An Angel at My Table

Abstract

'An Angel at My Table' (1990) is a film rich with insights into New Zealand's history and culture. Through its protagonist, Janet Frame, we are offered privileged access to the experience of growing up in New Zealand in the 1930s and 1940s, as we follow Janet's journey from childhood, through adolescence, into adulthood. Janet's determination to become a writer - already apparent in primary school - allows the film to explore social attitudes towards artists, while her experiences in New Zealand's psychiatric institutions present a damning indictment of the medical establishment and society's inability to accept those who look or act differently from others. The film is adapted from Janet Frame's autobiography, which was originally published in three volumes: 'To the Is-land' (1982), 'An Angel at My Table' (1984) and 'The Envoy from Mirror City' (1985). Frame is New Zealand's most acclaimed novelist, with numerous awards, fellowships and honours including membership of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Order of New Zealand.1 Frame grew up in a working-class family, with three sisters and one brother. The family frequently moved house around New Zealand, following their father's changing posts as a worker on the railways. During her university studies, Frame was diagnosed as suffering from schizophrenia and spent several years in psychiatric care (this diagnosis was later found to be incorrect). After her collection of short stories won an award, Frame was mentored by New Zealand literary figure Frank Sargeson. Like many intellectuals and artists from Australia and New Zealand in the 1950s, Frame travelled to Europe - basing herself principally in London and Ibiza - where she sought to establish her literary career by working on manuscripts and meeting with publishers. While she found she was more readily accepted overseas as a writer than she had been back home, Frame soon returned to New Zealand, where she continued to write until her death in 2004.2