Roger Horrocks

Horrocks was born in the Auckland suburb of Mount Albert on 4 June 1941, the son of Jack Horrocks and Edith Barbara Horrocks (née Rhodes).{{cite book |editor-last=Taylor |editor-first=Alister |editor-link=Alister Taylor |title=New Zealand Who's Who Aotearoa 2001 |year=2001 |publisher=Alister Taylor Publishers |location=Auckland |issn=1172-9813 |page=458}}{{cite news | url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS19410605.2.2 | title=Births | date=5 June 1941 | work=Auckland Star | access-date=19 January 2019 | page=1}} Majoring in English, he completed a BA (1962), MA First Class Honours (1963), and PhD (1976) from the University of Auckland. His doctoral thesis, supervised by C. K. Stead, was titled Mosaic: a study of juxtaposition in literature, as an approach to Pound's Cantos and similar modern poems.{{cite thesis |last=Horrocks |first=Roger |year=1976 |type=Doctoral thesis |title=Mosaic: a study of juxtaposition in literature, as an approach to Pound's Cantos and similar modern poems |publisher=ResearchSpace@Auckland, University of Auckland |hdl=2292/2093 |url=https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/handle/2292/2093}} He also studied for two years with Allen Tate at the University of Minnesota (1964–65) and one year with Thom Gunn at the University of California, Berkeley (1966).{{cite web |last1=Horrocks |first1=Roger |title=Episode 51, Cultural Icons |url=http://culturalicons.co.nz/episode/roger-horrocks |website=Cultural Icons |publisher=www.depotartspace.co.nz |access-date=25 September 2018}} In 1973, receiving a Fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies, he studied with Robert Creeley at the State University of New York at Buffalo.{{cite book |last1=Horrocks |first1=Roger |title=Re-Inventing New Zealand |date=2016 |publisher=Atuanui Press |location=Pokeno, New Zealand |isbn=978-0-9922453-8-2}}

In 1964 he married Eleanor Seguin. Their daughter, Simone Horrocks, is a film director, and Dylan Horrocks is a cartoonist and writer. His second marriage, in 1979, was to Shirley Heim (née Spitz), herself a documentary filmmaker, and he became stepfather to Steve and Tony Heim.

He taught at the University of Auckland from 1967 to 2004, and on his retirement became an emeritus professor.{{cite journal |title=The University of Auckland |journal=2005 Calendar |date=2005 |page=673}}

In the 2005 New Year Honours, Horrocks was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to the film and television industries.{{cite web |last1=Horrocks |first1=Roger |title=New Year Honours List 2005 |url=https://www.dpmc.govt.nz/publications/new-year-honours-list-2005 |date=31 December 2004 |publisher=Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet |access-date=25 September 2018}} Other awards include a Distinguished Teaching Award from the University of Auckland in 1998, a "10K Award" from the Broadcasting Commission (NZ On Air) in 2002 for services to broadcasting, and an Industry Mentor Award at the first New Zealand Scriptwriters Awards in 2010.{{cite news |last1=Roger |first1=Horrocks |title=Inaugural scriptwriter awards handed out |work=The New Zealand Herald |date=10 November 2010}} Also, in 2014 he received a New Zealand History Research Trust Fund Award,{{cite news |title=NZ History Research Trust Fund Grants 2014 |url=http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU1412/S00306/nz-history-research-trust-fund-grants-2014.htm |access-date=25 September 2018 |publisher=Scoop |date=15 December 2014}} and in 2015 a Michael King Writers Centre Residency.{{cite web |title=Roger Horrocks: 2015 Autumn Residency |url=https://writerscentre.org.nz/roger-horrocks-2015/ |website=Michael King Writers Centre |date=31 July 2015 |access-date=25 September 2018}}

In 2019 the Royal Society of New Zealand awarded him its Pou Aronui Prize for his lifetime contribution to the Humanities. The Royal Society described him as "a champion of New Zealand culture, particularly New Zealand's film and television industries, as well as literature and the visual arts."{{cite web |title=Roger Horrocks: Pou Aronui Prize, 17 October 2019 |url=https://www.royalsociety.org.nz/what-we-do/medals-and-awards/research-honours/2019-research-honours/2019-pou-aronui-award-championing-new-zealand-culture-to-be-seen-read-and-heard/ |website=Royal Society Te Apārangi |access-date=13 January 2020}}

