New Zealand Cinema

A study of New Zealand film with emphasis placed upon historical and theoretical approaches. This paper is designed as a study of New Zealand cinema in its institutional and historical context with regard to some key issues. These issues include: the political economy of filmmaking in New Zealand; the socio-historical context of both the subject matter and production environment of several films; problems that arise in trying to articulate precisely what “New Zealand cinema” is and, by extension, what New Zealand is and who New Zealand filmmakers are (and, for that matter, New Zealanders generally). Ultimately, this will lead us to consider discourses of identity pertaining to several overlapping and conflicting forces: national, transnational, ethno-cultural and postcolonial.