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Meet New Zealand
Short Film (Full Length) – 1949
This post-war film was made to showcase New Zealand to UK audiences. Directed by Michael Forlong, the NFU film is a booster’s catalogue of contemporary NZ life. The message is that NZ is a modern pastoral paradise: open for business but welfare aware. Nature is conquered via egalitarian effort; air and sea links overcome the tyranny of distance; and science informs primary industry. Māori are depicted assimilating into the Pākehā world. Sport, suburbia and scenic wonder are touted, and an NZSO performance shows that the soil can grow culture as well as clover.
The Māori community, 100,000 strong, is picking from European life those elements which it finds practical and agreeable, but with all the European gear and knowledge they acquire most people born into Māori families prefer to stay Māoris at heart.– From the narration
Key Cast & Crew
Categories
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