Abstract
This article examines the themes produced from a series of focus groups with expatriate New Zealanders (also known as `Kiwis') undertaken in London in mid-2006. The participants were questioned about their experiences of watching New Zealand films now that they were living overseas, in order to understand their perspectives on national identity. The themes that developed include: the importance of national film viewing by expatriates in creating and celebrating `Kiwiness'; the `cultural translation' that expatriate Kiwis undertake for their British friends and acquaintances; and the nostalgic associations produced through visual portrayals of national landscape and landmarks. Additionally, this article acts as a methodological `case study' of this kind of research, one which bridges the disciplinary boundaries between traditional film studies work and other qualitative, sociological fields such as mass communications and ethnography.
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