Robin Scholes

Robin Scholes argues that the job of a producer "is to enable", and "never take 'no' for an answer" — finding the money, "so that the director has the means to direct". Scholes began making films as an academic, and later overcame varied obstacles to bring blockbuster hit Once Were Warriors to the screen. At indie company Communicado, she collaborated with a number of directors early in their careers: from Lee Tamahori on Warriors to Gregor Nicholas (Broken English) and Christine Jeffs (Rain).

Scholes grew up with her mother in the Auckland suburb of Orākei. Her father — an Englishman who came to New Zealand as a ship's stoker — died of tuberculosis before she began primary school. "My dad wanted a son; that's why he named Robin with an 'i'." she says. "He gave me boy's toys. I had a big Meccano set and a Hornby train set that I would spread out all over the living room. It was an extraordinary start. There was no gender agenda in my house. I got my first doll when I was 10-years-old." 

Her first job out of school was selling wedding linen and lingerie as part of her family's business. Thinking she would be a photographer or filmmaker, she hoped to study fine arts at Elam. Instead, to satisfy her mother's wishes, she went to teachers' training college, including some arts papers at Auckland University. She immersed herself in the city's burgeoning arts scene, flatting on Queen Street with pioneering art dealer Barry Lett and his girlfriend.

At age 23 Scholes landed in Europe. She continued an Art History degree in Perugia, while studying Italian, finishing the degree in London. There she got her first taste of filmmaking, via socialist film collective Cinema Action. Then she headed to Edinburgh for her Diploma, a thesis on Dada and surrealism. 

She got a dream job, lecturing in Art History at Essex University, but after a trip home in 1971, didn't want to leave New Zealand again. She began lecturing at Auckland University, where she was one of a small number of women lecturers. "In summer I sometimes gave lectures in bare feet — I was a hippie and a lecturer." She also found time to make her first film, on the 1908 Blackball miner's strike, and contribute occasional lectures to Roger Horrocks' new film course. 

In 1975 Scholes got a job as one of the camera operators on groundbreaking feminist documentary Some of My Best Friends Are Women. The largely female crew was highly unusual for the time. Scholes "entered the industry when there was a huge gender bias". She recalls only one female producer working in television in this period. "We fought a really big fight to actually be given respect." On follow-up series Women (1977) she contributed as a researcher. 

Over a decade in state television, Scholes wrote, directed and produced varied shows and documentaries. She credits producer Graeme Wilson at the Natural History Film Unit for teaching her to write scripts. In 1978 Scholes wrote and directed Hidden Places. The Ōkārito episode won a Feltex Award for Best Documentary. In 1980 a Fulbright Scholarship saw her doing an intense year making and studying film in New York. 

Back in New Zealand, things only got busier. She produced a short-lived daily magazine show for Northern Television, and directed for arts show Kaleidoscope (including reporting on the Cannes Film Festival, and this four-part special on local landscape art). In 1985 Scholes joined producer Neil Roberts at his company Communicado. It quickly expanded to become one of New Zealand's most successful independent production companies, employing as many as 100. Best known for its popular factual shows and docudramas for television, Communicado also did corporate work, adverts, airline entertainment and four movies. 

Initially, Scholes and Roberts managed the company's television output together. Later Scholes took on most of the television, plus films.  She believes that the deregulation of local television in the early 90s made for a perfect time to be producing television independently; both new channel TV3 and the state broadcaster were eager to commission content. During meetings with programming heads, Scholes and Roberts often successfully pitched multiple shows. 

Once Were Warriors (1994) marked the first feature film produced by Scholes (and Communicado). Scholes optioned the original novel after producer Robert Boyd-Bell suggested she read it. Her own experiences with violence were a motivator, after she survived a vicious home invasion in 1983. "I was looking for a vehicle to show the physical damage a woman suffers. As happens with Beth in the movie, it can serve to make someone stronger and more resilient."

Scholes has paid credit to Lee Tamahori for directing Once Were Warriors "with very little money and very little time". She notes in this video interview that the project finally won NZ Film Commission funding, after Gisborne police commander Rana Waitai gave an impassioned speech about the project's importance. At the film's premiere, local film distributors took bets on how little money it would make. Scholes says the belief at the time was that "Māori stories would not succeed" commercially.

Once Were Warriors provoked blockbuster box office and state of the nation debate in Aotearoa, won rave reviews from international heavyweights like Roger Ebert and Richard Corliss, and brought director Tamahori to Hollywood attention. Scholes was most proud "that people will not be able to leave the cinema and not talk about the film. A lot of people will know the circumstances in which this family lives. The people who don't know — who've never been exposed to it — will realise it emotionally for the first time, instead of reading it off the page." 

Scholes followed Warriors with interracial romance Broken English, directed by Gregor Nicholas. Like Warriors, it was a rare Kiwi feature in which the country's dominant Pākehā culture hardly features; again it screened widely overseas, and won rave reviews from a number of American critics. A year later, in 1997, Scholes was made an OBE for her services to film and television.

Scholes' interest in stories with a Polynesian or Māori theme would be further evidenced in modern-day land rights Western Crooked Earth (2001) (starring Warriors actor Temuera Morrison) and Samoan-themed horror The Tattooist (2007), a co-production between New Zealand and Singapore.

