Out of Sight, Out of Mind

Film (Full Length) – 2004

Six-year-old orphan Norman Madden was sent to a Christchurch facility for intellectually disabled patients in 1940 — for the "crime" of being naughty and illiterate. It was at Templeton Centre Madden suffered physical and sexual abuse, was forced into work and denied his promised education. Director Gerard Smyth filmed at the centre in the late 90s. Smyth investigates the profound influence of eugenics (selective breeding) at "psychopaedic" facilities, like Templeton, and follows Madden's dogged campaign to get the Government to apologise for the inhumane treatment he endured through his youth.

Smyth spent eight months filming, accruing an enormous archive of observational footage, interviews with the residents and their lives. “For those months, I almost lived there. I went home only at night. I got to know the people,” he says. He would go on to show his film in parliament, and believes it contributed to politicians finally resolving to close the centre.
– Director and writer Gerard Smyth talks about filming at Templeton, Vice, 6 December 2017