Antipodean urban dystopias: documenting the New Zealand city 1965–1971

Abstract

ABSTRACT By relying on the textual analysis and on the examination of existing archival documents related to their production and circulation, this article analyses three documentaries produced in New Zealand in the 1965–1971 time frame while providing an overview of New Zealand film history as well as the examination of pre-existing modes of urban representation in New Zealand cinema. The author argues that these three case studies, Wellington in the 1960s: The Way it Seemed, To Live in the City and Notes on A New Zealand City stand at the intersection of both local and global cinematic, social and cultural phenomena, displaying the emergence of a new stylistic and ideological perspective on the New Zealand cinematic city. Such dystopic take is a reflection of both deep social and cultural transformations in New Zealand society and global cinematic phenomena.