“If I can’t find a connection, then I’m not making anything,” says Briar Marsh, in a cafe in West Auckland where the noise of the coffee grinder and the clash of cutlery is challenging my voice recorder to capture any of her quietly spoken words. Still, it’s hard not to feel a connection with this extremely personable documentary filmmaker.
We’re meeting to discuss MORE THAN GOLD – a feature-length documentary about Dame Valerie Adams. The film, which releases in cinemas this month, is a holy trinity of talent: Valerie Adams, producer Leanne Pooley and director Briar Marsh. The former two names are household currency, but although this is Briar’s fifth feature documentary to date, hers is still not a name most Kiwis would instantly recognise.
Though they ought to. When she was in her final year at Elam, Auckland University’s fine arts school, Briar Marsh wrote and directed her first film , which premiered at the NZIFF in 2004. It’s a documentary about her Te Henga neighbour – lesbian separatist and artist Allie Eagle, and the impact 1970s feminism had on the next generation. Having Briar in the frame was Allie’s idea.
