Personal offering to the God of Speed

Roger Donaldson is a busy film-maker, but he's never too busy to stop and chat about Burt Munro, and The World's Fastest Indian. He talks to Maree Field about the movie, the book and Munro's legacy.

Roger Donaldson says he's pretty passionate about Burt Munro, but that's an understatement.

After the 1973 documentary Offerings to the God of Speed, the 2005 movie The World's Fastest Indian and now the book of the same name, he's more like the keeper of Munro's legacy.

From Donaldson's first meeting with Munro in 1971 to the upcoming release of the book, which is essentially a fancy and fascinating scrapbook of Munro's life, achievements and, of course, Donaldson's movie, the film-maker's life and work is now inextricably linked to Munro.

Not that he minds.

The World's Fastest Indian is a very personal work, and one that Donaldson is rightly proud of.

Donaldson first came to New Zealand from his native Australia in 1965, expecting to work on the Manapouri power scheme. When that fell through, Donaldson and friend and business partner Mike Smith – who were both "crazy about motorbikes" – hitchhiked over the newly opened Haast pass to Nelson for work.

Donaldson wrote to Munro, who invited them to Invercargill. Munro was "chuffed that anybody ... outside of Invercargill had heard of him", Donaldson says. The rest, as they say, is history.

The Offerings to the God of Speed was a couple of years in the making – a labour of love made on what Donaldson describes as a shoestring budget.

"The character that Burt was – he seemed to be just a great sort of ... icon of ... the spirit of the New Zealand can-do ... No 8 fencing-wire sort of mentality."

Munro as a character, and as a man, is a figure that still intrigues Donaldson, even after so many years: "He took pride in that someone from so far away ... from what was the centre of high-speed record-breaking, could do something and do it so well, and be competitive and yet be doing it in such a backyard way."

Donaldson's getting ready to film The Hungry Rabbit Jumps with Nicolas Cage, but he's happy to stop and talk about Munro.

"The world has been so entertained by Burt Munro – coming from such an unlikely place. The World's Fastest Indian was so well-received. It was a story about more than motorbikes, although, to Burt, it was all about motorcycling. For me, it was about more than motorcycling – New Zealand (as it) interacts with the world, this sort of little ... place ... having such a big place in the world.

"For me, it spoke to a bigger comment on New Zealand. It's about more than just a guy going fast on a motorbike that he built in his back shed. I think that people respond to that sort of underdog story, they respond to the optimism of the story."

The World's Fastest Indian took four years to bring to the screen, and Donaldson admits he was often discouraged during the process, but urged on by his "very tolerant wife".

"There were some real times that I was going ... like, this is too hard, this is not going to happen. I'm wasting my time on this, nobody wants to do it. And she said, 'Roger you are doing this movie. You can't waste years on this project and then not do it'.

"It was a big battle to get it done. Someone could have talked me out of it very easily."

He's full of praise for the help the New Zealand Film Commission gave him to get the movie made, and has lists of people who were instrumental in getting it off the ground; all of whom are named in the acknowledgments of the book.

Donaldson had contemplated doing a book "a long time ago". He got involved in other things, but still had hopes that the book would happen one day.

"Once I made the movie, I got exposed to a lot more people.

"Photographs sort of appeared from places I hadn't been exposed to before. My collection of photographs expanded. People started sending me stuff, or I tracked it down."

Finally, he decided to try to get the book published, but even that took a few years to get together.

"The book took six months of fulltime work to do. And it was a labour of love, it wasn't done for money.

"I went through and retouched the photographs myself, copied them, had them scanned. For me, it was a hands-on thing that I enjoyed doing.

"For better or worse, it's my work. I'm very proud of this book. It's everything I wanted it to be.

"Burt was such a great character. People love telling stories about him; he loved telling stories about himself," which is reflected in the anecdotes and stories scattered through a rich legacy of photographs throughout the book.

And Donaldson is nowhere near ready to give up on Munro yet: "If anyone has got any pictures out there of Burt Munro, hopefully there'll be another edition of it, and I can get it even more up to date. There are some pictures that I still wish I could have found, that I couldn't get the originals."

» There will be a ticketed event at Ascot Park, in Invercargill on Thursday night featuring Superbike rider Aaron Slight and seven-time New Zealand champion Andrew Stroud. The book will be launched at the event.

- © Fairfax NZ News