On television, Scholes has devised a wide range of factual programmes, including Heroes, Business World, Success, Animals and Us, Money, Farmer and another 80s era show, New Zealand 2000. The idea for long-running series Magic Kiwis on famous New Zealanders was sparked by a conversation with TV One Programmer Harold Anderson, who mentioned their archive of footage of well-known Kiwis.

Her work in small screen drama includes thriller/romance miniseries The Chosen, starring Cliff Curtis. Meanwhile ambitious Brit-Kiwi co-production, historical saga Greenstone (1999) saw her collaborating once more with her "great mentor and educator" Don Selwyn.

A series of management changes at Communicado after the death of Neil Roberts saw Scholes take the reins as joint managing director in 2001, pitching a new lineup of shows, "I worked my butt off getting work and getting the company back into the black". She oversaw its merger with Australian company Screentime, and continued to work on a wide range of TV including The Big Art Trip, Grass Roots Business, Hip Hop New Zealand, The Ultimate Do Up and Infomania.

In 2005, after 20 years at Communicado, Scholes joined Eyeworks Touchdown (which later became part of Warner Brothers). Scholes helped Eyeworks boss Julie Christie establish a film and drama division. The duo worked on movies The Hopes and Dreams of Gazza Snell, starring Robyn Malcolm and The Tattooist, and female ensemble show Burying Brian. Scholes credits writer Gavin Strawhan for the way Burying Brian paired black comedy with "great warmth and love of character". 

In 2011, having been  inspired by "the unique voice and vision" shown by Kiwi directors in short films like Stroke and Turangawaewae, Scholes took up the reins on one of the executive producer 'pods': companies which picked and oversaw short films for the NZ Film Commission.

Movie Mr Pip was released in 2013. Scholes had been chasing the rights to the Lloyd Jones novel at the same time as Shrek director Andrew Adamson; He phoned and suggested they combine forces. Shot mainly on an island off Bougainville in Papua New Guinea, the film stars Brit Hugh Laurie (House) and Kiwi Kerry Fox. In this video interview, Scholes recounts waiting days to meet the President of Bougainville and persuade him to vouch for the safety of the film crew, in order to satisfy the bond company it was safe to film there.

Scholes and Christie also made two What Really Happened docudramas for television. Each explored a key event in Aotearoa history. Scholes continued producing under her own company Jump Film and Television, with light-hearted South Auckland web series The Factory and WWI miniseries When We Go to War.

Her next project, Mahana, saw Scholes reuniting with Warriors director Lee Tamahori and actor Temuera Morrison. Featuring "horses and shearing gangs and families at war with one another", the 60s era drama was adapted from Witi Ihimaera's novel Bulibasha. Mahana debuted at the 2016 Berlin Film Festival. Alongside money from the NZ Film Commission, Scholes utilised some crowdfunding. 

After meeting Rachel Gardner at an industry event, Scholes felt she had the makings of a good producer. They collaborated on 2004 documentary Colin McCahon: I Am. In 2018, the two co-produced Netflix series The New Legends of Monkey, a remake of the iconic 1970s kids series. A second season followed in 2020. 

Scholes approached Charlotte Grimshaw about turning two of her books into television. The result was thriller The Bad Seed. Produced with South Pacific Pictures, it debuted on TVNZ 1 over five consecutive nights in April 2019. Scholes followed it with another high profile project: miniseries Black Hands, based on events leading up to the 1994 murders of the Bain family. Scholes produced it for the Kiwi arm of Warner Brothers.

Scholes and Lee Tamahori collaborated again on 2023 movie The Convert. It follows a British preacher embroiled in a violent war between Māori tribes. 

Scholes talks in detail about her career in this 2024 interview. She is also interviewed here. Press on these links for Scholes talking about Once Were Warriors, selling the film in Cannes, and discussing Mahana (in the seventh clip).

Scholes is a past member of the trust which runs NZ On Screen.

Profile updated on 16 August 2024

Sources include
Robin Scholes
'ScreenTalk Legends - Robin Scholes' (Video Interview) NZ On Screen website. Director Chris Terpstra. Loaded 15 August 2024. Accessed 16 August 2024
'Robin Scholes - producing the goods' (Video Interview) NZ On Screen website. Director James Coleman. Loaded 9 June 2010. Accessed 16 August 2024
Judy Bailey, 'The incredible life story of Robin Scholes, the producer of Once Were Warriors' - The Australian Women's Weekly, 3 January 2020 
Sarah Stuart, 'Twelve Questions: Robin Scholes' (Interview) - The NZ Herald, 14 August 2014
'Robin Scholes'. Touchdown website (broken link). Accessed 28 March 2010
'New Lee Tamahori Film Shoot Complete' (press release). Scoop website. Loaded 27 May 2015. Accessed 7 May 2017
'Doing the spadework' (Interview) - Onfilm July 2008, page 13 (Volume 25, number 7)
Unknown writer, 'Q and A with Robin Scholes' WIFT NZ website. Loaded 15 March 2016. Accessed 2 May 2019
Once Were Warriors press kit
The Convert press release. NZ Film Commission website. Loaded 12 March 2024. Accessed 16 August 2024