Barry Barclay: The Camera on the Shore

You're having yourself on if you think the camera's neutral. And you need in a way, I believe, to look at who you are making the film for, and exactly what kind of truth you're telling.

– Barry Barclay

The camera was loathed in the Māori world. In most of the Māori world it still is; it still is when it's held in the wrong hands. We had a lot of talking to do, and in some places failed.

– Barry Barclay, on making landmark TV series Tangata Whenua (1974)

He didn't believe that there were any sacred cows. He believed he could look at the Film Commission and what they did, and they were a public body, they were here to make films for New Zealanders, that he could actually question the way that they were doing things. Whereas there would be a lot of people in the New Zealand film industry would say 'mate, that's where the money's coming from - so hands off, I'm not going to go there' ... he was brave, he was prepared to sort of take things on.

– Barry Barclay's daughter Claire

[Barry] didn't just talk about the Māori voice, he talked about the indigenous voice. And he saw us in a broader context, as part of a much broader indigenous community. And he was one of the first people to do that ... Barry was a pioneer in that sense...

– Rawiri Paratene