While our Maori scholars have contributed significantly to the area of Indigenous film, Hawai’i and the mainland U.S.A. tend to be seen as the Indigenous film theory and creative centres. Marina’s PhD lays the preliminary work for this long-term goal. She believes her work is important and could potentially change the way we view Pacific films as well as drawing attention to the barriers facing Pacific filmmakers, particularly females, from entering and sustaining a long-term career in the industry. Marina’s desire to write and direct film and to produce scholarly commentary about Pacific films is not only associated with presenting a Pacific female perspective on the big screen, it is also associated with decolonising or indigenising the colonial, patriarchal structure that Indigenous filmmakers work within.
Awardees
GWNZ Fellowship, 2020
Marina McCartney
Marina is studying for a PhD in film, at AUT, Auckland. Marina’s long-term goal is to establish an indigenous Pacific creative and theoretical hub in New Zealand that would centre our nation as the foremost Indigenous film “think tank”
