Martin Rumsby

Dedicated to the memory of Joanna Margaret Paul 1945-2003
The first woman of experimental filmmaking in New Zealand

I remember, one time, Tony Fomison complaining to me about a local art historian who had said that New Zealand artists were no good. Tony's response was that if our artists where no good it was because our art critics were even worse. Informed and insightful criticism can drive artists. We need it. But film artists in New Zealand exist largely in a vacuum of critical and curatorial silence. It seems that very few local academics or curators know or care enough to contribute to our cinema in a meaningful way. Cultural life only prospers only in an open, sharing environment. Artworks are part of a much larger conversation. But for many us practitioners it seems as if we are only talking to ourselves. We make our work and talk to one another whilst the cataloguers, academics and historians watch TV, read French theory and only seem to be nominally aware that New Zealand is a country somewhere nearby. Our fretful sleepers of the 1950s have lapsed into a slothful slumber.

What follows is a slight view of a period in New Zealand experimental film history. It covers, mostly, marginalised artists who began working in Super 8mm and 16mm film from around 1970 to 1985. Really, it is not much more than a survey of the field at the time. Not criticism, which needs to be done, but a record of people I knew of, making experimental films back then. I offer this as a prototype for further public documentation of subsequent periods and movements in our media arts. I apologize to any filmmaker I may have overlooked. I could not find some of you. If you have anything to add, or dispute, then write something for ILLUSIONS (our only journal). My offerings are subjective.

The work of some of these artists has been documented in publications such as ALTERNATIVE CINEMA Magazine, CANTRILLS FILMNOTES, ILLUSIONS, ART NEW ZEALAND, NEW ZEALAND LISTENER and PARALLAX an well as in the book FILM IN AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND. Most often in pieces written by Roger Horrocks, our sole advocate. Obviously artists such as those associated with the New Film Group and those whose creative endeavours have not been confined to film - Phil Dadson, Ronnie van Hout, Brent Hayward and Chris Knox have been much more widely written about in other publications and exhibition catalogues. I have not listed CD, LP or cassette releases by those artists who are also musicians.

When you look over the list of filmmakers below you will probably be struck by the itinerancy of many of us. It seems as if we were exploring and searching in more ways than one. And that openness was reflected in our approach to the media we were working in. Maybe our exploration of the moving image was related to a questSHUNing lifestyle. Whatever we were searching for wasn't in books. Hadn't been explicated in theory. (And still hasn't). What we wanted lived somewhere outside of art. It was just plain old honest and simple inquisitiveness. We were, mostly, modest practitioners of home made movies.

A bunch of self-taught filmmakers. Back then there was no one to could teach us. (Or were we just bad listeners?) How to learn what could never be taught? It was before the age of death by film school.

There is a radical difference between an unschooled person who picks up a movie camera and starts shooting, and the type of person who enrolls in a course to learn how to make movies. Probably all they have in common is that both types of filmmaker will end up perpetually broke. Certainly, none of us were careerists.

We were mostly solitary makers, working alone, at home and holding no truck at all with industry methods, film crew compromises. Some of the films were unscripted ... the makers intuitively engaging their subject matter to make private work, sometimes of great informality, as if never intended to be shown in public. You were invited to see through the filmmaker's eyes, dream their dreams, live their nightmares, or follow their thought processes. We were mostly practitioners of home made movies.

In the work of Joanna Margaret Paul, Ronnie van Hout and Derek Cowie we were transported back to the beginning of cinema in tentative, single take documents of everyday life as seen through an artist's eye. Somewhat like the Lumiere Brothers single take documents of a train at a station, or workers at a factory gate. It was as if we had to do it all again for ourselves. As artists in New Zealand the precedents of cinema history were not enough. With no history of experimental film to relate to we could start to make cinema anew for ourselves. We gave ourselves the freedom to make our own mistakes and explorations.

