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Leon Narbey
Leon Narbey
Leon Narbey
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Leon Gordon Alexander Narbey (born 2 August 1947) is a New Zealand cinematographer.

Key Information

Born in Helensville, Narbey was educated at the Elam School of Fine Arts, specialising in sculpture. He married Anita Janske Narbey (1944 - 2019) in 1966 and they had together two daughters Vanessa and Beatrix. He lectured at the University of Canterbury in 1972, before joining the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation as a news cameraman. In the mid-1970s, he shot the Geoff Steven documentary Te Matakite o Aotearoa, about the 1975 Māori land march. In 1978 he made Bastion Point: Day 507 with Merata Mita and Gerd Pohlmann, which he also edited and co-produced. Later he continued his partnership with Steven on three documentaries shot in China in 1979, including Gung Ho (about Rewi Alley) and The Humble Force.[1]

He co-wrote and directed two feature films, Illustrious Energy (1987) and The Footstep Man (1992). In 1990, he shot the comedy-drama Ruby and Rata for Gaylene Preston. In 1993, he was director of photography on the feature film Desperate Remedies, for which he won the Best Cinematography award at the New Zealand Film and Television Awards in 1994.[1] In the 1990s Narbey worked extensively with documentary director Shirley Horrocks on productions including Pleasures and Dangers, Act of Murder, Flip and Two Twisters, and Early Days Yet. In 1999, he was the director of photography on Jubilee, and was nominated for Best Cinematography in the 2000 Nokia New Zealand Film Awards.[2]

In 2000 he shot the romantic drama The Price of Milk, the 2002 dramas Whale Rider and No. 2 (2006), the 2007 vampire film Perfect Creature, 2008's Dean Spanley and Rain of the Children, the 2009 Topp Twins documentary The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls, the 2011 Samoan film The Orator, the 2013 drama Giselle, The Dead Lands in 2014, One Thousand Ropes in 2017 and in 2020 the film Whina.[3][4]

Awards

[edit]
  • Gold Award New Zealand Cinematographers Society for One Thousand Ropes (2017)
  • Silver Award New Zealand Cinematographers Society for The Dead Lands (2016)
  • Presented "Services to Cinema" Award at the Rialto Channel NZ Film Awards (2014)
  • Awarded the Arts Foundation of New Zealand "Laureate Award" (2010)

References

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Leon Narbey

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Leon Narbey is a New Zealand cinematographer and director known for his painterly use of light and shadow, his extensive contributions to New Zealand feature films and documentaries, and his role in shaping the visual language of the country's cinema since the 1970s. Born on 2 August 1947 in Helensville, he studied sculpture at Elam Art School, where his early experiments with light-based installations profoundly influenced his approach to cinematography. Narbey began his professional career as a news cameraman before moving into political and documentary filmmaking in the mid-1970s, collaborating on landmark works such as Te Matakite o Aotearoa (1975) and Bastion Point - Day 507 (1980), which documented key Māori land protests. He co-directed his first feature Skin Deep (1979) and made his solo directorial debut with the documentary Man of the Trees (1981), but gained wider recognition as director of the poetic goldmining drama Illustrious Energy (1988), which won multiple national and international awards, and The Footstep Man (1992). As one of New Zealand's most prolific cinematographers, Narbey has shot more than 20 feature films, including Desperate Remedies (1993), The Price of Milk (2000), Whale Rider (2002), No. 2 (2006), Dean Spanley (2008), The Orator (2011), and The Dead Lands (2014), often collaborating with directors such as Niki Caro, Toa Fraser, Harry Sinclair, and Peter Wells. His work has earned him several Best Cinematography awards at the New Zealand Film Awards, the Arts Foundation Laureate Award in 2010, and a Special New Zealand Film Award for Services to Cinema in 2014. Narbey's versatility extends to documentaries and arts portraits, including Colin McCahon: I Am, Punitive Damage, and The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls, where his background in sculpture continues to inform his distinctive visual compositions and ability to capture both dramatic landscapes and intimate human stories.

Early life

Childhood and education

Leon Narbey was born on 2 August 1947 in Helensville, New Zealand. He received his formal art training at the Elam School of Fine Arts in Auckland, where he specialised in sculpture and became particularly drawn to the interplay of light and shadow. During his time at Elam, Narbey created light-and-shadow installations and began using film to document his work. His earliest films served primarily as records of these gallery installations, though he soon realised that colour and lighting required rethinking in cinematic terms. One notable student-era work is the experimental short film Room 2 (1968), made for the School of Fine Arts at Auckland University, which dispenses with narrative to evoke mood through changing red and blue lighting states in a white room, accompanied by a score from Phil Dadson. After graduating from Elam, Narbey presented the immersive light and sound installation Real Time at the inaugural exhibition of the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery on 22 February 1970. He later produced the 16mm colour film A Film of Real Time (1971) to document the piece, employing staccato editing, varied camera angles, and fast cuts to recreate its disorienting multisensory experience beyond mere recording. In 1972, Narbey began lecturing in sculpture and mixed media at the University of Canterbury.

