The histories of New Zealand and Australian film production, distribution and exhibition have been characterized by significant exchanges in terms of culture, technology, creative personnel and policy approaches. Despite forming a persistent characteristic of the film industries of both countries, these connections have so far been either ignored or under-examined. This article investigates the technological, industrial, economic and cultural factors that influenced the relationship between Australian and New Zealand filmmaking during the early period of cinema until the 1930s. During this period, film production and distribution in New Zealand and Australia was conceived as an Australasian initiative characterized by both extensive labour mobility and an integrated film market. Early Australasian filmmakers moved seamlessly across the Tasman, producing films both in Australia and in New Zealand and contributing to both national cinematic traditions. This article argues that to fully grasp the histories of Australian and New Zealand film, it is essential to consider the contribution that these Australasian filmmakers made to the cultural, technological and industrial development of both national cinemas.
{"title":"Reframing early Australasian cinema: Trans-Tasman exchanges during the silent film period","authors":"T. O’Regan, Alfio Leotta","doi":"10.1386/NZPS.6.2.107_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/NZPS.6.2.107_1","url":null,"abstract":"The histories of New Zealand and Australian film production, distribution and exhibition have been characterized by significant exchanges in terms of culture, technology, creative personnel and policy approaches. Despite forming a persistent characteristic of the film industries of both countries, these connections have so far been either ignored or under-examined. This article investigates the technological, industrial, economic and cultural factors that influenced the relationship between Australian and New Zealand filmmaking during the early period of cinema until the 1930s. During this period, film production and distribution in New Zealand and Australia was conceived as an Australasian initiative characterized by both extensive labour mobility and an integrated film market. Early Australasian filmmakers moved seamlessly across the Tasman, producing films both in Australia and in New Zealand and contributing to both national cinematic traditions. This article argues that to fully grasp the histories of Australian and New Zealand film, it is essential to consider the contribution that these Australasian filmmakers made to the cultural, technological and industrial development of both national cinemas.","PeriodicalId":37507,"journal":{"name":"Journal of New Zealand and Pacific Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42946454","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Special issue: New Zealand and Pacific film","authors":"I. Conrich, L. Sedgwick","doi":"10.1386/NZPS.6.2.101_2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/NZPS.6.2.101_2","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37507,"journal":{"name":"Journal of New Zealand and Pacific Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48846623","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The force awakens: Mana as causal agent in Pacific narrative cinemas","authors":"Yifen T. Beus","doi":"10.1386/NZPS.6.2.121_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/NZPS.6.2.121_1","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37507,"journal":{"name":"Journal of New Zealand and Pacific Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48805996","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The New Zealand horror-comedy What We Do in the Shadows (2014) emerged at a time when contemporary cinema had been showing a renewed and sustained interest in vampire fiction. Whilst it was not the first to offer a humorous reworking of vampire mythology, this parody comes from a strong tradition in New Zealand cinema of disrupting genres, an approach which can be observed, for instance, in Peter Jackson’s early work. What We Do in the Shadows is notable as it creatively utilises generic tropes and intertextual references whilst relocating supernatural creatures of the old world into a contemporary Wellington. As this article argues, the comic potential is opened up in the film by a particular convergence of the spectacular and the mundane. In this environment, blood-drinking and the practicing of the dark arts, sits alongside everyday domestic tasks and cleaning rotas in a household of vampires. The film, it will be established, not only challenges and disrupts established horror genre conventions and expectations by repositioning them in a sitcom format, it also playfully engages with representations of masculinity and the homosocial in a house share environment. Additionally, by positioning the narrative in a New Zealand context, the film is able to localize the myths and stories of the old world and thus further destabilize recognized generic traditions.
{"title":"‘Vampires don’t do dishes’: Old myths, the modern world, horror and the mundane in What We Do in the Shadows (2014)","authors":"A. Wright","doi":"10.1386/NZPS.6.2.137_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/NZPS.6.2.137_1","url":null,"abstract":"The New Zealand horror-comedy What We Do in the Shadows (2014) emerged at a time when contemporary cinema had been showing a renewed and sustained interest in vampire fiction. Whilst it was not the first to offer a humorous reworking of vampire mythology, this parody comes from a strong tradition in New Zealand cinema of disrupting genres, an approach which can be observed, for instance, in Peter Jackson’s early work. What We Do in the Shadows is notable as it creatively utilises generic tropes and intertextual references whilst relocating supernatural creatures of the old world into a contemporary Wellington. As this article argues, the comic potential is opened up in the film by a particular convergence of the spectacular and the mundane. In this environment, blood-drinking and the practicing of the dark arts, sits alongside everyday domestic tasks and cleaning rotas in a household of vampires. The film, it will be established, not only challenges and disrupts established horror genre conventions and expectations by repositioning them in a sitcom format, it also playfully engages with representations of masculinity and the homosocial in a house share environment. Additionally, by positioning the narrative in a New Zealand context, the film is able to localize the myths and stories of the old world and thus further destabilize recognized generic traditions.","PeriodicalId":37507,"journal":{"name":"Journal of New Zealand and Pacific Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44905484","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Contested terrains of identity and home: Coming of age, belonging and Māori-Pākehā relations in Taika Waititi’s Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016)","authors":"Eva Rueschmann","doi":"10.1386/NZPS.6.2.151_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/NZPS.6.2.151_1","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":37507,"journal":{"name":"Journal of New Zealand and Pacific Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41334291","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}