Horrocks was one of the New Zealand pioneers of the academic study of film and television. He taught Film Studies in adult education courses from 1967, then a University of Auckland course at graduate level from 1975. His teaching was timely because a New Zealand film industry was just emerging. Horrocks became Head of the Centre for Film, Television and Media Studies established in 1994, and was appointed Head when it became a full department in 2000.{{cite journal |last1=Nick |first1=Perry |title=Career crosses boundaries |journal=The University of Auckland News |date=December 2003 |volume=33 |issue=11 |page=14}} He wrote and edited textbooks (beginning with On Film in 1980) and many academic papers and books (such as Television in New Zealand, which he co-edited with Laurence Simmons in 2004).{{cite book |editor1-last=Horrocks |editor1-first=Roger |editor2-last=Perry |editor2-first=Nick |title=Television in New Zealand: Programming the Nation |date=2004 |publisher=Melbourne:Oxford University Press}} A number of his students went on to become film-makers, or academics in the field of media studies. (The film-makers include: David Blyth, Vanessa Alexander, Sam Pillsbury, Alison Maclean, Gregor Nicholas, Hester Joyce, Roseanne Liang, Lisa Reihana, Dan Salmon, and Ray Waru. Academics include Brian McDonnell, Trisha Dunleavey, Simon Sigley, Geraldene Peters, Xuelin Zhou, Margaret Henley, and Lynne Star.) He also played a significant part in the establishment of film teaching and media studies in secondary schools.{{cite book |last1=Horrocks |first1=Roger |title=Media Teaching in New Zealand: Sketching Out a History |date=2007 |publisher=Auckland: Department of Film, Television and Media Studies, University of Auckland}} During the 1980s, Horrocks was a co-editor of the influential literary magazines AND (1984–85) and Splash (1984–86), and a Contributing Editor to Parallax (1982-3). Mark Williams in The Oxford History of New Zealand Literature in English has characterised Horrocks as one of 'New Zealand's most alert and inventive critics.'{{cite book |editor1-last=Sturm |editor1-first=Terry |title=The Oxford History of New Zealand Literature in English |date=1998 |publisher=OUP |location=Auckland |edition= Second}} Douglas McNeill in the Journal of New Zealand Literature describes him as 'a close reader's close reader.' {{cite journal |title='Zizz! Conducting!' |journal=Journal of New Zealand Literature |date=2017 |number=35:1 |page=169}} Terry Sturm singled out his essay 'The Invention of New Zealand' as a 'seminal' reading of the work of Allen Curnow.{{cite book |last1=Sturm |first1=Terry |title=Allen Curnow: Simply by Sailing in a New Direction: A Biography |date=2017 |publisher=AUP |location=Auckland |isbn=978-1-86940-852-7 |page=585}} A selection of Horrocks's criticism was published as Re-Inventing New Zealand, 2016,{{cite book |last1=Horrocks |first1=Roger |title=Re-Inventing New Zealand: Essays on the Arts and the Media |date=2016 |publisher=Atuanui Press |location=Pokeno New Zealand}} and he has also written collections of poetry, including Song of the Ghost in the Machine{{cite book |last1=Horrocks |first1=Roger |title=Song of the Ghost in the Machine |date=2015 |publisher=Victoria University Press |location=Wellington, New Zealand |isbn=978-0-86473-985-8}} which was a finalist in the 2016 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards.{{cite web |title=Ockham New Zealand Book Awards Finalists Announced |url=http://www.ockham.co.nz/news/ockham-new-zealand-book-awards-finalists/?locale=en |website=Ockham New Zealand Book Awards |publisher=Maria Ockham, 8 March 2016 |access-date=25 September 2018}}

Horrocks played a central role in the re-discovery of expatriate film-maker, kinetic sculptor and writer Len Lye. He worked as Lye's assistant during the artist's last year (1980), then after his death he helped to ensure that his papers and works were returned to New Zealand. Horrocks wrote a biography of the artist which was a finalist in the 2002 New Zealand Book Awards and has been described by the British journal Sight and Sound as the "definitive piece of Lye scholarship".{{cite journal |last1=Francis |first1=Ian |title=Free Radical |journal=Sight and Sound |date=January 2011}} His subsequent book, Art That Moves (2009), explores the aesthetics of Lye's "new art of motion."{{cite book |last1=Horrocks |first1=Roger |title=Art that Moves: The Work of Len Lye |date=2009 |publisher=Auckland University Press |location=Auckland New Zealand |isbn=978-1-86940-422-2}} He has also edited three volumes of Lye's writings and co-edited another.{{cite book |editor1-last=Horrocks |editor1-first=Roger |title=Body English: Text and Images by Len Lye |date=2009 |publisher=Holloway Press |location=Auckland New Zealand}}{{cite book |editor1-last=Horrocks |editor1-first=Roger |title=Happy Moments: Texts and Images by Len Lye |date=2002 |publisher=Holloway Press |location=Auckland New Zealand}}{{cite book |author1=Len Lye |author2=Robert Graves |editor1-last=Horrocks |editor1-first=Roger |title=Individual Happiness Now: A Definition of Common Purpose |date=2017 |publisher=Govett-Brewster Art Gallery |location=New Plymouth, New Zealand}}{{cite book |author1=Len Lye |editor1-last=Horrocks |editor1-first=Roger |editor2-last=Curnow |editor2-first=Wystan |title=Figures of Motion: Selected Writings of Len Lye |date=1984 |publisher=Auckland University Press/Oxford University Press |location=Auckland}} In 2012 he wrote the libretto for Len Lye: the Opera, with music by Eve de Castro-Robinson, which was performed at the Maidment Art Centre, with expatriate singer James Harrison returning to New Zealand to play the role of the artist.{{cite web |title=Len Lye: The Opera' |url=https://www.sounz.org.nz/works/20887 |website=SOUNZ |access-date=25 September 2018}} Horrocks has been a long-term trustee of the Len Lye Foundation and was involved in the creation of the Len Lye Centre which opened in New Plymouth in 2015.{{cite book |last1=Horrocks |first1=Roger |title=Len Lye: A Biography |date=2015 |publisher=Auckland University Press |location=Auckland |pages=Epilogue |edition= Second}}

