Sylvia

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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Credits

production company

Southern Light Pictures

Cinepro

Unitel

co-producer

Don Reynolds

Michael Firth

director

Michael Firth

Duration

01:38:00:00

Production places

New Zealand

Production dates

1984

Collection metadata

ACMI Identifier

300322

Language

English

Audience classification

PG

Subject categories

Education, Instruction, Teaching & Schools → Teaching

Feature films

Feature films → Feature films - New Zealand

History → History

People → Ashton-Warner, Sylvia

Sound/audio

Sound

Colour

Holdings

VHS; Access Print (Section 1)

Please note: this archive is an ongoing body of work. Sometimes the credit information (director, year etc) isn’t available so these fields may be left blank; we are progressively filling these in with further research.

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=28 May 2023 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}

New Zealand, 1984

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