“Only when we have control of our image will we be able to put on the screen the very positive images that are ourselves, that are us” – Merata Mita, “The Value of The Image” “How do indigenous people use the camera once they come to have some control over it? Perhaps it is on our own shoulders to rework the well-established rules … so that the way of creating images slowly becomes more comfortable for our cultures” - Barry Barclay, Our Own Image The course looks primarily at how Māori filmmakers have used the medium of cinema as a means to reassert cultural identity and tino rangatiratanga, ie. to “decolonize the screen”. We trace the theory and practice of indigenous 4th cinema in Aotearoa, from the activist documentaries (eg. Bastion Point: Day 507, 1980; Patu, 1983) and first features (Ngāti, 1987; Mauri, 1988) of pioneering practitioner-theorists, Merata Mita and Barry Barclay, during the Māori Cultural Renaissance in the 1970s and 80s to the present. In addition to the above, key films will include some of the following: Lee Tamahori’s controversial adaptation of Alan Duff’s incendiary Once Were Warriors (1994) the post-millennium wave of contemporary dramas (eg The Pā Boys, 2014; Mahana, 2016; Waru, 2017) documentaries (eg. Poi E, 2016; Herbs, Songs of Freedom, 2018; Merata, How Mum Decolonized The Screen, 2019) the playful, eclectic, internationally acclaimed dramatic comedies of Taika Waititi (eg. Boy 2010) films directed by non-Māori (eg. The Whale Rider, White Lies, The Strength of Water, The Dark Horse, Deadlands) will also help answer the central question: What is Māori Cinema? What is its relationship to cultural identity formation? (How) can / does it “decolonize the screen”? Or not… As well as providing a socio-historical overview, each of the lectures will introduce and discuss the key cultural, political, ethical, theoretical and aesthetic issues, such as post-colonial theory; kaupapa Māori film theory and 4th cinema; representing otherness; intersections of Māori Cinema and European Art Cinema; theories of gender & sexuality; realism vs “myth” and fantasy; Māori film and/as oral “History”; literary adaptation; language revitalisation; the subversive power of laughter. The course also introduces and develops knowledge of the basic tools of film analysis, for example, shot scale and angles, mise en scène, editing techniques, and the role of film music. Weekly seminars provide students with opportunities to refine and extend knowledge via group discussion. Regular and varied assessments encourage and reward active engagement with course content (films, lectures, seminars and readings), teaching staff and each other, to develop a broad range of transferable skills: written and oral competency; working individually and collaboratively, in small groups; fostering tuakana-teina relationships; providing and receiving constructive feedback; meeting deadlines, as well as research and analysis. All students will have opportunities to peer review Stage 3 oral presentations.
At Stage 3 level, students will be able to demonstrate an in-depth understanding of a majority of films studied in the course (on aesthetic, socio-cultural & political levels) and will be able to articulate their relationship to one another, to New Zealand Cinema and to indigenous cinema and identity more broadly, notably in terms of the central kaupapa of “decolonizing the screen”. Students will use course texts and their own bibliographic research in order to develop their own, theoretically-informed reflections.