The Canterbury Earthquakes and the Production of Reality in When a City Falls

Authors

  • Kevin B. Fisher University of Otago

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11157/medianz-vol13iss2id16

Abstract

The documentary When a City Falls (2011), directed by Gerard Smyth, promotes itself as “the people’s story”1 of the Canterbury earthquakes. Constructed almost entirely from amateur video, CCTV, and the director’s own handheld footage, the film creates a startling impression of the earthquakes, aftershocks, and aftermath in their spontaneity and lived immediacy. However, in the following analysis I will problematize the film’s construction of reality and community within the context of Melanie Klein’s critique of “disaster capitalism” and Jean Baudrillard’s analysis of the operation of disaster and moving images in staging reality within a post-9/11 environment characterized by an accelerated devaluation of the sign. 

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Published

2014-03-26

Issue

Vol. 13 No. 2 (2012): Special Issue: New Zealand/Aotearoa 2011 - Politics, Disaster, Spectacle

Section

Articles

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