Expanded Documentary in Aotearoa
Conference dates: 19-20 April 2027
University of Waikato, Hamilton
Image credit Rodrigo Hill
“Emergent digital technologies and platforms reshape the image, vision, apparatus, memory, and activism of documentary cinema.”
— Jihoon Kim, Documentary’s Expanded Fields (2022)
The conference
Expanded Documentary in Aotearoa brings together scholars, artists, practitioners and creative researchers to explore what documentary might be—or become—in Aotearoa New Zealand today. Inspired by Jihoon Kim’s concept of documentary’s “expanded fields,” the conference moves beyond conventional cinematic forms and frames to consider expanded, hybrid, Indigenous, experimental and practice-led approaches to documenting and storytelling.
Aotearoa provides a particularly generative context for this exploration. From installation, photography and animation to embodied, digital and mixed-media practices, the conference invites dialogue between contemporary documentary practices and Māori forms of storytelling and knowledge transmission, while reconsidering the histories and assumptions that have shaped documentary scholarship in Aotearoa.
Call for proposals
The conference organisers invite scholarly and creative responses engaging with expanded documentary in Aotearoa New Zealand. Topics may include, but are not limited to:
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Expanded, hybrid, experimental and Indigenous documentary forms
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Documentary beyond the screen, including installation, performance, theatre, dance, sound, radio/podcasting, artefacts and spatial media
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Photography, animation, lens-based and camera-less documentary practices
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Digital, interactive, transmedial and social media documentary
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Practice-led and creative research in nonfiction media
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Documentary ecologies and changing media technologies
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Found footage, archival excavation, remediation, bricolage and assemblage
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Documentary, sound, music and design
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Documentary and place-making
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Ethics, politics and epistemologies of documentary
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Decolonising and Indigenising documentary practice and scholarship
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Reconsiderations of documentary histories in Aotearoa
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Documentary as activism, intervention, social impact and justice
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Expanded approaches to documentary authorship, distribution and reception
Image credit Lisá Perrott
Submission types
- individual scholarly papers (20 minutes, including Q&A);
- three-person panel proposals (120 mins, including Q&A);
- creative or practice-based contributions, including film/video, installation, photography, performance and artefacts;
- creative showcases with Q&A (~30 minutes).
Please submit an abstract or creative proposal of approximately 300 words, including any space or AV requirements, by 9 October 2026 to cherie.lacey@waikato.ac.nz.
Notification of acceptance: 2 November 2026.
Keynote speakers
Prof. Annie Goldson ONZM
Anne Goldson is a filmmaker whose best-known films are the documentary features Punitive Damage, Georgie Girl, An Island Calling, Brother Number One, and Kim Dotcom: Caught in the Web. She is also a scholar, regularly publishing academic articles and book chapters and is a Professor of Communication at the University of Auckland/Waipapa Taumata Rau. Annie has received over 60 awards at international film festivals, holds an Officer of the Order of Merit NZ, is a Fellow of the Te Apārangi/Royal Society of New Zealand, an Arts Laureate of NZ, and recently received the DocEdge Superhero award.
Katie Wolfe
Katie Wolfe (Ngāti Mutunga Ngāti Tama, Ngati Toa Rangatira) is a multi-talented director, writer and actor hailing from Aotearoa New Zealand, with an impressive career in both film, television and theatre. She has won critical acclaim for her work, particularly for her recent theatre piece (and film) The Haka Party Incident and films Waru, This Is Her, and Redemption. As a director, Katie has worked across a range of genres, from drama to documentary. Her recent television work includes the documentary series Artefact and The Brokenwood Mysteries, showcasing her versatility in crafting compelling stories across different formats.
Conference programme
Please check back again soon.
Image credits (clockwise from top left): Unnikrishnan Kammadath (still from Home Away from Home); Cherie Lacey; Unnikrishnan Kammadath (still from Home Away from Home); still from Late Watch (Barbour, Hill, Lacey).
Conference organisers
Dr Cherie Lacey
cherie.lacey@waikato.ac.nz
Cherie is a Senior Lecturer in Media and Creative Technologies at the University of Waikato. An award-winning scholar and creative writer, her work explores formal experimentation across image and text, with recent research extending into critical plant studies and vegetal media. She holds a PhD in Film Studies from the University of Auckland and a Master’s in Creative Writing from the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University of Wellington.
Dr Lisá Perrott
lisa.perrott@waikato.ac.nz
Lisá is Senior Lecturer and Researcher in Media and Creative Technologies at The University of Waikato. Her research explores the relations between sound, music and image, together with the remediating possibilities of audiovisual media and cultural forms. Lisa's interest in music, artistry, and representation informs her research across the fields of documentary, animation, cultural memory, transmedia and Indigenous storytelling practices.
Dr Rodrigo Hill
rodrigo.hill@waikato.ac.nz
Rodrigo is a photographic artist specialised in gallery installations and publications. Rodrigo’s creative interests are rooted at the intersection of lens-based and documentary approaches in which photography plays the role of representing layered ‘place-imaginaries’. Rodrigo is a Senior lecturer at the University of Waikato School of Arts and holds a PhD in Photography.