Lee Tamahori
| Lee Tamahori | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Warren Lee Tamahori June 17, 1950 Wellington, New Zealand |
| Occupation | Film |
| Years active | 1978–present |
Lee Tamahori (born 17 June 1950) is a New Zealand filmmaker best known for directing 1994 film Once Were Warriors and 2002 James Bond film Die Another Day.
Born Warren Lee Tamahori, in Wellington, New Zealand, he is of Māori ancestry on his father's side and British on his mother's.
Educated at Tawa College, he began his career as a commercial artist and photographer. He moved into the film industry in the late 1970s, initially getting in the door by working for nothing, then worked as a boom operator for Television New Zealand, and on feature films Skin Deep, Goodbye Pork Pie, and Bad Blood.
In the early 1980s Pork Pie director Geoff Murphy promoted Tamahori to become an assistant director on Utu, and he subsequently worked as first assistant director on The Silent One, Murphy's The Quiet Earth, Came a Hot Friday and Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence. In 1986 Tamahori co-founded production company Flying Fish, which specialised in making commercials. Tamahori made his name with a series of high-profile television commercials, including one awarded 'Commercial of the Decade'.
Tamahori had directed a number of shorter dramas for television before he made his feature film debut in 1994 with Once Were Warriors, a gritty depiction of a violent Māori family. The film had had problems finding funding, but it went on to break box office records in New Zealand. Overseas it sold to many countries and won rave reviews from Time magazine, Village Voice, and The Melbourne Age, with Time and The Age naming it one of the ten best films of the year.
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