Bill Direen: A Memory of Others

Christchurch withstands its own sewage, the new Jerusalem by Christ's own dad-de-spired and de-domed Christchurch remains, Christchurch remains dollar-ised, colour-sed, now showing...

– Bill Direen performs an original composition while wandering around the Christchurch Town Hall

... I guess this was the introduction for me of art, which doesn't take you to an unreal world; it takes you into a real world which may be more pertinent to your life than our perception of everyday reality.

– Bill Direen remembers watching a Shakespeare play at the old Christchurch Town Hall

...a patient, amused but sympathetic capturing of a lifelong artist who has worked out his own methods.

– Writer Campbell Walker on A Memory of Others, on website The Pantograph Punch, 9 August 2017

Bill's profile is not as high as it might be ... and that's one reason I made this film. He's veered from folk to rock and several other music genres, as well as a lot of novels and poetry and theatre work, and he lived in Paris and Berlin for ten years or so. It's not easy to follow his winding career, and there's probably not many out there who love everything Bill's done.

– Director Simon Ogston on the many talents of Bill Direen, Stuff, 30 July 2017

I love what Simon has achieved. He trips around, forwards and backwards in time, and pieces it together in a clever way that will be very intriguing to people, even if they aren't fans of my work. And it's not just about me. I've worked with so many people over the years, and he drew on their impressions and memories, too. Simon made a mosaic using those voices and the music we made together, but the work of art he's created is ultimately his.

– Artist Bill Direen on director Simon Ogston, Stuff, 30 July 2017

How come you decided to like play music instead of like, deciding to play soccer or doing something else that other boys might do?

– A pupil at Clifton Terrace Primary School puts Bill Direen on the spot

Bill's always been fairly theatrical. He's been speaking all his life and my mother was very good at that too.

– Marie Direen on her poet brother

... the children's gamelan orchestra that features in the [Simon] Ogston documentary was a collaboration produced with my sister, Marie, in Wellington, who was tutor of the gamelan orchestra concerned. The children brought their special skills, and so it all made sense. I was lucky in living with young children for many years of my life. They taught me a lot. Sometimes we made music together.

– Excerpt from an interview with Bill Direen, Under the Radar, 24 February 2020

One of the aims of the Blue Ladder was to return to the origins of theatre. Doing medieval farce may seem a fairly unusual thing to focus on but it was something I wanted to explore...

– Bill Direen on his work with the Blue Ladder Theatre Group in Christchurch

I'm originally from Christchurch too [where Direen was born], so I'd heard of Bill since my high school days, but he remained an artist who had a bit of mystery around him, which is always appealing to a filmmaker like me. I only started seriously listening to Bill's music a couple of years ago and was amazed by how prolific he was.

– Filmmaker Simon Ogston on why he chose Bill Direen as a documentary subject, Stuff, 30 July 2017

Beaches, cemeteries and rehearsal rooms. Makeshift shower-stall studios. The dark interiors of noisy bars. The driver's seat of that knackered Honda Odyssey as it barrels through farmland, bush, town and city.

– Critic Grant Smithies on the images in Bill Direen - A Memory of Others, Stuff, 30 July 2017