Martyn Sanderson in ‘Autumn Fires’

Press, 31 October 1977, Page 19

Martyn Sanderson in ‘Autumn Fires’

"Autumn Fires” is the name of a New Zealand documentary screening from TV! tonight. It is described as a passionate study of an eiderly woman living in Hokianga, and is made by Pacific Films, of Wellington. It is told through the eyes of Martyn Sanderson, not as an actor, but as her “real life" nephew. (Sanderson appeared last night in the fifth episode of "The Governor” when he played the role of General Sir Duncan Cameron).

Barry Barclay directed and designed the film with the same sensitivity that he showed with his 1975 production, “Ashes,” and with the series, “Tangata Whenua,” about the culture of the Maori people.

Pacific Films have preceded the main title of "Autumn Fires” with. “In Search of Pakehatanga,” indicating its aspiration towards a series that might similarly explore the background and social culture of Europeans in New' Zealand.

Sanderson visits Hokianga at the same time as his aunt is visiting the area she knew well in her younger years.

For Martyn it is like family pilgrimage and his Aunt Olive dominates the mood and intensity of the film.

“She is,” he says, “livelier at 80 than many of us half her age.” In one of Aunt Olive’s stories, “Helena,” Martyn perceives “a kind of crystallised image of all she

has learned, and wants to pass on, to leave behind.”

The story, a mystical idyll, is threaded carefully through the documentary. It tells of a blighted love affair through which acceptance and a certain joy emerge by staring bitterness in the face.

The documentary charts the pioneer dreams that impelled early New Zealand. “His idea of coming out to New Zealand,” Olive says of her father, “was to make his fortune and go back again. But we cheeky nippers used to say: ‘Oh, father, you went in for too many cows and kids — you couldn't expect to make money’.’*

At Hokianga, kauri gum digging and the kauri timber industry gave way to farming. The old family farm that Martyn knew as a child is now deserted, taken over to make up a combined property, raising the question as to whether small holdings can be buffered against outside economics any longer. "Autumn Fires” says much about the history of New Zealand and the way in which personal and family fortunes have been washed aside by the tides of change. The lyrics of old songs — "Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life” and "Beautiful Isle Of Somewhere,” popular in Aunt Olive's youth, echo the sentiments of an earlier New Zealand that is disappearing along with the rural life that shaped it. The compelling image of a

top--dressing plane spreading fertiliser over a landscape in which there is only a deserted and weather-worn farm hut, points, in much the same way as a Brent Wong painting, to the dilemma of New Zealand’s identity. This intriguing and novel documentary was photographed by Rory O’Shea and edited by Dell King. It was produced for Pacific by the company’s head, John O’Shea, and is included in the collection of six films largely made by New Zealand independent film-makers being screened weekly by TVI.