Draft 2 PhD Introduction - ResearchSpace@Auckland

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time Romantic – and far removed from the secular concerns of most prime-time
documentary-making in New Zealand today.
Ward was one of the first Pakeha filmmakers to take a serious interest in Maori culture.
His subject-matter – the treatment of a mentally disabled person in a rural Maori
community – was one that appears not to have been previously dealt with. The film was
not an easy one to make since Ward felt himself to be an outsider to the community and
was unfamiliar with Maori language and culture. There were also many difficulties in
the process of making the film – the problem of dealing with a stubborn old lady, only
being able to shoot one day out of seven, technical difficulties, problems in the funding
of the film, and so on. It was typical of Ward both to tackle such a difficult and
controversial subject, and to have the persistence to see it through. In doing so, he
created a lasting testament to the old lady’s belief in spiritual values and to her
particular version of a traditional way of life.
The reception of the film was mixed - most critics overseas and in New Zealand were
enthusiastic, but it received negative responses from some Maori critics on the grounds
that Ward had brought his own (Pakeha) sensibilities and world-view to bear on a
subject that, by not being Maori, he was incapable of understanding. The criticisms
made by two critics, Parekowhai and Bilbrough, demonstrate some of the weaknesses of
their auteurist assumptions, particularly in their incorrect attribution of aspects of the
film to aesthetic choices made by the director when they were in fact a result of
practical necessities. Neither critic had researched the local context of the film or the
process of making it and this led to inaccuracies. There are lessons here for auteur
criticism. Their criticisms carried more weight in cultural terms – there was indeed a
danger of the film romanticising the exotic “other”.
The process of making In Spring One Plants Alone had an enormous effect on Ward
personally, and Vigil, his first film as a professional filmmaker, carried through some of
the concerns and themes of In Spring. The film was the third of a trilogy of films that
focused on strong female characters isolated from society. It represented, however, a
change in direction towards films more grounded in the director’s own experiences and
background. Other differences from his previous work were the more accessible, less
austere style, focusing to a greater degree on action than on the psychological state of
the characters (although this was still an important aspect). It displayed the familiar