Major series about N.Z.

Press, 8 May 1978, Page 19

Major series about N.Z.

Next week, TVI will; present the first of six 30-1 minute documentaries about New Zealand. The broadcaster, lan Johnstone, will play a major role in the series. From a sprawling Auckland suburb to the quiet stability of Oxford, North i Canterbury, Johnstone hasspent a lot of time talking to ordinary New Zealanders. ; The series has emerged’ after almost four months of research and a further five months filming. The title of the series is “Johnstone’s Journey,” and the series is what this implies — a collection of lan Johnstone’s views and attitudes, personal essays on New Zealand and its people.

11 Programmes one, two, ■ three, and six were directed : by Pamela Jones, and the; fourth and fifth came under i ■ the direction of Richard By KEN COATES ■i Thomas, formerly of the '8.8.C. head of information I programmes. i “Rolling Our Own” is the : title of the first in the series, which will screen on; ’.Thursday evening, May 18. It looks at the Kiwi way | [ of doing things, from the, . smallest service group’s i working bee to the national, organisation of a Parlia-i mentary petition. The land, and the different!

ways in which Maori and pakeha view it, will be dis!cussed in the second pro-; gramme, which looks at the possibility for two races in one country, “Staking a Claim” together. For Maria Richmond, youngest member of the Wendelken family, home is suburban Wellington. But for' . her mother and father, it is ■the South Island, and for her. grandmother, it is still Eng-! land. The Wendelkens talk about what has happened to I them, and to all members of | their New Zealand family, in programme three, entitled,' I“A Century of Wendelkens.” I ’ A place where people slow] I down to observe the speed! I limit, rather than the town

itself, is Oxford, North! Canterbury. | But in “Small Town New! Zealand,” lan Johnstone shows that the rural com--I'munity is a great deal more .than just a cluster of buildings. Behind its garden hedges and farm gates live the people who keep the coms munity in good heart. | From South Island serenity to North Island suburbia, Johnstone travels to Auckland to study the problems, ; challenges, and rewards of those living in a com- 1 '■paratively densely populated, ■land expanding suburb. The fifth in the series is! ;! called, “Settling for Suburbia.” In “Standing Upright Here,” the end of the jour-, ney as it were, Johnstone; looks for the ingredients ’ that make up “The New! Zealand identity.” As he says, there is a’ unique quality about Maoritanga, but it is not so easy for the pakeha to put his stamp on the New Zealand way of doing things.