‘James And Isey' Star James Cross Dies Aged 68
James Cross – Northland identity and co-star of one of New Zealand's most successful documentary movies of all time – has died aged 68.
Gavin Cross said his youngest brother passed away peacefully on Monday night at Kawakawa Hospital, with family members – including their 106-year-old mother Isey Cross – at his bedside.
He would be at home at the family farm in Kawakawa until Thursday, when he would be taken to Ōtiria Marae, near Moerewa, about 6am. A service would be held there at 11.30am.
The 2021 movie James and Isey, by independent film-maker Florian Habicht, explored the loving relationship between Isey and her youngest son and caregiver, as they prepared to celebrate her 100th birthday.
The feel-good film is the seventh highest-grossing New Zealand documentary of all time.
Just 10 days earlier and despite failing health, James hosted a 106th birthday party for his mother at Bay of Islands Yacht Club in Waitangi.
More than 100 people attended, with members of the Cross whānau travelling from as far away as Australia.
James had been working on a sequel to James and Isey, which he was intent on producing himself.
When mother and son attended the world premiere of James and Isey at Auckland's Civic Theatre in 2021, it was the first time Isey had been to the Civic – or to any movie – since World War II.
To mark the death of James Cross, and celebrate the love of mother and son, Madman Entertainment has made James and Isey free to watch on the DocPlay video platform until Thursday, 8 May. You can find the movie here: https://www.docplay.com/player/james–isey
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Spinoff
6 days ago
- The Spinoff
The Unity Books bestseller chart for the week ending June 6
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books' stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington. AUCKLAND 1 A Different kind Of Power by Jacinda Ardern (Penguin Random House, $60) From Oprah to Colbert, Insta reels to #booktok, former prime minister Jacinda Ardern has joined the ranks of hard-working celebrity memoirist who must engage in a hefty and relentless media campaign to shift that stock. Ardern's book and its message of kindness as a governing value for politics is a timely amulet for global market in a fraught political environment: publishers have banked on the fact that readers will snatch up her story to wave in the face of rising fascism, inequality and xenophobia. But what does the memoir genre really offer a former politician? The best memoirs are exposing, probing, and lend their readers a way to interrogate their own life decisions through the lens of another. The Spinoff's editor Mad Chapman reviewed A Different Kind of Power and addressed the tightrope that Ardern's attempt was always going to have to tread: 'I figured A Different Kind of Power would either veer political and therefore be cloaked in Ardern's usual restraint as a prime minister or it would veer celebrity and reveal the full emotion and drama behind the politician while conveniently brushing over policy and legacy,' wrote Chapman. 'Somehow it did neither.' 2 Air by John Boyne (Doubleday, $35) The final in Boyne's bestselling elements quartet. 3 Delirious by Damien Wilkins (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38) The 2025 Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction winner. Wilkins' novel is the story of Mary and Pete, their great loves, their great losses. Beautiful, funny, and somehow both complex and refreshing like a walk through the New Zealand bush. 4 Orbital by Samantha Harvey (Jonathan Cape, $26) The poetic Booker Prize winner of 2024. 5 James by Percival Everett (Picador, $38) 'With James, Everett goes back to Twain's novel on a rescue mission to restore Jim's humanity. He reconceives the novel and its world, trying to reconcile the characters and the plot with what now seems obvious to us about the institution of slavery. The result is funny, entertaining and deeply thought-provoking – part critique and part celebration of the original.' Read more of Marcel Theroux's review of James on The Guardian, here. 6 Toi Te Mana: An Indigenous History of Māori Art by Deidre Brown & Ngarino Ellis with Jonathan Mane-Wheoki (Auckland University Press, $100) The winner of the illustrated nonfiction category in this year's Ockhams and a major publication for Aotearoa for a long time to come. 7 Butter by Asako Yuzuki (Fourth Estate, $35) Hugely popular novel that is, curiously, not particularly popular in Yuzuki's home country of Japan. 