New Zealand Coming-of-age Films: Distinctive Characteristics and Thematic Preoccupations

This chapter provides an overview of New Zealand coming-of-age films from the first feature film to be made on this theme, The God Boy (Murray Reece, 1976) to the most recent examples, Mahana (Lee Tamahori, 2016) and Hunt for the Wilderpeople (Taika Waititi, 2016), identifying trends and patterns in the evolution of this genre. Characteristic attributes are explored, such as the dialogue with national literature (of the 15 films examined in the book, all but four are adaptations); the universal tendency of filmmakers to update the setting to the time of their own childhood; the presence of personal projections and identifications in the films; the importance of the New Zealand landscape as a thematic element. Finally, the main thematic preoccupations are outlined, with a demonstration of how they shift over time in response to changing cultural and political circumstances.

A Māori Boy Contests the Old Patriarchal Order: Mahana (Lee Tamahori, 2016)

Based on a comparison with Witi Ihimaera’s novel Bulibasha, King of the Gypsies (1994), the source for the adaptation, this chapter discusses Lee Tamahori’s Mahana as further evidence of two tendencies apparent in coming-of-age films on Māori subjects: an increasing inclination to reconfigure indigenous stories through a process of generic standardization, especially involving genres characteristic of Hollywood, and a willingness to contest, with a view to reforming, certain attitudes and practices of traditional Māori culture –in particular, the patriarchal assumptions of male elders in the whānau, or extended family group.

Confronting Domestic Violence and Familial Abuse: Once Were Warriors (Lee Tamahori, 1994)

This chapter points to the presence of three often-overlooked coming-of-age narrative strands in Lee Tamahori’s Once Were Warriors, in what is ostensibly a social problem film. A comparison with Alan Duff’s autobiographical novel from which the film was adapted, reveals strategies that Tamahori adopted to invest the story with a more standardized generic complexion that relates it to the Hollywood action films of filmmakers like Robert Aldrich and Sam Peckinpah and Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns for the sake of enlarging its box office appeal for an international audience. Finally, the discussion shows how Tamahori changed the ideological underpinnings of the story by converting Duff’s neoliberal vision of self-help into an assumption that a return to the values of traditional Māori culture is the remedy for the ills of socio-economically deprived Māori who have migrated to the city.

‘Endangered species turned dangerous’: Rena Owen and celebrity in Aotearoa/NZ

This article argues that Rena Owen’s star persona has been constrained, and ultimately undermined, by essentialist definitions of her status as Māori on the part of print media, in particular women’s magazines, in response to her role as Beth in Once Were Warriors (Lee Tamahori, 1994), a role that thrust her into the international limelight. These ancillary texts served to emphasise two stereotypes, positioning her either in relation to the traditional Pacific Island female type of the ‘dusky maiden’ or focusing on her criminal past and current scandalous behaviour. These representations of the actress detracted from her considerable talents and were undoubtedly a factor in determining a career trajectory that failed to fulfil its early promise. The scandal mongering of the tabloids expressed the uneasiness with which Aotearoa/New Zealand viewed public personalities that embraced a cultural past that included both Māori and European identities. Unlike the international press, which compared Owen’s performance to that of a range of film stars noted for their dramatic and charismatic capacities and presence, from Bette Davis to Anna Magnani, the New Zealand press portrayed her as ‘Beth’—as a social victim rather than an accomplished thespian.

Maori on the Silver Screen

This article examines the evolution of Maori filmmaking since the 1980s and explores this Indigenous cinema in the context of developments in the New Zealand film industry. With Barry Barclay’s idea of ‘Fourth Cinema’ in mind, it focuses on the predominantly statefunded production of Maori feature films. The article is divided in three parts. The first part traces the beginnings of Maori cinema back to the 1970s and introduces the first three feature films directed by Maori filmmakers: Ngati (Barry Barclay, 1987), Mauri (Merata Mita, 1988), and Te Rua (Barry Barclay, 1991). The second part discusses the mainstream success of Once Were Warriors (Lee Tamahori, 1994) and the film’s paradoxical contribution to Maori cinema in the 1990s. The third and final part explores the intensified course of state-funded Maori filmmaking since the 2000s and addresses some of the opportunities and challenges facing Indigenous New Zealand cinema in the current environment of institutional and commercial globalisation.