Career

Entry into broadcasting and documentary work

Leon Narbey began lecturing in sculpture and mixed media at the University of Canterbury in 1972, while also playing a key role in establishing the Alternative Cinema co-operative in Christchurch. This period represented his initial shift toward organized involvement in independent film and media production outside traditional art practices. In the mid-1970s, Narbey spent three years working as a news and current affairs cameraman for the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation, where he developed essential technical skills in location shooting and fast-paced documentary camerawork. This experience provided a foundation for his subsequent work in independent documentary filmmaking. Narbey's early documentary contributions included significant collaborations on politically engaged projects. He co-shot Te Matakite o Aotearoa (1975) with Geoff Steven, documenting the Māori land march. In 1980, he co-produced, edited, and shot Bastion Point: Day 507 (1980) alongside Merata Mita and Gerd Pohlmann; Narbey has described the film as one of his most important works. His involvement continued in 1979 with China-related documentaries, including Gung Ho: Rewi Alley of China. In 1981, Narbey directed the half-hour documentary portrait Man of the Trees. These projects marked his growing prominence in New Zealand documentary production and laid groundwork for his later transition into feature filmmaking.

Directing feature films

Leon Narbey directed and co-wrote two feature films during his career transition from cinematography to narrative directing. His debut feature, Illustrious Energy (1988), was co-written with Martin Edmond and produced by Mirage Films with support from the New Zealand Film Commission. The film is a poetic historical drama depicting Chinese gold prospectors in 1890s Otago, focusing on themes of isolation, debt bondage, racism, and the harsh natural landscape, with recurring symbolic imagery such as caged crickets representing confinement. It garnered eight national awards from the 1988 New Zealand Listener Film and Television Awards and two international awards: the East-West Centre Award for Best Film at the 1988 Hawaii International Film Festival and the Bronze Charybdis (third prize) at the 1988 Taormina Film Festival. His second and final feature as director, The Footstep Man (1992), was also co-written with Martin Edmond. The film is a drama about a foley artist creating sound effects for a movie-within-a-movie set in the world of Toulouse-Lautrec, exploring blurred boundaries between art, reality, and personal relationships. It received eight nominations at the 1993 New Zealand Film and Television Awards, winning Best Cinematography for Allen Guilford and Best Editing for David Coulson.

Cinematography career

Leon Narbey has established himself as one of New Zealand's most acclaimed and prolific directors of photography, contributing to more than 20 feature films and numerous documentaries since the 1980s. His reputation for filming in demanding situations, combined with a meticulous, perfectionist approach and a "wonderful eye" for light and shadow, has earned him descriptions as a "poet of lighting" and "sculptor of light." Narbey's early feature cinematography included Strata (1983), which featured moody and arresting imagery of the volcanic plateau. He later photographed Ruby and Rata (1990) and achieved significant recognition for Desperate Remedies (1993), where his vibrant colors, highly mobile camerawork, and innovative use of glass and mirror sets in a studio environment evoked intense 1940s Hollywood aesthetics; this work won him the New Zealand Film and Television Awards for Best Cinematography. He also earned cinematography awards for the short film Possum (1998), receiving honors at both the Athens Short Film Festival and the New Zealand Film and TV Awards. In the 2000s, Narbey collaborated on several notable projects, including The Price of Milk (2000), a rural romance with dreamlike qualities that brought him the Nokia New Zealand Film Awards for Best Cinematography. He served as director of photography on Whale Rider (2002), praised for its restrained naturalism and rare coverage in American Cinematographer magazine. Subsequent credits included No. 2 (2006), Dean Spanley (2008), the documentary Rain of the Children (2008), and The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls (2009). Narbey's later work encompassed documentaries and features such as Flip and Two Twisters (1995), a Len Lye documentary made in long-term collaboration with director Shirley Horrocks. He photographed The Orator (2011), The Dead Lands (2014), One Thousand Ropes (2017), and Whina (2022). His sustained versatility across drama, arthouse, indigenous-language, and documentary forms has solidified his standing in New Zealand cinema.

Artistic style and collaborations

Awards and recognition

Personal life

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