When the Broadcasting Commission (NZ On Air) was created in 1989, Horrocks was appointed as one of the original board members. He served for eleven years, and for the last four years was deputy chair.{{cite book |last1=Horrocks |first1=Roger |title=Re-Inventing New Zealand ; Turbulent Television: The New Zealand Experiment |date=2016 |publisher=Atuanui Press |location=Pokeno, New Zealand |pages=231–45}} Horrocks has been one of the founders of many cultural organisations, including the Auckland International Film Festival (established 1969), Alternative Cinema (1972), Association of Film & Television Teachers (later the National Association of Media Educators, 1983), Artspace (1986), NZ Electronic Poetry Centre (2001), NZ On Screen (2006), and Script to Screen (2009). He was a board member for many years of the Auckland University Press (and Board Chairman, 2001–2004), and on the advisory board of Te Ara (from 2002). His other public policy work has included positions in the Arts Council (1975–77 and 1985–7), Creative NZ (1998), and the Short Film Fund of the NZ Film Commission (1985-6).{{cite book |last1=Horrocks |first1=Roger |title=Re-Inventing New Zealand |date=2016 |publisher=Atuanui Press |location=Pokeno, New Zealand |pages=20–21}}

Horrocks was a co-scriptwriter of the feature film Skin Deep (1978).{{cite web |title=Skin Deep |url=https://www.nzfilm.co.nz/films/skin-deep |website=New Zealand Film Commission |access-date=25 September 2018}} In 1975 he became a co-director of the film company Point of View Productions.{{cite web |title= Point of View Productions |url=http://www.pointofview.co.nz/ |website=Point of View Productions |access-date=25 September 2018}} Since then he has been the researcher or co-researcher of documentaries directed by his wife Shirley. In 2009 he wrote and directed the film Art that Moves which won the Van Gogh Prize in the 2010 Amsterdam Film Festival.{{cite web |title=New Zealand Film on Len Lye Wins International Award, 8 July 2010 |url=http://www.creativenz.govt.nz/news/new-zealand-film-on-len-lye-wins-international-award |website=Creative NZ |access-date=25 September 2018}}

• Figures of Motion: Selected Writings of Len Lye, ed. Roger Horrocks and Wystan Curnow (Auckland: Auckland University Press/Oxford University Press, 1984)
• Len Lye, ed. Jean-Michel Bouhours and Roger Horrocks (Paris: Centre Pompidou, 2000).
• Art that Moves: The Work of Len Lye (Auckland: Auckland University Press, 2009).
• Len Lye: A Biography (Auckland: Auckland University Press, 2001; second edition, 2015)
• Zizz!: The Life and Art of Len Lye (Wellington: Awa Press, 2015).
• The Long Dream of Waking: New Perspectives on Len Lye, ed. Paul Brobbel, Wystan Curnow and Roger Horrocks (Christchurch: Canterbury University Press, 2017).

• On Film (Auckland: Heinemann, 1980).
• The Auckland Regional Transit Poetry Line (Wellington: Hawk Press/Brick Row, 1982).
• On Film II (Auckland: Heinemann, 1986).
• Television in New Zealand: Programming the Nation, ed. Roger Horrocks and Nick Perry (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 2004).
• The Song of the Ghost in the Machine (Wellington: Victoria University Press, 2015).
• Re-Inventing New Zealand: Essays on the Arts and the Media (Pokeno: Atuanui Press, 2016).
• Culture in a Small Country: the Arts in New Zealand (Pokeno: Atuanui Press, 2020).{{Cite book |last=Horrocks |first=Roger |title=Culture in a small country: the arts in New Zealand |date=2022 |publisher=Atuanui Press |isbn=978-1-9911591-2-0 |location=Pokeno}}
• A Book of Seeing (Pokeno: Atuanui Press, 2022){{Cite book |last=Horrocks |first=Roger |title=A book of seeing |date=2022 |publisher=Atuanui Press |isbn=978-1-9911591-9-9 |location=Pokeno}}

• 'Roger Horrocks,' Episode 51, Cultural Icons (http://culturalicons.co.nz/episode/roger-horrocks)
• 'Roger Horrocks,' NZ On Screen (https://www.nzonscreen.com/person/roger-horrocks)
• Point of View Productions (http://www.pointofview.co.nz/)

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Category:1941 births

Category:Living people

Category:New Zealand autobiographers

Category:New Zealand film directors

Category:University of Auckland alumni

Category:Academic staff of the University of Auckland

Category:Members of the New Zealand Order of Merit

Category:People from Auckland