Peter Wells (New Zealand)
Encyclopedia
Peter Wells is an award-winning writer and filmmaker from New Zealand
.
Although today he is mainly known for his fiction, Peter Wells has explored his interest in gay and historical themes, in a number of expressive drama and documentary films since the 1980s.
The first and (up to 2008) last feature film made by Peter Wells is Desperate Remedies
(1993), co-directed with Stewart Main. This take on New Zealand's colonial beginnings was selected to screen at the Cannes Film Festival, and represented an expressionistic alternative to the man alone machismo that dominated NZ film in the 1970s and 80s.
Wells has since concentrated on developing his writing career. His short stories and novels have been widely praised. But he has not entirely abandoned drama. In 1996 he collaborated with theatre director Colin McColl
on an operatic dramatization of Katherine Mansfield
's Wellington
stories, commissioned for the NZ International Festival of the Arts.
Two short stories from his awardwinning 1991 collection Dangerous Desires have been filmed to date: Of Memory & Desire, the tale of a Japanese couple travelling around New Zealand
, was adapted by Niki Caro
for her first feature film in 1997. The same year, working from a Wells script, Stewart Main directed sixties coming of age story One of THEM! as an hour long short.
Wells' 2003 novel Iridescence was a runner up in the fiction category of the Montana New Zealand Book Awards
and a finalist in the 2005 Tasmania Pacific Fiction Prize.
In 2006 Peter Wells was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit
, for services to literature and film.
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
.
Although today he is mainly known for his fiction, Peter Wells has explored his interest in gay and historical themes, in a number of expressive drama and documentary films since the 1980s.
The first and (up to 2008) last feature film made by Peter Wells is Desperate Remedies
Desperate Remedies (film)
Desperate Remedies is a 1993 New Zealand drama film directed by Stewart Main and Peter Wells. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival.-Plot:...
(1993), co-directed with Stewart Main. This take on New Zealand's colonial beginnings was selected to screen at the Cannes Film Festival, and represented an expressionistic alternative to the man alone machismo that dominated NZ film in the 1970s and 80s.
Wells has since concentrated on developing his writing career. His short stories and novels have been widely praised. But he has not entirely abandoned drama. In 1996 he collaborated with theatre director Colin McColl
Colin McColl
Sir Colin Hugh Verel McColl, KCMG was Head of the British Secret Intelligence Service from 1989 to 1994.-Career:Educated at Shrewsbury School and at Queen's College, Oxford, McColl joined the diplomatic service in 1950...
on an operatic dramatization of Katherine Mansfield
Katherine Mansfield
Kathleen Mansfield Beauchamp Murry was a prominent modernist writer of short fiction who was born and brought up in colonial New Zealand and wrote under the pen name of Katherine Mansfield. Mansfield left for Great Britain in 1908 where she encountered Modernist writers such as D.H. Lawrence and...
's Wellington
Wellington
Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...
stories, commissioned for the NZ International Festival of the Arts.
Two short stories from his awardwinning 1991 collection Dangerous Desires have been filmed to date: Of Memory & Desire, the tale of a Japanese couple travelling around New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, was adapted by Niki Caro
Niki Caro
Niki Caro is film director, producer and screenwriter who was born in Wellington, New Zealand. Her 2002 film Whale Rider was critically praised and won a number of awards at international film festivals....
for her first feature film in 1997. The same year, working from a Wells script, Stewart Main directed sixties coming of age story One of THEM! as an hour long short.
Wells' 2003 novel Iridescence was a runner up in the fiction category of the Montana New Zealand Book Awards
Montana New Zealand Book Awards
The New Zealand Post Book Awards are a series of literary awards to works of New Zealand citizens. They were created in 1996, as a merge of the two previously most relevant awards in New Zealand: the Montana Book Awards and the New Zealand Book Awards...
and a finalist in the 2005 Tasmania Pacific Fiction Prize.
In 2006 Peter Wells was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit
New Zealand Order of Merit
The New Zealand Order of Merit is an order established in 1996 "for those persons who in any field of endeavour, have rendered meritorious service to the Crown and nation or who have become distinguished by their eminence, talents, contributions or other merits."The order includes five...
, for services to literature and film.
Filmography and videography
- Foolish Things (1980)
- Little Queen (1984)
- Jewel's Darl (1985)
- My First Suit (1985)
- Newest City on the Globe: Art Deco Napier (1985) Auckland: Moving Image Centre
- Newest City on the Globe (1985) Written and directed by Peter Wells. Produced and edited by Stewart Main. Auckland: TVNZ
- A Death in the Family Film for television with Stewart Main
- Drama on Film (?1987) Wellington: New Zealand Film Commission
- The Mighty Civic (1988) Documentary. Writer, director (with Stewart Main). Wellington: New Zealand Film Commission
- A Taste of Kiwi (1990)
- Desperate RemediesDesperate Remedies (film)Desperate Remedies is a 1993 New Zealand drama film directed by Stewart Main and Peter Wells. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival.-Plot:...
(1993) Writer, director (with Stewart Main). Isambard Productions. - Naughty Little Peeptoe With Garth Maxwell
- One of Them as writer, directed by Stewart Main (View on NZ On Screen)
- Georgie Girl (2001)
Honours and awards
- Made a Member of the New Zealand Order of MeritNew Zealand Order of MeritThe New Zealand Order of Merit is an order established in 1996 "for those persons who in any field of endeavour, have rendered meritorious service to the Crown and nation or who have become distinguished by their eminence, talents, contributions or other merits."The order includes five...
in 2006 for services to literature and film. - In 2009 Peter Wells was awarded with a New Zealand non-fiction literary prize, convened by CLL (Copyright Licensing Ltd) to write a series of biographical essays on William ColensoWilliam ColensoWilliam Colenso was a Cornish Christian missionary to New Zealand, and also a printer, botanist, explorer and politician.-Life:Born in Penzance, Cornwall, he was the cousin of John William Colenso, Bishop of Natal...
, entitled The Hungry Heart: The Enquiring Mind. The book “will not be a conventional biography, but an essay series that bears directly on the episodes of heartbreak, loneliness, and sometimes horror that chequered the life of this gifted renaissance man – printer, writer, botanist, explorer, ex-missionary and intellectual maverick”. The book will be published by November 2011.