We never formed a group. Indeed most of us worked independently, unaware of one anther's work. Many of us were driven by uniquely singular visions which, in some cases, were not conducive to society. For varying reasons, some Aucklanders, like Ron Brownson, D'Arcy Lange and The New Film Group remained apart from the loose formation of the rest of us. The descriptions offered here will not apply, in equal measure, to the artists listed here. Almost all of them had some of their work shown in some form of Alternative Cinema film exhibition.

I suppose it could be said that we were multi-talented and promiscuous - errant lovers straying to the media arts from other areas of the arts, science, or crafts. Amateurs, artists, auteurs. Maybe that other art form had come to seem frigid, rigid and totally dead. Maybe we didn't want or need anymore history nor the formalism so prevalent in the art of the time. Especially not art. We had been there before and now we craved life, in all of its forms. Our hearts beat hard, pumping the excess blood and oxygen of discovery to our overheated brains. Eventually some went limping back to the emptiness of their jilted first love, pledging eternal fidelity. Their hope and love smashed on the cold hearted rock of experimental film. And with us we had brought with the pox and plague of what we had learned but could never communicate.

Or was it just a unique moment in our culture that was undervalued and neglected? A lesson painfully learned and now willfully forgotten. A little treasure best harbored, savored and protected as example until our culture finds the strength to make itself new.

Who were we?

Joanna Paul - Painter. Dunedin, Banks Peninsula, Wellington, Wanganui.
Made Haiku like single reel silent Super 8mm films in the 1970s and early 1980s. Joanna's films included the visual poem NAPKINS (1975). The view of a housewife looking out of her kitchen window at wind blown napkins drying on a clothesline. Her films could be described as domestic portraiture. One of her films showed a woman ironing, another, PEONY 1 (1976), was of voluptuous flowers transforming into a painting, then back to flowers again. Also made PORT CHALMERS CYCLE (1970), MAGDA (1973), JOURNEY (1973), 3 SEASONS (1975), WOMAN'S THINGS (1975), BODY (1977) and ARAMOANA (1982). Paul's films were shown nationwide and in North America as part of INVISIBLE CINEMA touring exhibitions, 1984, 85, 86. I also screened one of Joanna's films at the Melbourne Super 8 Film Festival in 1999. Written about in CANTRILLS FILMNOTES.

Ronnie van Hout - Painter. Christchurch, Wellington, New Plymouth, Auckland, New York, Melbourne.
Shot a series of continuous take Super 8mm film portraits of people around Christchurch. Including SHOP PROPRIETOR and MISSION WORKER. Made while Ronnie was a student at the Ilam School of Art in Christchurch. He described himself as "An artist who likes to work in film." Other films by Ronnie van Hout included, THE ELVIS PRESLEY MOVIE and ONE MINUS ONE. Ronnie's Super 8 films were shown nationwide as part of INVISIBLE CINEMA 1984 NZ TOUR (VIII: GOOD MOVIES).Ronnie Van Hout also designed the poster for VIII, 1984 tour of Super 8mm films throughout New Zealand.

Derek Cowie - Painter. Dunedin, Auckland, Wellington, England.
Made impromptu performance movies shot on a whim, a prayer and single reels of Standard 8mm film. Including ULTIMATE, SCAPEL and THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LEAVING. These films were shown nationwide and in North America as part of INVISIBLE CINEMA traveling film exhibitions 1984, 85, 86.

Gavin Mbali - Sculptor. Malawi, England, Auckland.
Formerly known as Gavin Smith, Mbali crafted fast moving Super 8mm films which combined words, drawings, video, photography, pixillation, appropriation and audio created on a home made sound processor. These techniques included stripping out parts of the image with bleach, drawing, painting and scratching on the film's surface as well as curing film in urine. Mbali's films include SERIES X (1981), DEFSTRUXION (1984) and TRI STORY (c1983). His films were shown nationwide and in North America as part of INVISIBLE CINEMA traveling film exhibitions 1984, 85, 86.

D'Arcy Lange - Flamenco Guitarist. Taranaki, Europe, North America, Auckland.
Lange graduated from sculpture to video art. Was active in North America and Europe where he is still known. Lange's videos documented people at work on the land and in factories. He is currently making videos of artists, musicians and poets for Triangle TV in Auckland. Did not exhibit his work through Alternative Cinema when I was there. Also written about in the book, FILM IN AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND.

