'In this insightful and lucid study Alistair Fox examines the coming-of-age narrative in New Zealand films, deftly showing how such stories relate to the history of both New Zealand cinema and the nation. Fox demonstrates the centrality of the coming-of-age theme to New Zealand cinema while also providing evidence that New Zealand film criticism itself has come of age.'
Barry Grant, Brock University
This is the first book to investigate the coming-of-age genre as a significant phenomenon in New Zealand's national cinema, tracing its development and elucidating its role in cultural change. With chapters on landmark films like An Angel at My Table, Heavenly Creatures, Once Were Warriors and Boy, this book explores the influence of the French New Wave and European art cinema and examines the dialogue between national cinema and a nation's literature.
Looking at the characteristics of an indigenous 'Fourth Cinema', as well as different perspectives on gendered and sexual identities, Coming-of Age-Cinema in New Zealand considers the evidence, provided in these films, of significant cultural shifts that have taken place - or are in the process of taking place - as New Zealanders discover their emerging national identity.
Alistair Fox is Emeritus Professor in the Department of English and Linguistics at the University of Otago.
Cover image: James Rolleston in Boy, 2010, Taika Waititi. Photo by Matt Grace © Whenua Films
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Alistair Fox is Emeritus Professor at the University of Otago. He has published widely on topics in both literature and cinema, and most recently is the author of Jane Campion: Authorship and Personal Cinema (2011), Speaking Pictures: Neuropsychoanalysis and Authorship in Film and Literature (2016), and Coming of Age Cinema in New Zealand (EUP, 2017).

Preface

Part 1. The Coming-of-Age Genre and National Cinema

Chapter 1. The Coming-of-Age Film as a Genre: Attributes, Evolution, and Functions

Chapter 2. New Zealand Coming-of-Age Films: Distinctive Characteristics and Thematic Preoccupations

Part 2. The New Zealand New Wave: 1976-1989

Chapter 3. The Formation of a Budding Man Alone: The God Boy (Murray Reece, 1976)

Chapter 4. An Angry Young Man Seeks to Justify Himself: Sleeping Dogs (Ian Donaldson, 1977)

Chapter 5. An Immigrant Filmmaker Substitutes an Alternative Vision of Adolescence: The Scarecrow (Sam Pillsbury, 1982)

Chapter 6. Art-Cinema, Cultural Dislocation, and the Entry into Puberty: Vigil (Vincent Ward, 1984)

Chapter 7. A Maori Girl Watches, Listens, and Learns - Coming of Age from an Indigenous Viewpoint: Mauri (Merata Mita, 1988)

Part 3. The Second Wave of the 1990s

Chapter 8. Creativity as a Haven: An Angel at My Table (Jane Campion, 1990)

Chapter 9. Desperation Turned Outwards: Heavenly Creatures (Peter Jackson, 1994)

Chapter 10. Confronting Domestic Violence and Familial Abuse: Once Were Warriors (Lee Tamahori, 1994)

Part 4. Preoccupations of the New Millennium

Chapter 11. An Adolescent Girl Experiments with Sexuality: Rain (Christine Jeffs, 2001)

Chapter 12. Asserting Feminist Claims within Maori Culture: Whale Rider (Nicki Caro, 2002)

Chapter 13. Family Secrets and Their Destructive Consequences: In My Father's Den (Brad McGann, 2004)

Chapter 14. A Gay Boy Comes to Terms with His Sexuality: 50 Ways of Saying Fabulous (Stewart Main, 2005)

Part 5. Perspectives on Maori Culture since 2010

Chapter 15. Parental Abandonment and the Trauma of Loss: Boy (Taika Waititi, 2010)

Chapter 16. A Maori Boy Contests the Old Patriarchal Order: Mahana (Lee Tamahori, 2016)

Chapter 17. Delinquency and Bicultural Relations: Hunt for the Wilderpeople (Taika Waititi, 2016)

Conclusion

Bibliography

Index