Two decades on from Cinema of Unease, Tim Wong’s essay film contemplates the prevailing image of a national cinema while privileging some of the images and image-makers displaced by the popular view of filmmaking in Aotearoa. Now streaming for free at: films.lumiere.net.nz
Recusing stars as I have a small credit in this (read an early script and gave notes, not sure how much impact if any they had on the final product) and am friends with Tim and write for Lumiere Reader. But I do feel really strongly that this is a valuable and important film, less for its headlined virtue (bringing up obscure films that are overlooked in its canon) and more for its challenges towards filmmakers: to reject received wisdom about landscape portrayal and cinematic tropes, to engage in politics, to fight narrative conformity. This film makes me want to try harder, in short, and I'd be suspicious of any filmmaker that didn't have that reaction.
"If words can fail us, so can images."
I now have a whole host of New Zealand films to look up and watch.
Two word review: Veil lifted
Tim Wong, editor-in-chief of long-running New Zealand arts review and film journal The Lumière Reader, has made his first foray into feature filmmaking with, perhaps fittingly, an essay film. Very much in the vein of Thom Andersen’s Los Angeles Plays Itself and some of the work of Mark Cousins, Wong’s Out of the Mist cycles through engaging and eclectic film clips, pulling from feature fiction and documentary, shorts and a wealth of experimental cinema to posit an alternate canon in New Zealand film history. Rather than dwell too often on the negative impacts of the Lord of the Rings series being the most mainstream influence on the image of New Zealand in popular culture, instead Wong and Catton walk us through the way in which early colonialist art and photography hampered any accurate depictions of the culture or landscape of the country and how this had a trickle down effect on the national cinema.
Full review: fourthreefilm.com/2015/07/out-of-the-mist/
Having been out of the country for most of the last 18 months I was so pleased to find this available to watch online. A superb and brilliant documentary about the themes and currents in New Zealand's cinematic history reminds me that I have a lot of films to catch up on.
Tim Wong’s feature length film-essay waxes lyrical on the idea of a New Zealand cinematic ‘culture’ outside of that projected to the world by our Hollywood successes and perpetuated by our national airline and even our government. Brought to life in the rich narrative entonement of author Eleanor Catton, Wong’s film surveys a broad array of New Zealand cinema from the earliest works produced here right through to films from the current decade. Out of the Mist raises many questions about what the driving commonalities in our films might be, and how these might have changed in recent years. Wong and co (wisely, imo) opt not to try and answer these questions in any kind of definitive way but rather…
My friend and then colleague Tim Wong made this; but I am confident this is an excellent overview of NZ cinema
New Zealand cinema has always been something I cared very little for, which I know isn't the best considering I was born and raised here. However, this video essay/documentary has kind of single-handedly changed my mindset regarding New Zealand's film culture and industry.
There are so many films from New Zealand that go past the surface level of the quirky Kiwi humour we've cultivated for decades and leant far too heavy on. I think that's why I find a lot of the films I've seen to be lacking any sort of serious tone or narrative. They never say anything beyond entertainment, but clearly, it's just because I've neglected our indie scene, which naturally gets shafted due to a lack of…
An important document of NZ's film history, taking the road less-travelled to highlight some of the less heralded works of our cinema. A companion piece, rather than a competitor to Sam Neill's Cinema of Unease, Tim Wong covers broad themes but especially highlights the modern day focus on our natural landscape (or "landscape for hire" for overseas movie projects) against a more realistic view of the land. An excellent alternate route to the one through Middle Earth.
