Great paper Matt! I have lots to say about this issue and will post soon.

If I was going to be really picky I would say you should call this paper “Notes for a New Cinema in New Zealand”.

From my point of view one of the biggest mental barriers for people making films in this country is the idea that in order to be funded a film should depict some facet of our national identity.

This might be case of perception more than reality - because I think the people who fund things are equally hungry for non self consciously national content with strong narratives and original ideas.

There are a lot of inescapable facts about being a Kiwi that will inform our approach to creating cinema.

Lets assume the New Zealandness is automatic and remove any reference to it as a requirement for future charters. If the story feels honest thats enough for me.

When I think of most of my favorite films “national identity” isn’t the subject matter that leaps to mind, despite the fact that many of these films have a strong sense of a particular place.

At this stage its hard for me to imagine that a channel exists in this country to make some of the films I would love to make in the future - A sci fi adaptation or a bio pic about a spanish inventor for example. Its partly because of the scale of these projects, and partly because they are not set in New Zealand and don’t have much to do with New Zealand culture. But they are still great stories that really appeal to me.

There are plenty of NZ film makers that have managed to make films on the international stage - but aside from Peter Jackson how many of these do this without leaving the country?

I think to really grow our industry we should do a bit more work to dispel these ideas that cultural identity might be the only worthy topic for a fundable film.