David Sims

While growing up in Auckland, David Sims developed an interest in railways. That interest led him to take up photography, and travel to places where the spectacle of steam power could best be captured. Using fireworks to light a night scene was one trick he used to make the most of a limited budget. His photographic skills, along with a BA in English Literature and History from Auckland University, helped land him a job at the National Film Unit in Wellington, at a time "when the place was humming along on a high".

Soon after starting work as a production trainee, Sims discovered that other NFU staff shared his interest in railways. But it still took considerable persuasion to get the go-ahead for a film featuring the last days of steam locomotives, on the Midland line through the Southern Alps. Acceptance by the tight railway community in which the filming took place was helped by NFU cameraman Brian Cross being from a railway family. Sims argues that Cross had "carved a pretty formidable reputation for himself" at the NFU, risking life and limb to get the most innovative shots.

One such spectacular shot saw a small film crew clinging tightly to a motorised jigger [a small maintenance vehicle] while heading up Broken River Gorge, filming the Kb steam locomotive advancing behind them. Pushed in desperation well beyond its normal speed, the jigger "burst free into daylight just seconds before a huge cloud of steam came billowing out of the tunnel". For young Sims, alarm turned to relief when filming finished without loss of limb. The resulting film, Kb Country was released as Pictorial Parade No. 200 in January 1968.

Most Pictorial Parade reels at the time were made up of two or three items. Yet even short items could present unforeseen difficulties on location. For A Shot in the Deep, which ended up on Pictorial Parade No. 209, Sims filmed off-shore oil exploration work on the continental shelf, east of Timaru. Regular depth charges were being dropped from the ship where Sims and cameraman Wayne Stevens were filming; the resulting seismic waves and fountains of water continued as they were ferried ashore on a local fishing vessel. The diesel engine overheated and set fire to the wheelhouse. With the engine off while the fire was quelled, the vessel drifted back towards the continuing explosions. Eventually an impromptu cooling system using seawater was set up, and the party got ashore at Moeraki. It transpired that the skipper of the vessel was neither a local nor familiar with the boat. The disgruntled local fishermen had refused to go to sea while the exploration work was destroying their fishing grounds. Stevens died later that same year, in a floatplane accident.

Filming of The Taking Mood, a comedy film for oil giant BP, went more smoothly during the long summer of early 1968. As assistant director, Sims had a rare opportunity of observing an English director working with a local cast and crew. He also had the dubious pleasure of driving a 1934 Alvis, the classic car which featured in the film. Following a breakdown he drove the repaired open-top car to catch up with the crew. Overnight, through the Desert Road he sped, swathed in a pup tent poncho-style as protection from falling rain.

Documentaries were the mainstay of the NFU’s output and the focus of Sims’ work. Notable documentaries included The Early Days (1971), encapsulating New Zealand history as depicted in postage stamps, and a biographical short on the great scientist Rutherford of Nelson (1972).

The story of building the Māori canoe Tahere Tikitiki required two years’ filming. During this time Sims also directed the memorable domestic tourism promos New Zealand is Yours, and a film on New Zealand’s foreign aid programme.

Sims' many films on the arts began with Bronze Boy (1970), featuring sculptor Frank Szirmay; Sims went on to include two sculptors and a potter in Three Women (1976), various craftspeople in the award-winning A Sense of Involvement (1977) and four prominent painters in Painting in an Empty Land (1981), also an award-winner.

It was common for NFU directors to edit their own films. Sims preferred it that way. He derived deep satisfaction from Doctor Zhivago director David Lean’s complimentary remarks on his editing of Festival (1976), while visiting the NFU. Inspired partly by French film The Red Balloon, it featured a young boy wandering Wellington during a city-wide festival. 

In 1976, to introduce A Train for Christmas, Sims was a guest at the Tehran Film Festival. After being flown around Iran in high style, contacts made in during the festival enabled him to sit in on the filming of James Bond classic The Spy Who Loved Me in England, and witness director Ken Russell rushing around the set of Valentino.

With an elaborate dream sequence for Jack Winter’s Dream (1979), Sims achieved the rare satisfaction of getting a scene on the first take. The planning and teamwork of experienced crew and actors ensured that the hundreds of dollar notes floating down as performers acted out the dream did not have to be painstakingly picked up for another take. A rare venture by Sims into drama, this adaptation of a James K Baxter radio play it was chosen to open the 1979 Wellington Film Festival, before screening on television, where many of the director's later films were seen.

One of these, Destinations (1988), featured the blowing up of an old railway tunnel. His call “action!” was the cue for the explosives expert to push the plunger and the camera crew to record the scene from a safe distance. Exploding rocks were soon whistling overhead.

Following the sale of the NFU to TVNZ in 1990, Sims joined former NFU colleagues Hugh Macdonald and Kit Rollings in setting up Memory Line Productions. Sims was able to explore his interest in trains in a series of successful documentaries, aimed principally at the home video market. Later independent work included researching and directing The Truth About Tangiwai (2002).

Sims continues to work as a self-employed filmmaker engaged in documentaries. His Mystery at Midge Bay analyses the evidence of early Portuguese voyages to New Zealand. Sims also filmed Barry Brickell at work in The Last Fatso “And No Maybes”, a project ironically completed just before the famed potter’s death in early 2016.

Writing and original research by Clive Sowry; published on 30 September 2016

Sources include
David Sims
Memory Line Productions website. Accessed 29 September 2016
Unknown writer,''Empty land’ artists bring gold award' - The Evening Post, 24 June 1982, page 22