Draft 2 PhD Introduction - ResearchSpace@Auckland

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to be very fruitful in terms of reaching an understanding of how the film was perceived
from a Maori perspective and what the local people thought the film had or had not
achieved.
Most of the above interviews were taped, and transcribed either by myself or by
Jennifer Pointon. Inevitably, not all the material was able to be used in the thesis
including a certain amount of anecdotal material that would be suitable perhaps for a
biography of Ward but not for an academic study. I have included a small amount of
material of this kind, because it makes interesting reading, gives a sense of texture, and
above all sheds some light on Ward as a person. Since his work is highly individual and
is often in some sense autobiographical, I believe that exploring the personal context to
some extent can provide useful input into a discussion of aesthetics and authorship.
Textual Research
I viewed Ward’s films on video, or DVD in the case of What Dreams May Come (which
also included supplementary material). I explored other New Zealand films made in the
1970s and 80s, in order to place Ward’s early films in the industrial context of the time
and to identify differences in aesthetics. In addition, I viewed a number of films that
critics had linked to Ward’s work, such as Bergman’s Persona (1966) and The Seventh
Seal (1956) which has a number of parallels with The Navigator, and Tarkovskij’s
Andrei Roublev (1966). I tracked down as many of the films associated with German
Expressionism as I could. In addition to those available in the Audiovisual Library at
Auckland University, I was fortunate in being able to access lesser-known films such as
Warning Shadows (Arthur Robison, 1922), Raskolnikov (Robert Wiene, 1923) and
Tartüff (F.W.Murnau, 1925) at the British Film Institute in London, and at the State
Film Museum in Munich.
Other primary research activities included searching the Ilam School of Fine Arts
archives for transcripts of university courses attended by Ward and other relevant
material such as a report on the film course set up by Maurice Askew. The University
of Canterbury allowed me to access the thesis published by Ward on the making of In
Spring One Plants Alone (although it was first necessary for me to obtain Ward’s
express permission to do so) and Timothy White’s thesis on A State of Siege. I visited
the New Zealand Film Archive in Wellington to ascertain whether they had any of