David Blyth - Filmmaker. Auckland, London, Los Angeles.
Still an unrepentant transgressor, Blyth produced two groundbreaking films in the late 1970s. The surrealistic CIRCADIAN RHYTHMS (1976) then the classic punk feature ANGEL MINE (1978). CIRCADIAN RHYTHMS premiered at the Hollywood Cinema in Avondale on a double bill with Bertolluci's THE CONFORMIST. A fundraising concert for ANGEL MINE at Auckland University is credited as the first punk rock concert in New Zealand. ANGEL MINE featured music by THE SUBURBAN REPTILES and a soundtrack created by Mark Nicolas, brother of the filmmaker Gregor Nicholas. Today Blyth continues to make films that confront societal taboos, including the horror film DEATH WARMED UP (1984) and his most recent film, BOUND FOR PLEASURE (2001), about eight Auckland dominitrixes. Written about in ART NEW ZEALAND 24, ALTERNATIVE CINEMA Magazine and the book FILM IN AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND. Further information is available from: http://www.davidblyth.com

Richard von Sturmer ? Performance Artist/Writer/Musician/Actor.
Recently returned to New Zealand after a decade at a Zen Institute in Rochester, New York. (I trust not the Zen of Kodak). Von Sturmer collaborated with David Blyth in writing Blyth's CIRCADIAN RYHTHMS (1976) as well as writing some additional dialogue for Blyth's ANGEL MINE (1978). Acted in films including ONE OF THOSE Bs and FLYING FOX IN A FEEDOM TREE. In addition to his other artistic endeavours in music as a member of THE HUMAN ANIMALS and THE PLAGUE and writing WE XEROX YOUR ZEBRAS and NETWORK OF DISSOLVING THREADS Von Sturmer also made experimental films including, THE SEARCH FOR OTTO (1986) and AQUAVERA (1988). Written about in CANTRILLS FILMNOTES and the book FILM IN AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND.

Ron Brownson - Auckland.
Made Super 8mm experimental films MONKEY (1979) and SPRINGBOK (1981). Later formed CITY GROUP with Vivienne Smith, a project based video collective producing videos which dealt with perception within human interaction. CITY GROUP produced about a dozen videos including, FLIGHT CROWDS (1985) and VALVEGRIND (1985-86). Ron exhibited his work independently. Currently Curator of New Zealand art at the Auckland City Art Gallery. Written about in CANTRILLS FILMNOTES, ART NEW ZEALAND 24, ILLUSIONS 9 and the book FILM IN AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND.

Martyn Sanderson - Actor/Writer/Filmmaker. Waimarama, Australia, India, Auckland, Wellington, Otaki.
After founding Downstage Theatre in Wellington, New Zealand Sanderson made a series of experimental films in Australia and New Zealand in the 1970s including A STONE IN THE BUSH, A STITCH IN TIME (1976), CHARLIE HORSE (1978); THE MAGPIES; KESKIDEE AROHA (1981) and the feature film FLYING FOX IN A FREEDOM TREE (1990) based on the novel by the Samoan author Albert Wendy and described as the first Polynesian existential film. Written about in ART NEW ZEALAND 24 and the book FILM IN AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND.

Chris Knox - Musician/Cartoonist/Columnist. Invercargill, Dunedin, Auckland.
Knox came to prominence as a member of ENEMY, possibly the South Island's first punk rock band in 1977, going on to attain mainstream pop chart success in New Zealand with his subsequent band TOY LOVE. Today, Knox continues to produce music as half of the musical duo TALL DWARFS. An enthusiastic amateur filmmaker, in the early 1980s, Knox commenced making rock videos which challenged the prevailing television aesthetic of the time. His music videos include NOTHING'S GOING TO HAPPEN, TALLY HO, and TURNING BROWN AND TORN INTO plus 22 others. Knox's films have been written about in ALTERNATIVE CINEMA Magazine Vol. 12 Nos. 1&2 and the book FILM IN AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND. Also written about in John Dix's history of NZ rock music STRANDED IN PARADISE.

