New Zealand – Identity is a theme based documentary directed by Dr Louis Lam, a medical expeditionist and cultural anthropologist who travels all over the world to tell inspirational stories about the local people and culture, their views about themselves versus the world, and current issues that reflect much wider influences. The film explores the concept of personal and cultural identity through the hearts of the Kiwi and Maori people as co-existing together in a society where most of the inhabitants are foreign to the land. This identity is described through their food, art, dance, and language. The film starts with the question of who we really are and where do we actually come from. It takes us to the modern city of Auckland and interviews John Lundmark, a second generation sail schooner builder for 22 years and the author of To The Ice And Beyond, Graeme Kendall, who successfully sailed around the world solo and received the Order of Merit from the country. It takes us to the volcanic town of Rotorua and follows a local Kiwi, Kelly Seymore, to explore the ghost town of Lake Tarawera, buried in a volcanic eruption and the coastal town of Maketu to talk about the languages of New Zealand. It interviews a long time friend from Grenada at the Terume Hot Spring to share her experience living in sulfur town and the most recent tragic natural disasters that happened to the country due to global warming. It brings us to the fishing town of Tauranga to interview Darryn Anderson, a mix between Maori and past colonists, to share his feeling of identity living in New Zealand. The film travels to the island of Waiheke to taste their local vineyards and culinary art as chefs create their own identity using knowledges from Italy. Finally, the film gives another perspective from a Maori tribe as they define their own identity, after many years of tribal settlements there along the rivers, valleys and forests of the Polynesian lands once conquered by them way before the colonists came. The film finishes with a love song from the Maori tribe signifying the marriage of two people as well as all people together into one single identity.

Filmed March 2023.