Sunday, March 13, 2011

New Zealand on Screen - New Zealand Book Month

To celebrate NZ writers, and NZ books - in all their forms - we've launched a very bookish collection of NZ On Screen titles:

 http://www.nzonscreen.com/collection/nz-book-month-collection


The collection, while bulky, is by no means exhaustive, but we were nevertheless pleased with the amount of NZ fiction that's made it to small and big screens over the years. As Finlay McDonald (pic below left) writes in his introductory essay, "our literary past has been extremely well documented and also extensively adapted for both film and television."

"Indeed, if the long struggle to develop a uniquely indigenous literary “voice” is a significant aspect of the wider story of the country’s evolving national identity, the role of film and television can be said to be both a valuable record, and an integral — stand-alone — part, of that fascinating journey."

Featured in the collection are screen adaptations (both excerpts and full-length) of novels and short stories, documentaries on authors, and "long-buried and priceless" interviews. Writes Finlay, "It’s one thing, for instance, to read about pioneering crime writer and theatre director Ngaio Marsh’s legendarily deep voice and its effect on other people, but quite another to hear it booming out from an old television interview, every bit as impressive (and disconcerting) as it must have been at the time."

Please share and enjoy!

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