George Rose - Cabinetmaker. Wellington.
In THE SADNESS OF THE POST INTELLECTUAL ART CRITIC (1979) an art critic giving a lecture in an art gallery is overcome by memories of his first sexual experience. The film jumps backwards and forwards in time from childhood memories, showing the critic in various states of lucidity and madness during different moments of his life. George Rose acts as the art critic. Scheduled to show at the Auckland International Film Festival Rose's film was pulled ten minutes before the screening was due to begin. The cinema manager announced to a full house that the film would not be shown because it was pornographic. This despite the fact that THE SADNESS OF THE POST INTELLECTUAL ART CRITIC had already been rated by the Censor as suitable for Film Festival audiences. This announcement caused a near riot in the cinema. Audience members started screaming abuse at the cinema manager. A screening was later organized at Jan Grafstad's Classic Cinema in Queen Street. The National Film Unit had previously confiscated Rose's film during the post-production phase, causing Rose to initiate a lengthy and bitter battle to have the film returned. THE SADNESS OF THE POST INTELLECTUAL ART CRITIC was subsequently shown throughout New Zealand in ALTERNATIVE CINEMA traveling film exhibitions. "The lovely thing about seeing the film all these years later is that the great scenes still seem strong. ... We were poor craftsmen, but the emotion still comes through." GR. Rose completed his next film, TIME IS A SPIDER, in the mid 1990s. Rose plans to re-release THE SADNESS OF THE POST INTELLECTUAL ART CRITIC on DVD.

(THE SADNESS OF THE POST INTELLECTUAL ART CRITIC was the first film I ever screened, on a double bill with Martyn Anderson's KESKIDEE AROHA. MR). Written about in ALTERNATIVE CINEMA Magazine Vol. 12 Nos. 1 & 2; ART NEW ZEALAND 24 and the book FILM IN AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND.

Christopher Barrett - Filmmaker. Auckland.
Experimental filmmaker who also produced rock videos including one of inter- disciplinary artist Brent Hayward as SMELLY FEET. Through the early 1980s Barrett worked on a huge autobiographical film project for which he made and processed film stock. Barrett utilized pioneering video and computer effects in tandem with optical printing. Christopher subsequently moved into the field of computer graphics. Written about in FILM IN AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND.

Phil Dadson ? Artist/Composer/Film & Video Maker. Napier, London, Auckland.
A founding member of Alternative Cinema and the music ensemble FROM SCRATCH, Dadson has established himself as one New Zealand's leading inter- disciplinary artists. Dadson's films include EARTHWORKS (1971)and TRIAD FOUR (1981). TRIAD FOUR was later recontextualized in a larger 4 part sound installation titled CONUMDRUM QUARTET. Phil also collaborated with Gregor Nicholas on two films DRUM SING and PACIFIC 3,2,1,0. Dadson's videos include UNCHARTED CROSSING; MAYA; RESONANCE and a multi-screen videowall work FOOTSTEP HOCKET. Whilst on a Fullbright Scholarship to the United States in 1991 Dadson made SOUNDSTORIES NUMBER ONE: (Meetings With 14 Experimental Instrument Builders). Phil is currently working on a new video installation piece titled CHTHONIAN PULSE. Dadson also participated in an annual dawn to dusk drumming ritual in the crater of Mt Eden that coincided with the Solstice c1971 ? c1994). Written about in ART NEW ZEALAND 24, CANTRILLS FILMNOTES, ILLUSIONS 18, MUSIC IN NEW ZEALAND and ALTERNATIVE CINEMA Magazine. Dadson was also included in the book NEW ART: SOME RECENT NEW ZEALAND SCULPTURE AND POST- OBJECT ART by Wystan Curnow and Jim Allen. (Heinemann, 1976).

