“This is my dad,” says Lorin Clarke, in the opening scene of her new documentary Not Only Fred Dagg But Also John Clarke – an intimate portrait of the man behind New Zealand’s most famous pair of gumboots.
Lorin Clarke shared her dad with the world in life and in death. She didn’t have a chance to tell her closest friends about John Clarke’s premature departure – a heart attack on a bush walk at the age of 68 – before the news leaked on Twitter (it was still called that in 2017).
Sir Sam Neill chokes up talking about his old university friend in Lorin’s documentary about her father, Not Only Fred Dagg But Also John Clarke, which opens nationwide on Boxing Day.
The 1990 black comedy the two men made together, Death in Brunswick, remains an absolute classic today and Clarke (sorry, Sam) steals every scene he’s in.
