Cameron Duncan

Cameron Duncan began making films as a child, shooting ambitious war scenes on video with his friends. He went on to display his filmmaking promise with a series of public interest commercials made for Fair Go's annual programme devoted to commercials. Duncan won the show's award for best secondary school advertisement three times, and was a finalist on two other occasions. One of them, on road safety, was screened on television. He also won an acting role on Shortland Street, playing a bullying gangster who beats up teenager Tama Hudson (David Wikaira-Paul).

In 2002 — the same year he was selected as a pitcher for the New Zealand under-16 team — Duncan learnt a lump in his left knee was cancerous. He channelled his experiences of chemotherapy into short film DFK6498, and also starred in it. That year at River City Short Film Festival in Wanganui, the 16-year-old filmmaker won awards for his script and directing, plus a public vote for favourite film.

The following year Duncan's cancer returned. His family began a fundraising campaign and he was treated in Mexico, the United States, and Australia. Inbetween treatments Duncan was working on and starring in an even more ambitious short, softball tale Strike Zone, which included cameos by his idol Kevin Herlihy and members of the NZ Black Sox.

Strike Zone premiered in September 2003. Duncan passed away two months later while undergoing treatment in Houston, soon after finalising a DVD compilation of his short films. The following January, when Fran Walsh won a Golden Globe for her part in composing Lord of the Rings song 'Into the West', she revealed the song had been inspired by Duncan.

The extended DVD of Return of the King included a dedication to Duncan in the appendix material (part 6), and a number of his short films. In December 2011 his parents unveiled a new headstone at Auckland's Waikumete Cemetery. The headstone uses a so-called Rosetta Stone, which allows NFC-capable smart phones to download Duncan's story.

Sources include
Sharon and Rhys Duncan
'Cameron Troy Duncan' Memory of... website. Accessed 25 April 2012