Director Gaylene Preston has been stretching NZ film in new directions since her early short films and her first feature, the genre and gender-bending Mr Wrong (1985).

Long devoted to 'communicating local stories to local audiences', Preston features in Deborah Shepard’s newly-released book Her Life’s Work: Conversations with Five New Zealand Women.

In this ScreenTalk interview Preston talks about:

• How she started in film thanks to a job as an art therapist in an English asylum, and the elopement of a friend

• Her long-time interest in “the stories that hold secrets, the things that you’re not allowed to talk about”

• Working with producer Robin Laing, and discovering that when they went to meetings people kept looking nervously toward the door

• The challenges of pitching “comedy thriller ghost story” Mr Wrong

• Being won over by Graeme Tetley’s script for comedy of manners Ruby and Rata

• Making mini-series Bread and Roses, based on the life of the late activist/politician Sonja Davies

• The low number of New Zealand women directing film, then and now

Preston has a new film Home by Christmas due out next year.

NZ On Screen: Direction and Interview – Ian Pryor.  Camera and Editing – Alex Backhouse