ABSTRACT
A decade earlier than the recent promotion of New Zealand as ‘Middle Earth’ (thanks to Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy), the film Once Were Warriors offered a more down-to-earth vista on life in Aotearoa. The opening sequence begins by focusing on what appears to be a classically ‘clean green’ image of empty green fields and mountains. However, as the camera pans away, this scene turns into a tourist promotion-style billboard high above an Auckland motorway passing a gritty, ghetto-like neighbourhood. This parody of the ‘calendar’ style representation of New Zealand reminds the viewer of what lies behind and beyond promotional images (Wall, 1997; Le Heron, 2004).
