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New Zealand Filmmakers

Edited by Ian Conrich and Stuart Murray

Cultural Studies, Film Theory and Criticism, Filmmakers, World Cinema

Contemporary Approaches to Film and Media Series

Paperback
Published: August 2007
ISBN: 9780814330173
Pages: 392 Size: 6x9
Illustrations: 50 black and white images
$37.99
Review

This very timely book will enlighten readers about the 'other' New Zealand cinema, with fascinating insights into the creative output of this South Pacific nation.

— Geoff Lealand

This volume contains twenty in-depth studies of prominent New Zealand directors, producers, actors, and cinematographers. New Zealand Filmmakers outlines and examines three major constituent groups who are responsible for the industry as it appears today: those involved in pioneering film in New Zealand, those associated with the New Wave of the 1970s and 1980s, and those post–mid-1980s visionaries and fantasists who have produced striking individual productions. A comprehensive introduction situates the New Zealand film industry in cultural, historical, and ideological contexts.

The book displays the diversity of filmmaking in New Zealand and highlights the specific industrial, aesthetic, and cultural concerns that have created a film culture of international significance. With the majority of the contributions in the book containing analysis developed through dialogue with the filmmakers, New Zealand Filmmakers is an authoritative study of the film industry in New Zealand. Each essay also includes a thorough and definitive filmography, detailing the full nature of the work produced by each individual, with key titles highlighted.

Filmmakers covered in this volume include Barry Barclay, David Blyth, Jane Campion, Roger Donaldson, Rudall Hayward, Peter Jackson, John Laing, Bruno Lawrence, Len Lye, Alison Maclean, Merata Mita, Ian Mune, Geoff Murphy, Leon Narbey, John O’Shea, Gaylene Preston, John Reid, Vincent Ward, Jennifer Ward-Lealand, and Peter Wells. This collection is illustrated with 50 film prints, many of which have never before been published. With the New Zealand film industry poised to become a center of film production and already a major topic of critical interest, this volume will find many interested readers among film scholars and educators.

Ian Conrich is Director of the Centre for New Zealand Studies, Birkbeck, University of London, and Chair of the New Zealand Studies Association.

Stuart Murray is Senior Lecturer in Postcolonial Literatures in the School of English at the University of Leeds.

Contributors Include:
Stacey Abbott, Bruce Babington, Barbara Cairns, James Chapman, Ian Conrich, Sam Edwards, David A. Gerstner, Barry Keith Grant, Roger Horrocks, Stan Jones, Helen Martin, Stuart Murray, Geraldene Peters, Stephanie Rains, Jonathan Rayner, Eva Rueschmann, Laurence Simmons, Andrew Spicer, Kirsten Moana Thompson, Estella Tincknell

At the present time no satisfactory, adoptable texts are available that cover a range of New Zealand films and filmmakers. New Zealand Filmmakers is a necessary contribution to film studies."

– Paula Massood, associate professor of Film Studies at CUNY, Brooklyn

New Zealand filmmaking is in the spotlight, in the wake of the global successes of The Lord of the Rings and King Kong. This very timely book will enlighten readers about the 'other' New Zealand cinema, with fascinating insights into the creative output of this South Pacific nation."

– Geoff Lealand, associate professor of Screen and Media Studies at the University of Waikato, New Zealand