Sylvia

New Zealand, 1984

Film
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A dramatisation of the extraordinary life of the revolutionary educator, Sylvia Ashton-Warner and her work with Maori children in the late 1940’s in a remote part of New Zealand. She achieves wondrous results but is more than just a teacher. In a sensitive portrayal, Eleanor David depicts her artistry, nervousness, gift for friendship, cultural isolation and her courage in fighting a boorish collection of educational inspectors. Also starring Nigel Terry, Tom Wilkinson and Mary Regan. Co-starring Martyn Sanderson, Terence Cooper, David Letch and Sarah Pierce. Based on “Teacher” and “I passed this way” by Sylvia Ashton-Warner.

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Collection

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Credits

director

Michael Firth

co-producer

Don Reynolds

Michael Firth

production company

Cinepro

Southern Light Pictures

Unitel

Duration

01:38:00:00

Production places
New Zealand
Production dates
1984

Collection metadata

ACMI Identifier

300322

Language

English

Audience classification

PG

Sound/audio

Sound

Colour

Colour

Holdings

VHS; Access Print (Section 1)

Wikidata

Q7660873

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Cite this work on Wikipedia

If you would like to cite this item, please use the following template: {{cite web |url=https://acmi.net.au/works/79377--sylvia/ |title=Sylvia |author=Australian Centre for the Moving Image |access-date=16 April 2024 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}