Paul Regan Swadel
(23 October 1968 – 18 March 2016) was a
New Zealand 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 2000,
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...
2001 and twenty other international film festivals. Paul and James developed an indie
performance capture driven
CGI film ''Marshal'' with
Mark Ordesky, executive producer of
The Lord of the Rings. Their proof of concept short film ''Poppy'', was shot on the
Weta Digital motion 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 ...
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 and Leanne Saunders. Their feature film ''
The Devil Dared Me To'' had its world premiere at
SXSW
South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Te ...
and screened at over twenty International Film Festivals. It has been sold to Wild Bunch for the United Kingdom,
Vivendi 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
The International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) is an annual film festival held at the end of January in various locations in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Since its foundation in 1972, it has maintained a focus on independent and experimental fi ...
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 at the New York
Metropolitan Opera, ''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.
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