Blackhearted Barney Blackfoot

A Perspective

By Annie Murray 15/04/2015

Blackhearted Barney Blackfoot (BBB) is a trippy short film made for children. Shot cartoon-style in garish colours, BBB is a surreal tale about two children who feel disempowered by a bullying stepfather. BBB stars Ian Watkin, and Annie Whittle, and the script has no dialogue nor narration. Shot in a unique "soft sculpture" set, it features a strikingly original musical score by composer Jack Body.

Two children, Lucy and Billy, have their world tipped upside down when their mother (played by a young, doll-like Whittle) marries Barney (Watkin). He is a bullying, axe-wielding beer drinker who torments the children with maths homework. The children try to keep their close relationship with their mother without upsetting Barney, which is not easy.

Barney is a threatening presence to the children. He moves in his own furniture - a large wardrobe and cuckoo clock - which come alive to spy on the children and their mother. He has a few beers then goes out to chop firewood, destroying the birds' playground in the process.

This film is shot with extreme high and low camera angles, and disconcerting close-ups. An unforgettable scene has Whittle hanging on a coat-hanger in the wardrobe's pink, womb-like interior. The children enter through the mouth of a giant worm to find their mother. They are all showered with papers covered in maths equations.

Blackhearted Barney Blackfoot was an early directing project for Yvonne Mackay, after leaving TVNZ. It was based on an unpublished story written by Jack Lasenby, who agreed to let Dave Gibson produce it. Gibson went on to become one of New Zealand's most prolific drama producers. Ian Mune adapted the story to the screen, and it was submitted into the TV Awards for Best Screenplay. Awards officials bizarrely rejected the entry though because it featured no dialogue. 

Australian Directory of Photography Peter James went on to shoot Academy Award-winning feature Driving Miss Daisy. Dean Cato and Janet Williamson were Wellington theatrical set designers who designed the impressive soft-sculpture set. Tony Rabbit built the wardrobe. The glove puppet in the cuckoo clock was played by John Morris, who in later years could be found as Building Manager at the New Zealand Film Archive.

Blackhearted Barney Blackfoot was funded by TVNZ and the Department of Education, and screened in NZ schools as well as on television. Jack Body's musical score tied in with the primary school music curriculum. It was especially designed so that after one screening, it could be shown a second time without the percussion section of the sound track; children were then encouraged to use or make instruments to put appropriate percussion sounds to the film.

BBB first played on Network 1 at 7.50pm on Sunday 28th December 1980. It was rejected by many international distributors who were concerned about the implied threat of Barney wielding an axe. However it did sell to France's F R 3.