A photograph of Ngai Hau e Wha Marae on Pages Road.
A photograph of a detail of street art on a building in New Brighton. The artwork consists of political and earthquake-related newspaper clippings pasted to a brick wall.
A photograph of a detail of street art on a building in New Brighton. The artwork consists of political and earthquake-related newspaper clippings pasted to a brick wall.
This thesis is a creative and critical exploration of how transmedia storytelling meshes with political documentary’s nature of representing social realities and goals to educate and promote social change. I explore this notion through Obrero (“worker”), my independently produced transmedia and transjournalistic documentary project that explores the conditions and context of the Filipino rebuild workers who migrated to Christchurch, New Zealand after the earthquake in 2011. While the project should appeal to New Zealanders, it is specifically targeted at an audience from the Philippines. Obrero began as a film festival documentary that co-exists with strategically refashioned Web 2.0 variants, a social network documentary and an interactive documentary (i-doc). Using data derived from the production and circulation of Obrero, I interrogate how the documentary’s variants engage with differing audiences and assess the extent to which this engagement might be effective. This thesis argues that contemporary documentary needs to re-negotiate established film aesthetics and practices to adapt in the current period of shifting technologies and fragmented audiences. Documentary’s migration to new media platforms also creates a demand for filmmakers to work with a transmedia state of mind—that is, the capacity to practise the old canons of documentary making while comfortably adjusting to new media production praxis, ethics, and aesthetics. Then Obrero itself, as the creative component of this thesis, becomes an instance of research through creative practice. It does so in two respects: adding new knowledge about the context, politics, and experiences of the Filipino workers in New Zealand; and offering up a broader model for documentary engagement, which I analyse for its efficacy in the digital age.
New Zealand Defence Force and Police personnel receiving baked goods.
Army trucks on the way to Christchurch.
New Zealand Defence Force and Police personnel receiving baked goods.
A pile of crushed cars near the site of the CTV Building.
The floors of the CTV Building hanging from the elevator shaft.
A digger clearing rubble on the site of the CTV Building.
A photograph of volunteers from the Wellington Emergency Management Office in a van.
A photograph of cracks in pavement, with silt from liquefaction visible on the surface.
A photograph of Truly Scrumptious Ltd on Victoria Street, which has no noticeable earthquake damage.
A photograph of the rubble from the demolished Para Rubber building on Manchester Street.
A photograph of volunteers from the Wellington Emergency Management Office in a van.
A photograph of liquefaction around a power pole on Gayhurst Road.
A photograph of volunteers at a temporary Civil Defence Report Centre in Christchurch.
A photograph of several earthquake-damaged houses on Chester Street East.
A photograph of USAR codes spray-painted on the front doors of Cambridge Courts.
A photograph of a crack in Hagley Park. Dried liquefaction can be seen on either side.
A photograph of a crack in Hagley Park. Dried liquefaction can be seen on either side.
A photograph of emergency management personnel relaxing outside their campervans in Hagley Park.
A photograph of liquefaction at the entrance to Linwood Avenue from Avonside Drive.
A photograph of a car stuck in liquefaction on Montreal Street.
A photograph of workers from Treetech digging up tree stumps next to the Avon River.
A photograph of piles of liquefaction on the side of a residential street in Christchurch.
A photograph of emergency management personnel taking a break in Latimer Square.
A photograph of cracks running through the driveway of a residential property on Gayhurst Road.
A photograph of boxes stacked inside the Christchurch Art Gallery.
A photograph of the Oxford Terrace Baptist Church with cracking to the front facade.