"I’m looking forward to seeing my family in Dunedin," she said.
Ms Bollinger, who lives at Blacks Point, near Reefton, was also keen to see her Otago thesis supervisor Associate Prof Annabel Cooper, of gender studies, again.
"We’re definitely coming down for the party," she said.
Her MA thesis was inspired by her behind-the-scenes view of intergenerational film families in New Zealand cinema.
Her thesis, "Film Families and Friends: Creative Networks in a Precarious Industry", drew on five decades of personal and familial industry involvement to examine New Zealand filmmaking (1970-2020).
Many freelancers worked at making movies, with their children, grandchildren and extended families.
Her own introduction to film came via a chance meeting with her future husband Alun Bollinger MNZM, then a camera operator, in early 1970.
She married him on New Year's Eve 1970, and a documentary gig was coming up in Samoa.
Aiming to cut costs, the producer offered her a tape recorder, saying she could be the sound recordist.
Since then her roles had included research, scriptwriting, costume and documentary directing.
Mr Bollinger has since worked as a cinematographer on many films, including Goodbye Pork Pie, and Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures and The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
New Zealand movies had become more diverse, and Maori film-making was a powerhouse, she said.
Despite many technological and other changes, the "basic human inspiration, communication and co-operation at the heart of making movies" was still the same.
