Jos

Documentary Jos unearths the life and work of Czech-born New Zealand photographer Joseph Divis. Born in 1885, Divis was a pioneer of street-style photography in an era of colonial studio portraits. His photography captures the everyday lives of the residents of gold-mining town Waiuta, and its eventual decline into a ghost town. The film follows a historian, a photographer, and a museum curator as they rediscover New Zealand's past through the images of a photographer ahead of his time. Stuff writer James Croot praised Jos for managing to distil Divis’ adventures without "feeling forced, or once-over-lightly".

What draws you into the documentary Jos isn’t Divis’s riveting life story, or that he’s some sort of overlooked master. It’s the pictures of New Zealand being born before our eyes — the places, the people, the change from the posed colonial portraits to contemporary snapshots.

– Reviewer Simon Morris on Jos, Radio New Zealand website, 10 May 2023

Key Cast & Crew

Dylan Galletly

Composer

Brendan Smyth

As: Jos Divis

Brian Scadden

Subject

Simon Nathan

Subject, Additional Research

Robyn Janes

Writer, Research

Dave Kwant

Director, Producer, Cinematographer, Editor, Sound Recordist