In Spring One Plants Alone
Headline quote
A thoroughly devastating documentary on 82 year old Maori woman’s struggle for survival.
Los Angeles Times
- Year:
- 1980
This is the story of Puhi, an aged Maori woman and Niki, her fully grown but wholly dependent son. The world they occupy is not a world of large events but the rituals of everyday life, traditions and interdependence. In Spring One Plants Alone documents the minutiae of their very enclosed existence. Filmed over a period of one and a half years, it emerges as a rare, haunting and powerful portrayal of their life together. This is the story of their rituals and of their survival. The small and disconnected instances that we encounter form a lone vision of the rifts and the bond between an old woman and her disturbed son.
Images
Cast and crew
- Producer and Director:
- Vincent Ward
- Cinematography:
- Alun Bollinger and Leon Narbey
- Editor:
- Chris Lancaster
- Location Sound:
- Stephen Upston
- Music:
- Jack Body
- Script Research:
- Vincent Ward
- Featuring:
- Puhi and Niki
Visually powerful... Ward holds one unremittingly in a state of total concentration on gestures and daily objects.
Chasseur d' Images — 1982
A hypnotic look at and old woman... vignettes of tremendous visual power.
San Francisco Chronicle, Judy Stone — 1981
A study of the role of ritual in day to day life
Los Angeles Times — 1980
THAT PERSONAL QUALITY, an interview with Vincent Ward
by Diana Ward — 1979
Writing Poetry for the Screen, an interview with Vincent Ward
San Francisco Examiner, Nancy Scott — 1981
Silver Hugo
Chicago International Film Festival — 1980
Grand Prix
Cinema du Reel — 1982