MAURICE AND I is a feature-length documentary created by Christchurch filmmakers Rick Harvie and Jane Mahoney – daughter of 'Maurice', of the film’s title.
It celebrates the transformative architectural partnership of Sir Miles Warren and Maurice Mahoney, whose innovative, brutalist designs redefined Christchurch in the 1960s and 70s, enhancing the community's cultural and social fabric - and whose built legacy was all but destroyed in Christchurch’s 2011 earthquake.
Through rare archival footage and exclusive interviews, including their final conversation together, the film reflects on their remarkable legacy, the community impact of their bold architectural vision, and the enduring importance of architecture in shaping and enriching our lives.
THE TEAM
Rick is a documentary maker based in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Under the umbrella of his film company Belmont Productions, founded in 2000, he has produced and directed a wide range of broadcast and corporate documentaries, commercials and music videos - most notably Resume Play 2014, A Place to Remember 2016 and Len Lye: Master of Motion 2023.
Rick is driven by a keen interest in the human condition, combining his passion for storytelling with a strong interest in the visual and performing arts, music and architecture.
RICK HARVIE
CO/DIRECTOR I CO/PRODUCER
Jane is the daughter of renowned Christchurch architect Maurice Mahoney – the ‘Maurice’ of the film’s title.
She has spent almost three decades working in story-telling industries – initially as producer and co-owner of Bannan Films, a production company specialising in cinematic, story-based TV commercials throughout Asia and Australasia.
In the years following the Christchurch earthquakes, Jane worked as a Marketing and Communications Advisor for CERA, the government agency tasked with overseeing the region’s rebuild and recovery - the same agency that proposed the demolition of the iconic Christchurch Town Hall.
JANE MAHONEY
CO/DIRECTOR I CO/PRODUCER
Richard Lord has a broad skill set across many aspects of production and post production, and 18 years specialising in film editing and colour grading. Along with Maurice and I, he recently completed work on Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, and Royd Tolkien's There's A Hole In My Bucket.
Richard demonstrates an unreserved dedication to both story and craft, "The strategy is to enslave myself to the process. We’re talking full immersion and nightly dreams about the story until all tricky scenes are improved, all edits are tidy, and all tracks locked."
RICHARD LORD
EDITOR
Mike Kelland is a filmmaker based in Christchurch. Since graduating with a BFA majoring in film he has gone on to a 25 year career in feature film, documentary and television series, working as a cinematographer, director, producer, editor and colourist.
He’s an award-winning producer (Propaganda Best Film at Michael Moore’s Traverse City Film Festival) and cinematographer (Gold Award NZSC Awards/Documentary for Pecking Order), whose passion and calling is documentary filmmaking.
MIKE KELLAND
CINEMATOGRAPHER
THE STORY
Throughout the 60s and 70s an architectural revolution took place in New Zealand, largely led by two young Christchurch architects Miles Warren and Maurice Mahoney. Their partnership, which spanned 37 years, gave rise to a uniquely New Zealand modernist movement that was to influence a generation of architects.
Miles and Maurice met as sixteen-year-old students of Christchurch’s architectural Atelier. Aside from their shared interest in architecture, the two young men had little in common. Miles, born and raised in the wealthy suburb of Fendalton, was the son of a well-connected family. Maurice was born to a working-class family in London’s East End and emigrated to New Zealand on one of the last ships to leave England after war was declared in 1939. Miles was Christ’s College educated, while Maurice attended the somewhat ‘low-brow’ Christchurch Technical College. Miles was affable and flamboyant, Maurice shy, quiet and studious.
This unlikely pairing proved to be the perfect partnership of opposites – the creator and the maker – the designer and the master of detail – the eloquent front man and the quiet, reserved sidekick. Miles’ ‘society’ connections complemented Maurice’s rapport with the contractors and trades people. Miles was a talented watercolourist, Maurice a gifted precision drawer.
The fruits of this remarkable partnership, their approach to design, their signature use of materials and the influence they had on their architectural peers, transformed the face of Christchurch. Within a short decade it was to shrug off its reputation for somewhat stuffy Georgian and neo-gothic architecture for a distinctive ‘brutalist’ style that was bold, modern and often controversial.
Then in 2011, a devastating 6.3 magnitude earthquake hit central Christchurch. 185 lives were lost, and the massive force of the quake caused widespread destruction across the city. Over 1800 central city buildings and thousands of houses were destroyed, or later demolished, including almost the entire life’s work of Miles and Maurice.
Among the buildings which suffered major damage was the Christchurch Town Hall, regarded by many, including the architects themselves, as their finest work. Internationally renowned for its elegant, brutalist form and sophisticated interiors, the Christchurch Town Hall revolutionised the design approach to performance spaces and acoustic engineering. Opened in 1972, it had served as a performance and function venue for everything from symphonies to heavy metal bands, graduations, conferences, massed choirs and balls – it came to be cherished by Christchurch residents as ‘the living room of the city’.
In the aftermath of the earthquake however, local and nation government were faced with a plethora of complex recovery challenges – a city to re-imagine and re-build, insurance claims and stakeholder relationships to navigate, and finite budgets to manage.
Whether the Town Hall should be repaired at considerable expense, or if the city would be better served by a new facility built from scratch, was one of the multitude of decisions that had to be made. As the Christchurch Town Hall’s fate hung in the balance, Miles Warren and Maurice Mahoney – by then in their mid-eighties - joined forces with a small but vocal group to lobby the Christchurch City Council to save and restore fully this much loved, and internationally significant building.