ABSTRACT
In the absence of a sports film industry and with a very low level of local production output, New Zealand newsreels carried a significant burden of representation. Therefore, the importance of images of New Zealand women playing their national game of netball screened during decades of foreign content domination cannot be overstated. This chapter maps the intersections of sport, gender, film and culture through an analysis of segments featuring women playing netball (or basketball as it was then known in New Zealand) screened in cinema newsreels between 1930 and 1959. The study reveals a more constructive view of women’s sporting endeavours framed within a growing sense of a culturally distinct national identity than that identified in other relatable national contexts. In doing so, local filmmakers sought to more intimately reflect the cultural importance of New Zealand women’s sporting identity rather than belittle or just record stock sideline game footage. Therefore, this study of netball in local cinema newsreels demonstrates not only the importance of analysing the cultural specificities of filmic representations of sportswomen but also the ways in which women’s sport was actively incorporated within a more gender-inclusive understanding of an emerging sense of a distinctly New Zealand national identity.
