Do we like Lee Tamahori?
Our score: 7 out of 10. Decent record and warm tributes, held back because the public record on his views is thin and there is one old arrest.
Lee Tamahori was born in Wellington in 1950 and grew up in suburban Tawa. He was Ngāti Porou on his father's side. He came up through advertising, co-founding Flying Fish, one of New Zealand's most successful ad production companies, before he made features.
His debut, Once Were Warriors, was the film that put him on the map. It won Best Film at festivals in Durban, Montreal and Rotterdam, and Time put it in its year's ten best. He was oddly modest about it later, saying it was “too savage and brutal for anyone to go and see it”, which turned out to be wrong.
Hollywood came calling, and he made Mulholland Falls, The Devil's Double and the Bond film Die Another Day. Then he went home to Māori stories with Mahana and his last released film, The Convert. Of that kind of storytelling he said “our story is not a history lesson.” Fair call from a bloke who kept returning to where he came from.
The one real stain is from 2006. Police said he was dressed in drag and got into an undercover officer's car in Los Angeles, where he was arrested and charged with prostitution and loitering. He pleaded no contest to a single misdemeanour trespass count, the other charges were dropped, and he got probation, community service and an AIDS education course. He didn't turn up to the hearing, and the report carries no statement from him.
On the harm check, the record is thin and clean. We found nothing he said or did against LGBTQ+ people, trans people, women, migrants, public health or the planet. We also found no pattern of working with people who push harm. Absence of evidence isn't proof, and he gave few political interviews, but nothing here would make a reader wince.
The good stuff is mostly about how he treated people. Actor Te Kohe Tuhaka called him a major mentor who opened doors for crew, young producers and actors. Temuera Morrison called him “just an amazing man”, and his Flying Fish co-founder called him “a hell of a nice guy”. His family said he “championed Māori talent both on and off screen.”