Using documentary cinema technique with a gothic mode to represent international military activity in Aotearoa New Zealand’s ‘nuclear-free zone’
This research explores how technical and symbolic codes of the Gothic mode can integrate with documentary-cinema methods to counterimage US military contractor Rocket Lab’s militarisation of Māhia Peninsula. The films produced aim to disseminate information to encourage an informed public discourse and persuade the New Zealand public to oppose Rocket Lab’s military projects. Documentary strategies, such as photographing land and expert interviews, merge with domestic scale models and gliding dolly shots. Analogue film processes, including 16mm moving film, situate this discourse around current-day military imperialism in continuity with the history of nuclear testing in the Pacific. These methods frame my broad examination of national identity, as it informs public perception of US-NZ military relations, through a Gothic unease.
