Leon Narbey

Leon Gordon Alexander Narbey (born 2 August 1947) is a New Zealand cinematographer.

Born in Helensville, Narbey was educated at the Elam School of Fine Arts, specialising in sculpture. He married Anita Janske Narbey (1944 - 2019) in 1966 and they had together two daughters Vanessa and Beatrix. He lectured at the University of Canterbury in 1972, before joining the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation as a news cameraman. In the mid-1970s, he shot the Geoff Steven documentary ''Te Matakite o Aotearoa'', about the 1975 Māori land march. In 1978 he made ''Bastion Point: Day 507'' with Merata Mita and Gerd Pohlmann, which he also edited and co-produced. Later he continued his partnership with Steven on three documentaries shot in China in 1979, including ''Gung Ho'' (about Rewi Alley) and ''The Humble Force''.

He co-wrote and directed two feature films, ''Illustrious Energy'' (1987) and ''The Footstep Man'' (1992). In 1990, he shot the comedy-drama ''Ruby and Rata'' for Gaylene Preston. In 1993, he was director of photography on the feature film ''Desperate Remedies'', for which he won the Best Cinematography award at the New Zealand Film and Television Awards in 1994. In the 1990s Narbey worked extensively with documentary director Shirley Horrocks on productions including ''Pleasures and Dangers'', ''Act of Murder'', ''Flip and Two Twisters'', and ''Early Days Yet''.

In 2000 he shot the romantic drama ''The Price of Milk'', the 2002 dramas ''Whale Rider'' and ''No. 2'' (2006), the 2007 vampire film ''Perfect Creature'', 2008's ''Dean Spanley'' and ''Rain of the Children'', the 2009 Topp Twins documentary ''The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls'', the 2011 Samoan film ''The Orator'', the 2013 drama ''Giselle'', ''The Dead Lands'' in 2014, ''One Thousand Ropes'' in 2017 and in 2020 the film ''Whina''. Provided by Wikipedia