Paul Regan Swadel
(23 October 1968 – 18 March 2016) 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 and producer.
Life and career
Swadel nurtured a filmmaking partnership with
James Cunningham that spanned fifteen years and four globally successful short films. Their film ''Infection'' competed at
Cannes International Film Festival
The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...
2000,
Sundance Film Festival 2001 and twenty other international film festivals. Paul and James developed an indie
performance capture
Motion capture (sometimes referred as mo-cap or mocap, for short) is the process of recording the movement of objects or people. It is used in military, entertainment, sports, medical applications, and for validation of computer vision and robo ...
driven
CGI film ''Marshal'' with
Mark Ordesky, executive producer of
The Lord of the Rings
''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's b ...
. Their proof of concept short film ''Poppy'', was shot on the
Weta Digital motion capture soundstage. ''Poppy'' features
Matthew Sunderland, winner of Best Actor Award at the 2008 NZ Screen Awards.
Swadel was a co-executive producer of Headstrong with
Ant Timpson
Ant Timpson (born 21 April 1966) is a New Zealand film producer best known for producing '' The ABCs of Death'' series, ''Turbo Kid'', '' Deathgasm'' and '' The Greasy Strangler''. He founded and hosts the 48Hours film contest.
Career
In 200 ...
and Leanne Saunders. Their feature film ''
The Devil Dared Me To'' had its world premiere at
SXSW and screened at over twenty International Film Festivals. It has been sold to Wild Bunch for the United Kingdom,
Vivendi
Vivendi SE is a French mass media holding company headquartered in Paris. Widely known as the owner of Gameloft, Groupe Canal+, Havas, Editis, Prisma Media, Vivendi Village and Dailymotion, the company has activities in television, film, video ...
for the United States and Boll AG for rest of the world. Their second feature film ''A Song of Good'' began its festival run with a World Premiere at
Rotterdam Film Festival where it sold out all of its screenings. It garnered 5 nominations at the 2008 New Zealand Screen Awards, and won a ''Best Picture'' Award.
He also directed a significant number of award-winning art documentaries around the world. These range in subject from
Plácido Domingo
José Plácido Domingo Embil (born 21 January 1941) is a Spanish opera singer, conductor, and arts administrator. He has recorded over a hundred complete operas and is well known for his versatility, regularly performing in Italian, French ...
at the New York
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is oper ...
, ''The Understudy'', to an award-winning six-hour series on the history of New Zealand Art, ''The Big Picture'' presented by
Hamish Keith, which garnered three nominations at the 2008 New Zealand Screen Awards, and won Best Series and Best Music awards.
''THE BIG PICTURE – 2008 Awards''
Swadel died on 18 March 2016, after suffering from early-onset Alzheimer's disease
Early-onset Alzheimer's disease, also called younger-onset Alzheimer's, is Alzheimer's disease diagnosed before the age of 65. It is an uncommon form of Alzheimer's, accounting for only 5–10% of all Alzheimer's cases. About 60% have a positive ...
. He was survived by his son Felix, as well as his parents, siblings and other family members.
Gallery
File:McCahon I Am.jpg, Poster of ''Colin McCahon: I Am'' (2004)
Filmography
References
External links
*
''Poppy'': Short film official website
''Blue Harvest'': Executive Producing Shorts w/- NZFC
{{DEFAULTSORT:Swadel, Paul
1969 births
2016 deaths
New Zealand film directors
New Zealand film producers
University of Auckland alumni
University of Canterbury alumni