Prolific documentary and film-maker Costa Botes. Photo / Simon Vita
Prolific documentary and film-maker Costa Botes – who found fame creating mockumentary Forgotten Silver alongside Sir Peter Jackson – has died after living with cancer for nearly a decade.
Botes won multiple awards for his work on Forgotten Silver in the late 1990s as well as for short film Stalin’s Sickle (1988) and later with Saving Grace (1999) and Lost in Wonderland in 2010.
His screenography on New Zealand On Screen credits his involvement in more than 40 productions between 1980 and 2023.
He told the website he grew up in Wellington – after being born to Greek parents on the Turkish island of Imbroz – and dove into film-making after diverting away from being “bored witless” by his English literature degree to study film at Ilam School of Fine Arts in Christchurch.
He went fulltime into film-making in 1985 and would continue working on projects until shortly before his death in Wellington’s Mary Potter Hospice on November 21.
His partner of 14 years, Debs Botes, said her husband was proud of his entire body of work but found particular satisfaction in his independent productions.
“The latter documentaries that he made on his own – on a shoestring budget – and cobbled together with the help of friends and colleagues and really made something of.
“I think he liked being the lone wolf because he kind of made the decisions at the end of the day.
“He was very proud of When the Cows Came Home and some others, like The Last Dogs of Winter, Angie, Act of Kindness. There were quite a few – in the last 15 years – he was very proud of,” she said.
Shortly before his death, Botes had completed the first cut of a new film that she hoped a colleague would be able to “whip into shape” for release next year, Debs Botes said.
Botes was well known among musical circles in Wellington both as a player and an enthusiastic listener.
In his last weeks, he bought his dream guitar, a Gibson Les Paul, and posted pictures of himself playing the instrument from his hospital bed, she said.
Arts and entertainment writer Sarah McMullan said Botes inspired many with his no-nonsense attitude and generosity of spirit.
McMullan said she and Botes bonded over his work on the 2011 documentary The Last Dogs of Winter.
“He loved life and he loved people. That’s why he made such beautiful films – he was so interested in people – and I think that’s how he managed to achieve that level of intimacy that made his films so special,” McMullan said.
She said she loved discussing almost any element of film-making with Botes, who would like little more than to talk over the pros and cons of films, shows and documentaries.
He took that passion to stints teaching film-making and scriptwriting at the New Zealand Film and TV School, and Victoria and Massey University, she said.
“I wish everybody had the chance to have watched Jaws with an audio commentary from Costa because his in-depth analysis of how that film is made is incredible. It just completely opens your eyes to – what is a brilliant film – but it’s just [his awareness of] the detail and nuance which just speaks to his talent as a film-maker,” McMullan said.
Late last month, film-maker Zoe McIntosh wrote on the Women in Film & Television website of the profound effect Botes had when he worked alongside her to make Lost in Wonderland, which would go on to screen at international festivals and win Best Documentary at the Qantas Film and Television Awards.
“I was 22, broke, and living in a damp Wellington flat where rice was both dinner and decor. At a depressing documentary hui, out of sheer desperation and delusion, I pitched my first documentary idea to film-maker Costa Botes. I expected a polite brush-off. Instead, he said, ‘I’ll shoot it. Let’s just go make it’.
“No funding applications. No contracts. No catch. That offhand ‘yes’ changed everything,” McIntosh wrote.
She said Botes’ faith in her work and his forthright, critical honesty helped shape her confidence and vision for her work and career.
“He was always there, always honest, sometimes brutally so. But he never let me lose sight of my vision. He’d say, ‘You’ve got half a film here. The other half’s still hiding. You gotta dig deeper’.
“Costa gives his time generously, quietly, without agenda. He doesn’t chase credit; he’s allergic to self-promotion. He’s the guy at the back of the screening checking sound levels while everyone else basks in applause. Motivated by people and, always, by story,” McIntosh wrote.
Wellington musician Carol Bean worked in crews on Botes’ films and also played alongside him in bands.
She said she admired his skill as a musician and also his witty and, at times, cutting sense of humour.
“He had a bite. He didn’t suffer fools but deep down [was a] very compassionate person,” Bean said.
“He had a lot of time for an authentic, regular person who wasn’t blowing their own trumpet. He said he liked ‘shining lights in the dark corners’ with his films. Bringing people out, bringing the story out, the real true story, the best of people,” Bean said.
Costa Botes spent the last weeks of his life in the care of the Mary Potter Hospice in Newtown Wellington.
Debs Botes said she was hugely grateful to the staff who kept him comfortable and accommodated his much-loved dogs, bedside editing suite and guitar.
“He knew what was happening and he knew that it was the best place for him to be because they would keep him comfortable and they did that to the very last moment,” she said.
– RNZ
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