Vivienne Smith and Neil Pardington
Made films together while students at the Elam School of Art in Auckland. Their work together included PASSAGE - TIME OUT OF MIND (1983); and PIER (1984-85). Later formed CITY GROUP with Ron Brownson. Pardington subsequently moved to Wellington and began collaborating with writer and theatre director Stuart McKenzie with whom he continues to make films. Pardington and Mckenzie's feature film, FOR GOOD (2003) screened at the Wellington and Auckland Film Festivals. Written about in CANTRILLS FILMNOTES, ALTERNATIVE CINEMA Magazine and INVISIBLE CINEMA 1987 Catalogue and the book FILM IN AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND.

John Calder - High School Science Teacher. Tauranga, Dannevirke, Auckland, Melbourne.
John Calder produced idiosyncratic Super 8mm films: IMAGEX ONE (1979), SPACE ACE AND THE RAIN OF DEATH (1980), SILLIBRUSH (1981), AMANDLA (1981), MEN OF THE WEEDS (1982), BREAKING OUT OF PATTERN (1982, PICTURE START (1984), WALLED CITY (1987), TAILSPIN (1988) and THE SNAG'S GUIDE TO LOVE (1994). Calder was also responsible for devising many low cost special effects and other technical innovations which he freely passed on to other filmmakers. Calder now works with computers. Written about in ALTERNATIVE CINEMA Magazine.

Simon Buckle - Stone mason and potter. Auckland, Te Kaha, Tokomaru Bay, Gisborne.
Simon Buckle reworked images of nature that he had shot, single frame, on Super 8mm film, sometimes whilst hunting in the Urerewa Ranges. Buckle then subjected his footage to various direct film interventions. Simon's films were widely screened, projected at varying speeds, in pubs, cafes, lounges and at Alternative Cinema, usually accompanied by live music. Made THE MADNESS OF THE PSEUDO INTELLECTUAL FILMMAKER - 2500 hand-painted Super 8mm images projected at 6 frames per second; Also TE WHANAU APANUI COAST; TUTEATAKO STREAM.

Bella Grant
Made films while a student at the Ilam School of Art in Christchurch, including PROCESS THREE and BLITZKREIG. Present whereabouts and occupation unknown.

Brent Hayward - Musician/Performance Artist/ Cartoonist/Film & Video Maker. Masterton, Wellington, Auckland.
Although I knew Brent as a musician and fellow traveler in the early 1980s he came to prominence as a media artist after I had left New Zealand. Multi-talented and multi-disciplinary Hayward is a prolific producer of challenging, often transgressive work. Hayward's work includes MUDSINGING (1984); BEAT IT (1986); DREAM MACHINE (1988); SLAUGHTERHOUSE (1989); and SLICK (1989). (Hayward, as half of the musical duo KIWI ANIMAL, also did the soundtrack for Kathryn Dudding's film SMASH DUPE). Brent has also self published two comic books in 1981 and wrote a piece CONFESSIONS OF A CROOKED TAXI DRIVER for Pulp Magazine. Some of his recent poems have been published under the pseudonym of Fats White in Short Fuse. Written about in ILLUSIONS 28; THE BIG PICTURE and in the book FILM IN AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND also included in John Dix's STRANDED IN PARADISE as SMELLY FEET and THE KIWI ANIMAL. PAVEMENT Magazine did a piece on Brent as THE REVEREND STINKFINGER.

Kathryn Dudding - Wellsford, Auckland, Sydney, Paris, Christchurch, Wellington.
Dudding's films include HEY DAISY (1983) an energetic montage of hay making on a farm intercut with urban footage. Kathryn made this film to avoid having to help with the physical work of hay making; SMASH DUPE (1986) a poetic docu-drama about an adoptee's search for her birthmother. KANAKY AU POUVOIR (c1989) backgrounded the Kanak struggle for independence in New Caledonia. The highly cinematic LILY IN THE HOUSE OF LIPSTICKS (2001) represents Dudding's return to filmmaking after devoting over a decade to bringing up her daughter. Kathryn is now working on her fifth film. Written about in INVISIBLE CINEMA 1987 Catalogue and FILM IN AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND.