8 Murriyang: Song of Time by Stan Grant (Simon and Schuster, $47) Here's the publisher's blurb for beloved Australian journalist and broadcaster, Stan Grant's latest book: 'Murriyang, in part Grant's response to the Voice referendum, eschews politics for love. In this gorgeous, grace-filled book, he zooms out to reflect on the biggest questions, ranging across the history, literature, theology, music and art that has shaped him. Setting aside anger for kindness, he reaches past the secular to the sacred and transcendent. Informed by spiritual thinkers from around the world, Murriyang is a Wiradjuri prayer in one long uninterrupted breath, challenging Western notions of linear time in favour of a time beyond time – the Dreaming. Murriyang is also very personal, each meditation interleaved with a memory of Grant's father, a Wiradjuri cultural leader. It asks how any of us can say goodbye to those we love.' 9 The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong (Penguin Random House, $38) Here's a lively snippet from Andrea Long Chu's review of Vuong's second novel: 'It is a sweet, charming, conventional novel whose ambition does not outstrip its ability. The young Hai is a suicidal college dropout stuck in the economically depressed but whimsically named town of East Gladness, Connecticut. 'If you aim for Gladness and miss, you'll find us,' the narrator says before directing our attention to Hai, who is about to jump off a bridge. But before he takes the plunge, the boy is flagged down by Grazina, a zany Lithuanian immigrant with dementia. Still unable to face his mother, who believes he is off at medical school, Hai moves in with Grazina, effectively becoming her live-in nurse, and seeks employment at the local HomeMarket (a thinly disguised Boston Market). Hai's co-workers are quirky, Wes Anderson–esque eccentrics who prove just as batty as Grazina: the manager, an amateur pro wrestler; the cashier, a Hollow Earther; Hai's cousin Sony, an autistic Civil War buff in denial about his father's death. Yet the delusions of others, instead of isolating Hai, end up pulling him out of his grief and into a provisional world of shared experience that, at least for a while, makes life worth living. What a pleasure to be given characters and a plot!' 10 The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38) Sinister and magnificent. Catherine Chidgey's latest novel is an absorbing, gripping alternate history. Read The Spinoff's review, right here. WELLINGTON 1 A Different Kind Of Power by Jacinda Ardern (Penguin Random House, $60) 2 The Midnight Plane: New and Selected Poems by Dame Fiona Kidman (Otago University Press, $40) A gorgeous new collection of Kidman's poetry beautifully published in hardback and with an arresting cover image taken from the documentary about Kidman that premiered last year and was reviewed by The Spinoff, here. 3 The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38) 4 Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic, $30) Haymitch's time to shine in The Hunger Games. 5 Delirious by Damien Wilkins (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38) 6 James by Percival Everett (Picador, $38) 7 Māori Made Easy: Workbook Kete 1 by Scotty Morrison (Penguin, $25) The indomitable Scotty Morrison is back with another brilliant aid for learning te reo Māori. 8 Abundance by Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson (Profile Books, $55) Klein and Thompson's highly anticipated roadmap for fixing housing, healthcare, infrastructure and innovation. 9 Slowing the Sun | Essays by Nadine Hura (Bridget Williams Books, $40) A stunning series of essays. Here's the publisher's blurb: 'Overwhelmed by the complexity of climate change, Nadine Hura sets out to find a language that connects more deeply with the environmental crisis. But what begins as a journalistic quest to understand the science takes an abrupt and introspective turn following the death of her brother. In the midst of grief, Hura works through science, pūrākau, poetry and back again. Seeking to understand climate change in relation to whenua and people, she asks: how should we respond to what has been lost? Her many-sided essays explore environmental degradation, social disconnection and Indigenous reclamation, insisting that any meaningful response must be grounded in Te Tiriti and anti-colonialism. Slowing the Sun is a karanga to those who have passed on, as well as to the living, to hold on to ancestral knowledge for future generations.' 10 Is a River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane (Penguin, $65) Wonderful to see that Aotearoa poet Hana Pera Aoake wrote about rivers from a te ao Māori perspective for The Serpentine gallery in London. Widely beloved nature writer Macfarlane comes at rivers from a very different perspective in this latest, already bestselling book.
