Annie Collins

Annie Collins found herself at the editing bench partly by accident, only to discover that it felt like home. Her extensive CV, much of it in documentary, includes a number of projects which have excited intense debate, including Springbok tour doco Patu! and corporate expose The Neglected Miracle.

Collins is often attracted to projects that scare off funders or broadcasters — "It's usually a sure sign that the subject is a good one". She has spoken of being attracted to documentaries "that seek to analyse injustice or social conditions", or that explore people pushing themselves beyond normal parameters.

In the 1970s Collins was one of the first freelance editors in New Zealand, learning her skills outside the normal environs of television and the government-owned National Film Unit.

Editing was not the original plan. Keen to try life-drawing and discover if she had any artistic ability, she signed up for a three-year graphic design course at Wellington Polytechnic. She first edited on Meanwhile (1975), a collaborative documentary made in her final year.  "Nobody else seemed to be very interested in actually doing the edit — it was as if just shooting was all that film was about."

The course's film tutor, Irish-born filmmaker Pat Cox, encouraged her to do more editing. Cox ran a post-production company in Wellington, and after Collins failed to get a job in the industry, Cox offered to train her, initially for no wages. She discovered quickly that editing was her passion. As she told Onfilm magazine, "I just wanted to be in that room sitting quietly with the film, puzzling my way through how to make it work."

Cox provided Collins with a grounding in everything from focus to foley. When editor Ian John was in Wellington looking for a tracklayer on landmark 1977 feature Sleeping Dogs, "Pat just said without blinking an eye 'Annie can do that'". At Cox's recommendation, Collins ended up becoming the film's sound effects editor.

Collins went on to contribute to the sound edits of Goodbye Pork Pie (1980), 45-minute Keri Hulme adaptation Hooks and Feelers (1983), and feminist thriller Trial Run (1984).

The early 80s also marked the start of a highly productive working relationship with Māori filmmaker Merata Mita — her mind was "so formidable that it was a privilege to sit next to her". Collins describes the time spent on her first film with Mita, Patu! (1981) as an "abrupt and profound awakening", in this extended video interview. The experience made her realise that "there were people living a life in this country which I couldn't even guess at". Collins and Mita collaborated on four further documentaries. "She has been the principal influence in my work, and in my life."

The Bridge (1982) which chronicled the long-running Māngere Bridge dispute, marked the first time Collins was really "let loose on a film". It was followed by Patu!, stitched together from footage before and during the 1981 Springbok tour protests, and archival documentary Mana Waka (1990) — which Collins co-produced with Mita and Jonathan Dennis. Mita and Collins shared an editing bench at Tūrangawaewae Marae, as they worked through 50-year-old footage showing the building of special waka, commissioned by Princess Te Puea. Mita and Collins' completed film would itself be restored, in time for return screenings at the 2011 round of the NZ Film Festival.

Three other landmark New Zealand documentaries from Collins' pre-1990 CV should be mentioned: two Geoff Steven documentaries from 1979, which retraced a 15,000 kilometre journey across China with New Zealand-born Rewi Alley (Gung Ho and The Humble Force); and Barry Barclay's increasingly prescient The Neglected Miracle (1985). The two hour documentary, the result of interviews with farmers, scientists and officials across the globe, explores corporate exploitation of genetic plant resources from third world countries.

In 1987 Collins added directing to her extensive resume, with 48-minute documentary Double Take. Winner of a Media Peace Award, it utilised interviews with a range of public figures, to examine institutional racism. The film screened in many institutions and government departments. 

The 90s (incidentally the title of another Collins project) saw her returning to drama — but this time editing pictures, instead of sound. She was both producer and editor of the women-led TV drama Xmas for Lou; this tale of volatile families won the 1994 NZ Television Award for Best Drama. She also cut Sima Urale's Venice award-winning short O Tamaiti (1996).

Collins has also won a trio of NZ Film and Television Awards for collaborations with director Robert Sarkies: his darkly comic first feature Scarfies in 1999 — Collins found the experience "a blast from start to finish" — Aramoana tragedy Out of the Blue (2008), and dark comedy Two Lttle Boys (2012). She went on to edit Sarkies' true crime drama Consent - The Louise Nicholas Story.

Soon after working on Scarfies, Collins got curious as to how the complex editing requirements of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy would be achieved. "I knew very well that with three films being shot in one year; the systems had to be extraordinary to keep track of it." So she joined the editing team. Collins worked in different capacities on each film on and off over four and a half years, initially editing animatics (preliminary mock-ups of how the film will look). She ended up as assembly editor on Return of the King, working on the Avid editing system alongside the film's lead editor Jamie Selkirk. After having spent much of her career flying solo, Collins enjoyed the support of working with a larger team.

Collins worked on Merata Mita’s final documentary Saving Grace - Te Whakarauora Tangata (2011), which was completed after Mita's death in 2010. The documentary was an intimate confrontation of domestic violence within Māori whānau, aimed at breaking the cycle of abuse. She paid tribute to Mita in this TV interview, and was later a consulting editor on this feature-length documentary about Mita's life and work.

Collins also cut moody coming of age drama Shopping, which made its mark at the Berlin Film Festival, and psychological thriller Coming Home in the Dark, which follows a family trip that turns bad thanks to two mysterious drifters. In 2024 she edited Marimari, her second documentary with director Paul Wolffram.

Collins talked extensively about her career and filmmaking philosophy in this 2024 video interview. She did this shorter interview with NZ On Screen in 2009. She pays tribute to director Merata Mita here.

Profile updated on 16 August 2024

Sources include
Annie Collins
'ScreenTalk Legends - Annie Collins' (Video Interview) NZ On Screen website. Director Chris Terpstra. Loaded 15 August 2024. Accessed 15 August 2024
'Annie Collins: On cutting films...' (Video Interview) NZ On Screen website. Director Claire O'Leary. Loaded February 2009. Accessed 15 August 2024
Nick Grant, Annie Collins Uncut (Interview) - Onfilm, October 2004