Howard Rennie

Howard Rennie (b. 1942) was a film director and assistant director.

Biography

Howard Clive Rennie was born in Zululand on 11 August 1942, where his father first worked as an electrician for the South African Railways and later became an electrical contractor. He became involved in movies from an early age when, at the age of 21, he was working as 3rd assistant director on Cy Endfield’s Zulu (1963), where his fluency in isiZulu stood him in good stead. Though he only directed three features himself – Stop Exchange (1970), Forgotten Summer (1970), both for Panorama Films, and De Wet’s Spoor / Guns Across the Veldt (1975) – he was involved in many films by both local and visiting directors in various capacities. His plans to film Olive Schreiner’s The Story of an African Farm in 1975 did not work out. (There seem to be no credits for him between 1977 and 1988 and we have no idea of where he was during this time.)

Trivia: In 1960 Howard Rennie attended the National Boy Scout Jamboree held in Colorado Springs in the United States, while his father had been at the World Jamboree in the United Kingdom in 1929.

Filmography

1963 – Zulu (3rd assistant director – uncredited) (Director: Cy Endfield), 1965 – The Naked Prey (2nd assistant director) (Director: Cornel Wilde), 1965 – Diamond Walkers (2nd assistant director) (Director: Paul Martin), Caccia ai Violenti / King of Africa / One Step to Hell (2nd assistant director – uncredited?) (Director: Nino Scolaro), 1968 – Raka (assistant director) (Director: Alfred Travers), 1969 – Strangers at Sunrise (assistant director) (Director: Percival Rubens), 1970 – One for the Pot (assistant director) (Director: Alfred Travers), Stop Exchange (director), 1970 – Forgotten Summer (director), 1971 – The Weekend (sound editor) (Director: Keith G. van der Wat), 1973 – Boesman and Lena (assistant director) (Director: Ross Devenish), 1974 – Pens en Pootjies (production manager) (Directors: Dirk de Villiers & Joe Stewardson), 1974 – The Dove (assistant producer for South African sequences – uncredited) (Director: Charles Jarrott), 1974/1976 – Land Apart / The South Africans (director of additional sequences) (Director: Sven Persson), 1976 – Shout at the Devil (location manager, 2nd unit) (Director: Peter Hunt), 1977 – Target of an Assassin / Tigers Don’t Cry (1st assistant director) (Director: Peter Collinson), 1988 – Mapantsula (1st assistant director with Neil Sonnekus) (Director: Oliver Schmitz), Any Man’s Death (1st assistant director) (Director: Tom Clegg), 1988 – Purgatory (assistant director) (Director: Ami Artzi), 1989 – Burndown (1st assistant director) (Director: James Allen), 1990 – Night of the Cyclone / Perfume of the Cyclone (1st assistant director) (Director: David Irving), 1990 – Return to Justice (1st assistant director) (Director: Vincent G. Cox), 1990 – Voice in the Dark (assistant director) (Director: Vincent G. Cox), 1990 – Curse III: Blood Sacrifice / Panga (1st assistant director) (Director: Sean Barton), 1991 – Crime Lords (1st assistant director) (Director: Wayne Crawford), 1994 – Dark Desires: Thelma (1st assistant director) (Director: Jean-Louis Daniel).