Margaret Kathleen O'Brien (7 April 1906 – 13 February 1978) was a

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

film director, dance teacher, and radio presenter. One of the first New Zealand women to direct films, she spent 20 years working for government filmmaking body the National Film Unit.

Career

O'Brien was born in

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

, New Zealand in 1906. After time teaching ballet in Wellington, and living in England, she got a job in Wellington at the country's

National Film Unit The National Film Unit (NFU) was a state-owned film-production organisation originally based in Miramar, New Zealand. Founded in 1936 when the government took over a private film studio, Filmcraft, the NFU produced newsreels, documentaries and p ...

in 1946. O'Brien directed her first short film for the NFU the following year. Australian-born filmmaker

Margaret Thomson Margaret Thomson (10 June 1910 – 30 December 2005) was an Australian-born documentary filmmaker who divided her forty-year career between New Zealand and England. She was the first female film director active in New Zealand. Family and educat ...

had begun directing films at the NFU the decade before O'Brien. When Thomson left the unit to work in England in 1949, O'Brien stayed on and remained the only female director on the NFU staff for the next 20 years. She directed the film Graduate Harvest in 1954 and A Letter to the Teacher in 1957. O'Brien never gained recognition during her lifetime. She died in Wellington on 13 February 1978.

References

1906 births 1978 deaths New Zealand dance teachers New Zealand broadcasters New Zealand film directors New Zealand women film directors Mass media people from Wellington City {{NewZealand-film-director-stub