{"id":1666,"date":"2017-07-27T10:16:03","date_gmt":"2017-07-26T22:16:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/crocc\/?p=1666"},"modified":"2017-07-27T11:55:29","modified_gmt":"2017-07-26T23:55:29","slug":"film-in-the-colony-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/crocc\/film-in-the-colony-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Film in the Colony"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Film in the Colony Symposium, held at\u00a0Ng\u0101 Taonga Sound and Vision, Wellington, 13-14 July,\u00a0produced some great discussions and a fine array of films in the face of some wild Wellington weather. The symposium focused on the convergence of film, film-making, the emergence of nation and interactions between peoples in colonial contexts, with an emphasis on New Zealand, South Africa and Australia. The symposium opened with two screenings on Wednesday night: Edward Curtis\u2019s In the Land of the Headhunters<\/em> (1914; Aaron Glass who was involved in the restoration of this film provided us with a commentary in the form of a recorded powerpoint), and Charles Chauvel\u2019s Jedda<\/em> (1955), introduced by Tasha James from the Australian National Film and Sound Archive.<\/p>\n

The opening keynote speaker on Thursday, Ian-Malcolm Rijsdijk, began with a fabulous map, charting the world as it was filmed in Southern California, and, pointing out where \u2018beginning with the question of how film \u2018takes place\u2019 in particular locations, moved to a wide-ranging discussion of cinema and decolonisation in South Africa, particularly in the light of the unrest currently dominating South African campuses. How do we make the archive of colonial film valuable to students trying to move away from colonial thinking? How to make it meaningful, and to find a language for discussing it? His point that colonialism is a structure, not an event, was one many found compelling.<\/p>\n

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Keynote speaker Ian-Malcolm Rijsdijk with Honiana Love, Natalie Robertson and Annabel Cooper<\/p><\/div>\n

From here the focus switched to New Zealand\u2019s early cinema, with Minette Hillyer\u2019s rich account of the visit of \u2018Paramount\u2019s Red Indians\u2019 to Rotorua in 1927, and Mark Derby\u2019s discussion of Gaston Melies\u2019 film-making enterprise in the South Seas in 1912, which set us up well for a documentary on Melies\u2019 tour of the Pacific and South East Asia. Alex Porter charted a journey in the other direction, with Len Lye\u2019s departure from New Zealand to London via Samoa, a trip which resulted in his remarkable Tusalava<\/em> of 1929 \u2013 which we then had the privilege of viewing.<\/p>\n

Three papers with very different takes on Rudall Hayward\u2019s silent The Te Kooti Trail<\/em> of 1927 followed: Jani K Wilson compared two of the film\u2019s Ng\u0101ti Awa audiences, the second including members of her own hap\u016b; Brendan Sheridan discussed k\u016bpapa in New Zealand Wars films; and Annabel Cooper investigated some of the film\u2019s imagined and real communities. These papers were followed by a screening of the film brilliantly accompanied by pianist Nikau Palm \u2013 a treat followed by dinner at Siem Reap.<\/p>\n

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Keynote speakers Litheko Modisane and Ian-Malcolm Rijsdijk with Lawrence Wharerau and Diane Pivac<\/p><\/div>\n

Friday began with a panel discussion which brought together Honiana Love (Te \u0100tiawa) and Lawrence Wharerau (Ng\u0101puhi) from Ng\u0101 Taonga with Natalie Robertson (Ng\u0101ti Porou), who combined discussion of the evolving relationships between wh\u0101nau, films and archives, with commentaries on a sequence of films. Natalie, whose wh\u0101nau appear in the film, talked us through James McDonald\u2019s Scenes of Maori Life on the East Coast<\/em>, enriching the film with her information about who the people are and where, the significance of their filmed work, and the signs that they were performing their customary labour for the camera, rather than simply going about daily activities. As we watched the Ahipara Women\u2019s Fire Brigade<\/em> rally to community defence, and fertiliser spreading on Te Puea\u2019s Farm<\/em>, Honiana and Lawrence discussed the archival detective work of finding out about films and the relationships developing between the archive and communities.<\/p>\n

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Pianist Nikau Palm with Ian-Malcolm Rijsdijk<\/p><\/div>\n

The session on sound brought together Mel Cross\u2019s illustration of how Alfred Hill\u2019s score affords a specific Maoriland resonance to Hayward\u2019s Rewi\u2019s Last Stand <\/em>(1940); Allison Craven and Ben Palmer\u2019s investigation of the voices of Aboriginal people in Charles Chauvel\u2019s Uncivilised<\/em> (1936); and – in a return to Rotorua – Aleisha Ward\u2019s account of the contentious production of the first jazz film made in New Zealand, (a publicity film for Epi Shalfoon and the Melody Boys).<\/p>\n

Megan Tamati-Quennell gave us an introduction to Lisa Reihana\u2019s Native Portraits N.19897<\/em>, which had screened through the symposium, and was followed by Felicity Barnes\u2019s elegant revival of a neglected genre, the trade film in Australia and New Zealand. Offered a sample (Captured Sunshine<\/em>), we wondered with 21st<\/sup>-century amazement at their bygone popularity.<\/p>\n

Litheko Modisane closed with an analysis of the career of South African actor Ken Gampu, whose career spanned the apartheid and post-apartheid eras. Gathering up some of the larger themes of the symposium, Litheko asked how audiences could now view Gampu\u2019s earlier work \u2013 how can a decolonising society appreciate the colonial legacy, and what vocabulary is there for analysing it. Litheko\u2019s analysis of the complexities of Gampu\u2019s role in Dingaka<\/em> (1964) was followed by a closing panel and then screenings of Dingaka<\/em> and Rewi\u2019s Last Stand<\/em>.<\/p>\n

CRoCC would like to extend warm thanks to those who helped organise the symposium: Diane Pivac, Honiana Love and Lawrence Wharerau (Ng\u0101 Taonga), Minette Hillyer and Jo Smith (Victoria University of Wellington), Sue Lang, Helen O\u2019Sullivan and Bronwyn Craig (University of Otago).<\/p>\n

Annabel Cooper<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Film in the Colony Symposium, held at\u00a0Ng\u0101 Taonga Sound and Vision, Wellington, 13-14 July,\u00a0produced some great discussions and a fine array of films in the face of some wild Wellington weather. The symposium focused on the convergence of film, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15372,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17472,17444],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-centre-news","category-symposium"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/crocc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/crocc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/crocc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/crocc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15372"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/crocc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/crocc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1666\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/crocc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/crocc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.otago.ac.nz\/crocc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}