A dark cloud has fallen on the Maori world as well as the movie world.
Veteran New Zealand filmmaker Don Selwyn has died after battling ill health for more than two years.
Selwyn was renowned for doing it all - he acted, produced and directed for the stage, television and film.
But he was also a tireless champion and mentor for young Maori and Pacific actors.
Selwyn worked hard to create greater opportunities for Maori and Pacific Islanders in film, TV and theatre.
He made his acting debut in a pink tutu with butterfly wings as King of the Fairies in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. The role came about as a result of a dare to stand in for an actor who became ill during the stage production.
Selwyn joined a Shakespeare company road tour and took on roles of playing Caesar, Anthony, Othello and Shylock.
He expanded his skills to a musical role in Porgy and Bess in 1965 alongside famous baritone Inia te Wiata.
Selwyn went on to star in some of New Zealand's ground-breaking films - Sleeping Dogs with Sam Neil and Goodbye Pork Pie with the late Bruno Lawrence, and television dramas such as Pukemanu, Mortimer's Patch and The Governor.
He was a founding member of the New Zealand Maori Theatre Trust, and he set up a film and television training course for Maori and Pacific people.
Don't go past with your Nose in the Air won him best foreign short film at the New York Film Festival, followed eight years later with the feature The Feathers of Peace.
He went on to secure roles for Maori actors in major local movies like Once were Warriors.
Selwyn's last work was to bring to life the 1945 Maori translation of The Merchant of Venice, a project combining his passion for Shakespeare with his life-long commitment to the Maori language.
Don Selwyn was 71.
