Expanded Documentary in Aotearoa Conference - Call for Proposals

Conference Dates: Monday 19 & Tues 20 April 2027

Location: The Gallagher Academy of Performing Arts, The University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

Hosted by: The Faculty of Design, Te Kura Toi the School of Arts, Te Wānanga o Ngā Kete the Division of Arts, Law, Psychology and Social Sciences (ALPSS)

Please submit an abstract or creative proposal (including any space and AV requirements) by 25 September 2026 to: cherie.lacey@waikato.ac.nz

Call for Proposals

The conference organisers invite intrepid scholarly and creative responses that engage with the theme of expanded documentary in Aotearoa New Zealand. Topics may include (but are not limited to):

• Expanded, hybrid, or experimental documentary forms

• Indigenous approaches to documentary and storytelling

• Documentary beyond the screen (installation, designerly, performance, Verbatim theatre, dance, audio podcast, radio docs, artefact, spatial media)

• Photography / photomedia and lens-based documentary approaches.

• Transmedial, dispersed, viral, and social impact documentary

• Practice-led or creative research in nonfiction media

• Documentary ecologies; changing media and technologies (analogue, i-docs, online forms, VR/AR, etc.)

• Ethics, politics, and epistemologies of documentary

• Reconsiderations of documentary history in Aotearoa

• Decolonising/Indigenising the documentary lens

• Animated documentary / animation in documentary

• Found footage film, foraging, bricolage, and avant-garde approaches to assemblage

• Archival excavation, remediation, and détournement

• Articulating documentary through sound, music, media, and design, including music video and visual music

• Innovations in lens-based and camera-less documentary practices

• Documentary photography

• Documentary and place-making

• Therapeutic possibilities of documentary practice, process, and reception

• The role of documentary in relation to kaleidoscopic justice

• Documentary as intervention into judicial process, outcomes, and criminal law

• Expanded approaches to journalistic documentary

• Expanded approaches to documentary authorship, distribution, and reception - via social media

• Documentary as an agent for activism, protest, and rebellion

We welcome the following submission types:

• Individual scholarly papers (20 minutes, including 5 minutes Q&A)

• Panel proposals (3 speakers: 20 minutes each, plus 15 minutes Q&A)

• Creative submissions (film/video work, installations, photography, performances, artefacts, or other practice-based contributions)

• Creative showcase + Q&A (approx.30 min total, depending on work; please indicate)

Please keep abstracts to around 300 words.

Please submit an abstract or creative proposal (including any space and AV requirements) by 25 September 2026 to: cherie.lacey@waikato.ac.nz

Notification of acceptance: 2 November 2026.

Conference organisers:

Cherie Lacey is a Senior Lecturer in Media and Creative Technologies at the University of Waikato, and a Research Affiliate with the University of Auckland. Cherie’s research is grounded in creative nonfiction in film and writing, with a particular focus on the use of first-person storytelling modes in the exploration of conscious and unconscious minds.

Lisa Perrott 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.

Rodrigo Hill 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.