NZ Herald
27-05-2025
- NZ Herald
Pike River official trailer
The trailer for feature film Pike River, starring Melanie Lynskey and Robyn Malcolm. Video / Madman Entertainment
NZ Herald
20-05-2025
- NZ Herald
Sean ‘Diddy' Combs trial: Male escort, former ‘trusted assistant' and Cassie Ventura's mother all testify
While one of Combs' former staff members has blasted the musician's own lawyers for asking a 'crazy question'. Hayes said he got the nickname 'The Punisher' playing on New York basketball courts. But it was useful in his career as an exotic dancer usually for birthdays and bachelorette parties. He said that in late 2012 he received a call from a 'Janet' who he later found out was Cassie Ventura. He testified he was asked to come to New York's Trump International Hotel at 2.45am to dance for a group of friends. When he arrived he saw 'Janet' was wearing a dressing gown and nothing else. He said he was given US$800 ($1352.61), four times his usual rate, and asked to create a 'sexy scene' with her and her 'husband'. 'I was specifically told to try not to look at or communicate with her husband,' Hayes said. Ventura, he said, told him to rub baby oil into his and her skin. 'The man then came out and he was nude but for a veil. You could only really see his eyes. 'I noticed at times he was masturbating'. After 45 minutes, Hayes said the man walked off and Ventura – whose identity, like the man, he didn't know – asked him if he wanted to 'finish', which he took to mean climax. He declined, he said, because he wanted to remain 'professional'. He then left with a further $1200. Hayes said he continued to be hired by the mystery couple. But one slip-up saw the mystery revealed, he alleged. In one hotel, he was told to wait in a room within the suite. 'The hotel TV was on, and it said 'Welcome Sean Combs'. 'Then I looked on his social media and I recognised Cassie Ventura,' said Hayes. His testimony came after Combs' former 'trusted assistant' David James returned to the stand on Tuesday. James was cross-examined by Combs' defence lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, during which he mentioned two other celebrities. He said that when his boss was in Miami, he recorded in the same studio that Pharrell Williams and Will Smith used. 'He would go where Pharrell was working. Will Smith had a studio,' James said. The former assistant testified that Combs would regularly stay up until 3am or 4am recording music, and when Combs was in New York City, he recorded at a studio in Midtown Manhattan. He also had a run-in with Combs' own lawyers. James testified that on one occasion, he had gone out to buy burgers for Combs when he and another staff member called D-Roc came across a rival music producer to Combs in a diner car park. While they were in the diner, he said, several additional cars turned up and guns were suggesting they were in danger. The pair then fled back to Combs' LA mansion. Defence lawyer Marc Agnifilo asked James if he had left D-Roc at the diner. 'That's a crazy question,' said James. 'Why would I leave D-Roc at the diner when guns were being passed around. 'That doesn't make any sense.' On another occasion during his cross-examination, Agnifilo said 'that's a bad question'. 'I agree,' snapped back James. James also testified about Combs' wild riders – his list of must-haves when he was travelling or in hotels. In the UK for instance, he demanded US Heinz ketchup in his room because he disliked the taste of British Heinz. But the rider went far beyond tomato sauce. 'Apple sauce, Jello, Just for Men, Fiji Water,' listed James. He also needed to go to a chemist and get 'baby oil, condoms, Astroglide lubricant, Viagra, pills to increase sperm count, prophylactics'. Combs' Louis Vuitton wash bag also included Ecstasy pills, which it's claimed he took regularly. James said he could be reimbursed through Bad Boy Records for all the items aside from the condoms, lube and baby oil. They were off-the-books purchases, he agreed, which he got paid cash in hand for. Combs didn't want a paper record of them. Ventura's mother, Regina Ventura, also testified on Tuesday. The jury was shown an email from her daughter around Christmas 2011 claiming she was being blackmailed by Combs. 'Threats have been made to me by Sean 'Diddy' Combs relating to 2 explicit sex tapes of me. 'He also said someone would hurt me and made a point it would not be by his hands and he would be out of the country when that happened'. Regina Ventura said she was told Combs was demanding US$20,000 ($33,815.20) to be 'recouped' from Cassie because he found out she was seeing someone else. 'I was physically sick,' said Ventura when she read the email. 'The sex tapes threw me.' She said they had to remortgage her house to pay the money and then a staff member of Combs' Bad Boy Records gave her the details to wire the money to. But five days later, the money came back.