Rongotai Lomas ? Christchurch, Auckland.
Made ARMATURE OF BONE while a student at the Ilam School of Art in Christchurch. Later went on to creating title sequences and other graphic effects for television. Also worked as an editor for Merata Mita.

POPULAR PRODUCTIONS ? Auckland
Bad Music Bad Sound Bad Films. Films included: THE MASTER BEDROOM (1986), YOU REQUIRE FILMIC PLEASURE (1987), DORA VISITS THE BLUSHING BRIDE (1988), WONDER WHAT (1990), WONDER WHAT'S WRONG (1990), UTOPIA: DISCREET INVESTIGATIONS (1992) and EPICENE SOUNDWORKS (1993). Written about in ART NEW ZEALAND, NEW ZEALAND LISTENER, PHOTOFORUM, ILLUSIONS 10 & 20 and FILM IN AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND.

FETUS PRODUCTIONS ? Jed Town and Serem Fort.
Made interesting work, including: TOKYO RAIN; WHAT'S GOING ON, FLICKER, BACKBEAT, ANTHEM, HAVE YOUR FUN. Subsequently moved to England. Written about in FILM IN AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND and ILLUSIONS 34.

Keith Hill ? Auckland, Christchurch, Hamilton
Commenced making short dramatic and experimental films in the 1980s including DAYS AND NIGHTS (1984). Has been instrumental in the production, shooting, editing or directing of over 50 short films. As a Director of Rattle Records, Hill has played a significant role in the recording and release of a large body of contemporary New Zealand instrumental music. Over the past few years Hill has been struggling to complete a feature film THIS IS NOT A LOVE STORY in the face of New Zealand Film Commission indifference. THIS IS NOT A LOVE STORY has screened, as a work in progress, at several important film festivals in Europe and the United States. Hill published a novel BLUE KISSES in 1988. Written about in ALTERNATIVE CINEMA Magazine Vol. 12 Nos. 1 & 2 as well as in the book FILM IN AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND.

NEW FILM GROUP: A group of filmmakers in Auckland: Peter Wells, Gregor Nicholas, Shereen Maloney and Alison McLean whose work is well documented in writings by Peter Wells which were published in ALTERNATIVE CINEMA Magazine, ART NEW ZEALAND, NEW ZEALAND LISTENER, CANTRILLS FILMNOTES and FILM IN AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND. All of these filmmakers included at least one of their early films in ALTERNATIVE CINEMA Film Shows.

Former film critic for the NEW ZEALAND LISTENER Peter Wells has, in recent years, established himself as a writer, publishing BOY OVERBOARD, and a memoir, LONG LOOP HOME, Winner of the Montana Book Awards. Wells also writes for the New Zealand literary journal LANDFALL. One of Wells' short stories was made into a feature film OF MEMORY AND DESIRE (1991) by Niki Caro. Wells' own films include FOOLISH THINGS (1980); LITTLE QUEEN (1984); JEWEL'S DARL ( ); NEWEST CITY ON THE GLOBE (1985); A DEATH IN THE FAMILY (1987); A TASTE OF KIWI (1990); PANSY (2003) and a feature film DESPERATE REMEDIES (1993) made in collaboration with Stewart Main.

Shereen Maloney made a documentary about her mother IRENE 59 (1983) followed by a film about her father DOC (1985). Maloney's later films include AKARANA (1988); BEHIND CLOSED DOORS (1991); THE CONFETTI CONSPIRACY (1991) and MOTHER TONGUE (1993).

Gregor Nicholas' films include MOUTH MUSIC (1981); BODYSPEAK (1983); DRUM/SING (1985); DANNY AND RAEWYN ( ) as well as two feature films, USER FRIENDLY (1990) and BROKEN ENGLISH. Nicholas was recently nominated for a US Emmy award.

Alison McLean, a Canadian by birth and now resident in the United States, spent her formative years and launched her filmmaking career in New Zealand. McLean's films include TAUNT (1983); RUD'S WIFE (1986); TALKBACK (1987); KITCHEN SINK (1989) and the feature films CRUSH (1992) and JESUS' SON (2000).

