His premier premiere

Clarke Gayford on being the behind-the-scenes cameraman for the new US-NZ documentary about Jacinda Ardern's time as prime minister, and their lives then and since.

- BY RUSSELL BAILLIE

There are moments in Prime Minister, the documentary about Dame Jacinda Ardern, that you see coming. Her elevation to the leadership of the Labour Party and the 2017 election. The announcement of her pregnancy, alongside partner Clarke Gayford. The Christchurch mosque shootings. The pandemic lockdown announcement. The pregnant visit to Buckingham Palace. The whole family at the United Nations. The resignation. The wedding.

But Prime Minister is something more than a scrapbook of news conference soundbites or a travelogue of international Jacinda-mania. It is sometimes those things, too. But helped by Gayford's footage filmed along the way - he's a media veteran as a presenter, and a producer of his own fishing show - the film becomes a remarkable backstage examination of her political and their personal lives through the period. Gayford's camera captures everything from funny family moments, such as his toddler daughter Neve working a room like a campaigning politician ("nice to meet you, nice to meet you"), to Ardern gazing from the ninth floor of the Beehive at the occupation of Parliament grounds and the protesters' signs threatening to kill her.

A year later, we see Ardern at home trying to decide what to wear to her resignation announcement and Gayford filming and asking her whether she should have learnt to delegate more. He gets the sort of withering response usually reserved for leaders of the opposition and male broadcasters offering their reckons on women in power.