occasions - for Leon Narbey's The Footstep Man and Illustrious Energy (which also won Best Picture at the Hawaiian International Film Festival) and Broken English, which also received a Best Editing Award at the Asia-Pacific Film Festival. Coulson was also a finalist for Best Editing on User Friendly and Desperate Remedies (selected for Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival and winner of Best Picture at the Kiev International Film Festival). The short film Pacific 3,2,1, Zero, received the Best Editing (Television) at the NZ Film and TV Awards as well as Best Work Conceived for the Camera at the Midem Awards in Cannes. He has also worked on many other acclaimed short films, including Kitchen Sink by director Alison Maclean (in competition at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival and winner of Best Short Film at the Sydney Film Festival; NZ Film & TV Awards; Oporto Film Festival and Special Jury Prize at the Golden Gate Awards in San Francisco); Linda's Body (winner of Best Short Film at the NZ Film & TV Awards); Rushes (winner of the Silver Plaque at the Chicago Film Festival); Avondale Dogs (winner of Best Short Film at the NZ Film and Television Awards) and Twilight of the Gods (in competition at the Berlin Film Festival). Coulson has also edited a number of drama series as well as several documentaries, most notably, Behind Closed Doors, winner of the Blue Ribbon Award at the American Film & TV Festival in New York. He has also received the NZ Advertising Gold, Silver and Bronze Axis Awards for his work on television commercials. Lisa Gerrard COMPOSER Lisa Gerrard won a Golden Globe award (with Hans Zimmer) for Best Score for Gladiator. The film also earned Gerrard nominations for Grammy, BAFTA and Chicago Film Critics awards. Gerrard also received a nomination for Best Original Score (with Pieter Bourke) at the 2002 Golden Globe Awards for Michael Mann's Ali, the story of boxing great Muhammed Ali. Although her name may be new to the world of film music, to fans of contemporary world music she is best known as half of the Australian duo Dead Can Dance. With collaborator Brendan Perry they have forged a unique sound that crossed the traditions of neo-classical, choral, baroque gothic, medieval and troubadour music and spanned the diverse cultures of Western and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Asia, North Africa, the Mediterranean and beyond. This spirit has mesmerized people worldwide as each of their albums sold to a progressively larger audience. In all they have released eight critically acclaimed albums. In 1995, Gerrard recorded her first solo album, The Mirror Pool. After reuniting with Perry for 1996's Spiritchaser, and a Dead Can Dance world tour, Gerrard her second solo effort, 1998's Duality. She branched into the realm of film in 1999 for Michael Mann's film The Insider. She then collaborated with renowned composer Hans Zimmer for Gladiator, followed by Pieter Bourke on Ali.