Whole groups of people also made films through Christopher Barrett's two to fourteen day long experimental filmmaking workshops and film schools which were held in Auckland and Wellington in the early 1980s. Most notable of these was a short film by Janet Brady, a bleakly humorous account of the residue surrounding a failed relationship. Brady later made SUITE FOR AN INDEPENDENT CELLIST (1986).

I also recall seeing a couple of interesting film loops, one of a dripping tap, the other of a passing train, by Chris Ghent in Wellington in the early 1980s.

A lot of energy and excitement came out of Alternative Cinema in Auckland around that time. Alternative Cinema, the Auckland Filmmakers Co-op, was an unfunded, artist-run centre formed in 1972. The co-op provided basic filmmaking facilities, published a magazine, ran filmmaking workshops, organized screenings and national touring film programmes through the early 1980s. (Whilst Alternative Cinema mainly toured programmes of New Zealand films it was also involved in hosting Arthur and Corinne Cantrill's 1982 Australian Avant-Garde film screenings in Auckland as well as touring The American Federation of the Arts History of the American Avant-Garde Cinema series throughout the South Island the following year). Alternative Cinema was also the assembly point for crews filming anti-Springbok tour protests in Auckland in 1981. (Somewhat ironic since Alternative Cinema was almost directly across the street from the Auckland Central Police station).

Christopher Barrett was President of Alternative Cinema where he experimented with film and video. I was recording minutes of meetings and looking at films. The co-op's Education and Equipment Officer, John Calder always seemed to be coming up with new special effects, such discoveries causing his maniacal laugh to constantly reverberate through the building. Martyn Sanderson clattered away at a typewriter upstairs and people like Chris Knox, Tony Fomison, Gavin Mbali, Simon Buckle and Gerd Pohlman would stop by occasionally. Merata Mita also worked out of the upstairs office for a while. Ray Millard turned up from Dunedin, William Keddell came back from London and I'm not sure just exactly where John Kirk came from. Upstairs, at the front of the building, John Edgar carved away at his jade pieces and gave impromptu rock concerts on the roof. Mostly people ignored us and left us alone. It was a great working environment. Once Alternative Cinema started to become quite well known and more people began to come around I moved to Wellington and continued working from there. This move greatly assisted my film exhibition activities. Being centrally located in Wellington it was much easier to get my shows into the South Island than it had been when I was working out of Auckland.

In October, 1985 I left New Zealand, to go and learn more about my craft. Accounts of some of the films I saw in North America have been published in ALTERNATIVE CINEMA Magazine Spring/Summer 1985/86; ILLUSIONS 20, 27 and 28, THE BIG PICTURE 13, as well as in INVISIBLE CINEMA 1987 and 1989 Exhibition Catalogs.

Expanded version of article published in ILLUSIONS 35, Winter 2003, Wellington

Since publishing this article I have become aware of a few more New Zealanders who commenced making experimental films in the 1970s and early 1980s. They include:

Harry Wong AKA Wong Sing Tai
? visual artist who was associated with Pacific Films in Wellington, also shot some experimental films in the 1970s. Wong, who now lives in Auckland, is still working on these films.

Fiona Grey
Street Piece; Soccer Piece; Simply Fictitious; Doesn't Necessarily Follow ? all 1984. Small Time Encounters; In Search of Subtlety; Companion Piece; Afternoon Idyll ? all 1985. Untitled (Lost Narrative), 1987-88. Alexis Hunter New Zealand artist resident in England. Anatomy of a Friendship (1973) The right to choose (1976) Cat; Mrs. Marge ? 1978

Chris Kraus
Teaches writing at the San Francisco Art Institute. In order to pass (1982) Terrorist in Love (1985) Voyage to Rodez; Foolproof Illusion (1986) How to shoot a crime (1987) The Golden bowl or repression (1990) Traveling at night (1991) Sadness at Leaving (1992)

Lisa Prager
American resident in Auckland made some films, titles and present whereabouts unknown.