David Blyth doesn’t care if you flinch.
In fact, he hopes you do.

From the taboo-busting Angel Mine to the body horror of Death Warmed Up, Blyth has spent decades scratching at the underbelly of Kiwi cinema. He’s a director who thrives in the margins unafraid of controversy, allergic to convention, and deeply curious about the darkness inside us all.

We cornered the godfather of NZ gothic to ask about censorship, sex, and why horror still matters.

His answers are exactly what you’d expect.
Uncompromising. Unexpected. Unapologetic.

Let’s begin.

Who gave David Blyth a camera? and thank God, they did.

Me I bought a red Bolex 16 mm camera from a filmmaker living in Freemans Bay, I tendered for a govt film stock sale and ended up paying 40 bucks for thousands of feet of Ilford fp4 black and white negative stock, it all ended up in mums deep freeze, next to the lamb roast.

David Blyth doesn’t direct films, he detonates them.

He takes the sacred, the sexual, the soft-lit suburban and rips it open like a bag of worms. His cinema doesn’t ask for your approval.  Its stare’s you down. Unblinking.

When he made Bound for Pleasure and Transgender Nights, he wasn’t looking to fit in. He was out to document the margins, the real people and gender expression long before corporate pride and TikTok tutorials.

These films don’t whisper. They dare.

We spoke to him not for nostalgia, but necessity.

Because the questions these films raise still linger, still bruise, and still piss people off.

Which is exactly why we should watch them.

Again. Together. At night.

He’ll be there. So will the questions.

The questions:

• What was the exact moment you knew Bound for Pleasure wasn’t going to be just another indie documentary?

When it got a commercial cinema release in New York, USA, after winning a NY Fetish Film Award.

• Did you ever think Transgender Nights would screen again 30 years later or did you assume it would be buried under VHS dust forever?

I always believed Transfigured Nights would have legs, it was part of the unique digital roll out of webcam for the world, and it allowed Ironically IMBD would never accept Transfigured nights as a legitimate credit, despite its numerous film festival screenings because it was recorded on a dial up web cam.

• How did your cast and crew react when they first read the scripts? silence, laughter, or legal concerns?

There was no script, there was a crew of me and cameraperson, these were organic interview explorations. What is more important is I had a alter ego that allowed me to be inside the world of fetish and mistresses.

At 18 years old I met Madam Lash in Sydney Australia, and she introduced me to dressing and intimate performance. I soon realised that this interest gave me access to the fetish world not as an observer but as a participant.

I had no legal concerns, because all my participants were happy to sign a release form. Today in 2025, it might be harder to find participants prepared to expose themselves in the new conservative times we live.

Sometimes I pretend to be normal, but it gets boring.

• What was your wildest behind-the-scenes moment something you swore you’d never tell but might now?

Well at a well-known film producer’s house in Ponsonby, we shot a scene on the dining room table using borrowed lights from the Hercules/Zena shows, we filmed a submissive being penetrated with a strap on dildo by a mistress. I never thought I would get away this outrageous scene.

• If you were making these films in 2025, what would stay the same, and what would you get cancelled for?

If I made those films now, I would attempt to approach it the same way I did in 2002 and 2006. The fetish pendulum has gone from everything goes, to a new political position where Transgender people and the fetish world of bondage and discipline has swung back to a disapproval conservative position.

• Do you think the original audience understood what you were doing or were they too busy being shocked?

These two films have played at film festivals around the world and have been watched by more people than any of my other films. Because these documentaries reveal so much of the intimate performance world from inside the scene, they remain timeless and powerful cinematic testimonies of an underground world.

• What’s the most bizarre piece of feedback you’ve ever received about either film?

Being permanently deleted from Facebook for supposedly breaching community standards over a Transfigured Nights promo video. Because Facebook is run by Ai there is no human recourse, and I lost 17 years of posts and worldwide contacts.

• Was there ever a moment where you thought, “maybe this is going too far”? and did you keep going anyway?

No not really, I have always tried to be fearless to show what is really going on..

• If you had one actor, one location, and one weekend to remake either film, which would it be and how would it look now?

These documentaries aren’t acted in by actors, these are real people playing out their lives in a fetish environment, I continue to document people with myself and a camera person over a weekend, just like I have done now for decades whether its fetish, paranormal, or war veterans.

• Final question: are you still making films that upset people—and if not, why the hell not?

Yes, I am working on two documentaries exploring my paranormal encounters which includes abduction, greys and a mantis creature,  plus a auto biographical look at my secret life.

— Roger Wyllie, View Mag

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