Simon Mark-Brown

Simon Mark-Brown began his screen career in 1987, buying props for commercials. He worked his way up to set dressing and art directing on adverts and movies, including Ruby and Rata and The Footstep Man. In 1990 he got busy directing the first of hundreds of adverts. Later he made two extended documentaries about musicians: The Secret Life of John Rowles and The Sun Came Out. His first feature, comedy drama The Catch, followed in 2017. Since then Mark-Brown has directed The Man on the Island, web series/film Seasick - Saving the Hauraki Gulf, and architecture doco Brown vs. Brown. He also co-directed wine doco A Seat at the Table.

Working on Vincent Ward's The Navigator was like a prison sentence of hard labour. I swore to never make filmmaking so hard for myself. And I haven't — I shot a feature in 10 days. Simon Mark-Brown