Making film-landscapes and exploring the geographical resonances of The Lord of the Rings and Whale Rider.

This thesis explores film resonances and film-landscape interactions. Film resonances refer to the multiple and varied ways people respond to films. Film-landscape describes the interaction between film and people's experience of landscape, containing a notion that landscape is always-in-the-making. Film resonances and film-landscape . interactions are explored in the contemporary New Zealand context, focusing on The Lord of the Rings and Whale Rider. The thesis explores film resonances at several levels: analysing film-tours in terms of film-landscape interactions; exploring how the same films have different resonances and reactions in different places; interrogating the relationship between popular, government and business responses to films; and examining the relationship between film and national identity narratives. Together, The Lord of the Rings and Whale Rider can be used as a prism through which to highlight particular elements ofthe New Zealand contemporary moment. A multiple method approach is used, including in-depth interviews, focus groups, conversational interviews, participant observation and analysis of newspaper articles and internet movie databases. This thesis adds to and extends current literature by considering The Lord of the Rings and Whale Rider with a more-than-film approach. It draws on a mixture of theories, arguing that considered separately, current literature does not fully address the potential of film-landscape and film resonances. Through a more-than-film approach, the thesis engages with film resonances and film-landscape interactions in ways that acknowledge the work film does outside of production or viewing. The thesis will also be of interest to all those concerned with the power of film and how it has the potential to influence our landscapes, our imaginations and our identities