Includes bibliographical references (pages 301-307) and index.
Contents:
Introduction -- Hayward in The Bay of Plenty: The silent Rewi's Last Stand and The Te Kooti Trail -- Hayward in the Waipā: Rewi's Last Stand in the sound era -- Wars in the living room: The Killing of Kane and The Governor -- The Pūhā western: Utu -- Documentary adventures: The New Zealand Wars -- Television histories in uncertain times: Greenstone, Von Tempsky's Ghost and Frontier of Dreams -- Aftermath and memory: In Spring One Plants Alone and Rain of the Children -- Encounter, romance and conflict: River Queen -- Māori creative control and new screens -- Conclusion.
Summary:
"The New Zealand Wars were defining events in the nation's history. Filming the Colonial Past, an engaging new book from Annabel Cooper, tells a story of filmmakers' fascination with these conflicts over the past 90 years. From silent screen to smartphone, and from Pākehā adventurers to young Māori songwriters, filmmakers have made and remade the stories of this most troubling past. When Rudall Hayward went to Rotorua, Whakatāne and Te Awamutu to make his two versions of Rewi's Last Stand (1925, 1940) and The Te Kooti Trail (1927), he quickly found that the tangata whenua he relied on for making his films would help to shape the stories. By the time of the renewed interest in the New Zealand Wars in the 1970s and early 80s, thinking about race, nation and empire was undergoing a sea-change. The makers of television drama (including The Governor) and independent film (Geoff Murphy's Utu) set out actively to engage with Māori advisers and performers. In the late 1980s and 90s, screen industry deregulation brought a new set of challenges. Filming the Colonial Past shows how documentaries notably the New Zealand Wars series of 1998 and feature films Vincent Ward's River Queen and Rain of the Children negotiated these hurdles. Meanwhile, Māori working on Pākehā-led productions honed their skills. Today, the growth of Māori creative control, enabled by the diminishing cost of digital media and the expansion of platforms, signals a new era. From these sources come documentaries from Māori perspectives and new ways of exploring the past, from music videos to online histories. Each of these productions is a snapshot of a complex cultural moment"--Publisher information.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.