Background
Feeney was born in Ngaruawahia and attended at Victoria University.
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John Feeney
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Victoria University of Wellington.
Career
He worked with the, National Film Board of Canada () and made films and did photography in He was nominated for two Academy Awards. During the Second World War he served as a lieutenant in the Royal New Zealand Naval Reserve, escaping from Singapore and taking part in the Doctorate-Day landings on 6 June 1944. He then served as a research assistant with the War History Branch of the Navy Department in Wellington until 1948.
His New Zealand film credits include Legend of the Wanganui River and Hot Earth.
Feeney directed ten productions 1954 to 1963, working most often with producer Tom Daly. Most of his films focused on the Canadian Arctic and the Inuit.
In 1964, he was nominated again, for Eskimo Artist: Kenojuak (1963), a groundbreaking look at the work of Inuit graphic artist Kenojuak Ashevak. Regarding the use of the term "Eskimo" in the title, Feeney wrote in 1993 that he had suggested using the now-accepted term "Inuit" in the film, but had been told that it would be confusing for non-Inuit audiences of the day.
Eskimo Artist: Kenojuak found new life again in 1992, when filmmakers Colin Low and Tony Ianzelo combined archival and contemporary footage of Kenojuak in Momentum, Canada’s IMAX HD film for Expo "92.
After Canada, he spend much of his life in, making films and photographing. He first arrived in in 1963 to make the documentary Fountains of the Sun, at the request of that country"s ministry of culture. His photography is collected in his book Photographing: Forty Years Behind the Lens, published by The American University in Cairo Press.
Achievements
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Born
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Died
December 6, 2006 (aged 84) -
Nationality
New Zealand