Hugh Macdonald

Hugh Macdonald began his long, award-studded career at the National Film Unit, where at age 25 he directed ambitious three-screen spectacular This is New Zealand (1970). It was seen by 400,000 New Zealanders. In the 1980s he produced Oscar-nominated short The Frog, the Dog, and the Devil and set up his own company, continuing a busy diet of train documentaries, commercial films and animation. 

That was one of the great things about working at the National Film Unit in the 60s — we could do what we wanted, as long as it wasn't offensive to whichever adminstration was in power at the time. We were frequently allowed to play with ideas we had. That was an incredible creative freedom. Hugh Macdonald