100 Essential New Zealand Films

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Book by Hamish McDouall
Published October 2009

This is a collection of 100 films - features, documentaries and shorts. As such, it is a subjective list of "essential" titles and since limited to 100, some of your favourites will be missing. Given that, it contains some very helpful summaries and reviews of films you should experience. The author states that he "make(s) no apologies for not including ... 'Footrot Flats', but does not explain why. If you meet him, will you ask him and let me know. That aside, perhaps this book is covering too much ground and would have been better off limiting its coverage to feature films, even if that included feature documentaries. Given the number of New Zealand short films, that group should have its own book. An excellent index has been included, but more viewing, rental and purchase sources are needed. With the shortage of reviews for many of these titles, the major contribution of Mr. McDouall's book is his commentaries on the films. They will assist in helping you learn about some New Zealand film gems and just might give you that push to see something you have yet to experience. Do yourself a favour and start by giving this a read.

Films are listed in alphabetical order.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy is counted as a single entry.

Missing/Unable to Find on IMDB:
Baby Farmer
Footage
I Want to Be Joan
Lovelock
The Road Back
The Sadness of the Post-Intellectual Art Critic