100 Essential New Zealand Films, By Hamish McDouall, AWA Press, RRP $40.

Alright, let's get the obvious out of the way. 'Are there really 100 NZ films?' Yes. Yes, there are. Happy?

The paucity of the NZ film bread basket is a myth and one classily debunked by Hamish McDouall in this beautifully illustrated book. Hamish, film critic and writer, set himself the task of watching almost every NZ film ever made before a-no-doubt-trepiditious attempt at what is a consummate, carefully considered selection. The end result is 100 standouts, thoughtful critiques and gorgeous images of everything from feature length films, shorts and documentaries to the epoch-making works of Len Lye.

In crafting a starting point for discovering the many treasures of New Zealand cinema, Hamish has opened a Pandora's box. Unfortunately for him, New Zealanders are not known for their unbridled historical support of the movie-making industry. It wasn't until the tsunami of off-shore endorsement slapped us upside the head like Jake Heke wanting his eggs that we began to temper our rude unease at seeing ourselves on screen.

Awkward bumpkins (yes we can be, so curb that urge to write a tersely worded email) afraid of the magic box's metallurgy, we have oft squirmed and sneered at past attempts to record us in all our gybes and gavorts. Not so now, as our attitudes to being on screen have changed, just witness our lust for Facebook phototags. Like watching a home movie, (ha! the irony) 100 Essential NZ Films follows the newest country in the world in her cinematic travails.

From Patu, (tag line, 'you might like it, you may hate it, you might even be in it,') made during the divisive period of the 1981 Springbok tour, to works that have become cultural shorthand for NZ, 'Once Were Warriors,' the 'Lord of the Rings' and precious gems from the NZ Film Commission archives, Hamish brings forth an album of a young country's forgotten silver toddling. From tentative baby footsteps, embarrassing teenage haircuts, that ubiquitous yellow mini, to maturity and hopefully comfort in our own skin. This is a book that will be read with smiles of pleasure and pride by anyone who adores film and feels a kindness for the fops, foibles and frailties of our burgeoning nationhood.

I was especially pleased to see that Illustrious Energy made it to Hamish's list. Travelling to Wanaka via Alexandra I always shudder at that cold, permanently shadowed bend in the road, the site of the sad winter demise of ill-fated Chinese Goldminers. 'Somebody's Darling Lies Here,' reads the grave marker.

The bare, big-sky beauty of Central Otago has inspired Brian Turner, Janet Frame and Grahame Sydney, but the Ida and Nevis valleys have rarely been given the lustre of Leon Narbey's Illustrious Energy. The fate of strangers who stayed strange and never went home, one of my favourite NZ films.

The lens's lingering, loving touch over shist rock and tussock will not be seen again in NZ film until In My Father's Den. The elegant plot follows Chinese immigrants of the late 19th century as they toil their claims, amid the chaos, vice and violence of the gold mining township whose periphery they uneasily inhabit. Gold the only chance of a return ticket home to their families. The lead character Chan's philosophy is fatalistic, 'Heaven is just like the sky…I see the sky. I feel the earth. I walk in between like any man.'

'Geeling Ng smokes up the screen in possibly the sexiest role in NZ cinema to date,' declares Hamish and it's no exaggeration. Plus, many of the extras are descendants of the original Chinese migrants.

Personal Best Bit

Back of the book, a superior guide on How to Watch These Films. Be it the NZ film archive, online, iTunes or your local public library. After all, the films in this book span more than a century. The earliest, a 45 second remnant of The Departure of the Second Contingent for the Boer War won't exactly be found at the local video store.

100 Essential NZ Films. Essential coffee table book.