Margaret Kathleen O'Brien
Margaret Kathleen O'Brien (7 April 1906 – 13 February 1978) was a New Zealand film director, dance teacher, and radio presenter. One of the first New Zealand women to direct films, she spent 20 years working for government filmmaking body the National Film Unit.
Margaret Kathleen O'Brien
- Born
- 1906 · Wellington.
- Died
- 1978 · Wellington.
- Nationality
- New Zealand
- Occupation
- film director
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Margaret Kathleen O'Brien (7 April 1906 – 13 February 1978) was a New Zealand film director, dance teacher, and radio presenter. One of the first New Zealand women to direct films, she spent 20 years working for government filmmaking body the National Film Unit.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Margaret Kathleen O'Brien. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q6759581
In this article
Career
O'Brien was born in Wellington, New Zealand in 1906. After time teaching ballet in Wellington, and living in England, she got a job in Wellington at the country's National Film Unit in 1946. O'Brien directed her first short film for the NFU the following year. Australian-born filmmaker Margaret Thomson had begun directing films at the NFU the decade before O'Brien. When Thomson left the unit to work in England in 1949, O'Brien stayed on and remained the only female director on the NFU staff for the next 20 years. She directed the film Graduate Harvest in 1954 and A Letter to the Teacher in 1957. O'Brien never gained recognition during her lifetime. She died in Wellington on 13 February 1978.
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 18 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Film memorabilia
38,246 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Margaret HayesPerson
- Margaret HughesPerson
- Margaret JohnPerson
- Margaret JoslinPerson
- Margaret KerryPerson
- Margaret LazarusPerson
- Margaret LeahyPerson
- Margaret LeePerson
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Margaret Kathleen O'Brien?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.