As a country we were insecure about our own identity, feeling as if we were all alone and stuck out at the bottom of the pacific. This occurred even though John Mulgan's Man Alone (a continuing theme for novels, plays and films written and produced in New Zealand) had been written before World War II.
However every action has an equal and opposite reaction, and New Zealand's reaction to the Man Alone/'bloke' tradition of film making was the awakening of a women's/feminist film making tradition.
As a rough starting point for this surge in women's film making 1975 would be a good place to start, as this saw a variety of feminist films as part of a women's film festival tour New Zealand as part of the "International Year of Women." Following this was the formation of the Women's Community Video Group and movies from Stephanie Beth (I Want To Be Joan) and Gaylene Preston ( How I Threw Art Out The Window).
It wasn't until the mid 1980's that saw women film making coming to the fore after numerous Man Alone type films such as Sleeping Dogs (1977), Goodbye Pork Pie (1980) and Smash Palace (1981). Melanie Reed brought out two films in 1982 and 1984 and by the late 80s New Zealand had seen the arrival of Jane Campion with Sweetie (1989) and An Angel At My Table (1990).
It must be noted though that this type of film did not die out and in 1986 New Zealand saw the release of another Man Alone film, Bad Taste.
