Kinleith '80

Covers the 12-week-long strike at Kinleith Pulp and Paper Mill, owned by New Zealand Forest Products in January 1980.

1983-01-01 | en

Erebus: Operation Overdue

On 28 November 1979, an Air New Zealand jet with 257 passengers went missing during a sightseeing tour over Antarctica. Within hours 11 ordinary police officers were called to duty to face the formidable Mount Erebus. As the police recovered the victims, an investigation team tried to uncover the mystery of how a jet could fly into a mountain in broad daylight. Did the airline have a secret it wanted to bury? This film tells the story of four New Zealand police officers who went to Antarctica as part of the police operation to recover the victims of the crash. Set in the beautiful yet hostile environment of Antarctica, this is the emotional and compelling true story of an extraordinary police operation.

2014-07-13 | en

Quest for the Ring

2001-11-29 | en

The Volcano: Rescue from Whakaari

A close examination of the Whakaari / White Island volcanic eruption of 2019 in which 22 lives were lost, the film viscerally recounts a day when ordinary people were called upon to do extraordinary things, placing this tragic event within the larger context of nature, resilience, and the power of our shared humanity.

2022-11-03 | en

Flare - A Ski Trip

A short documentary about freestyle skiing made for the New Zealand Tourist and Publicity Department.

1977-10-11 | en

Four Shorts on Architecture

A visual essay on contemporary Kiwi architecture.

1975-10-10 | en

New Country - New People

A documentary about the history of settler groups that came to New Zealand from Europe.

1978-01-01 | en

Pirates of the Airwaves

In 1966 a group of determined young men defied the New Zealand government and launched a pirate radio station aboard a ship in the Hauraki Gulf.

2014-07-27 | en

Taking Back Our Beach

This is a film about the response by a community to New Zealand’s largest environmental disaster, seen through the eyes of that community. The film captures the shock, anger and grief driven into the heart of the local community, but also the humour, purpose and overwhelming positivity when people join together with a common goal.

2023-10-05 | en

Wildcat: The Struggle for Democracy in the New Zealand Timberworkers' Union

Delegates and workers discuss the issues that effect the Timberworkers’ Union, the reasons for the formation of the Combined Council of Timber Workers Delegates (CCD) and their industrial action.

1981-01-01 | en

Famous Movie Dogs

Well-known canine performers of the 1930s vie for a part in an upcoming movie.

1940-08-17 | en

No Māori Allowed

When an academic unearths a forgotten history, residents of the small township of Pukekohe, including kaumātua who have never told their personal stories before, confront its deep and dark racist past.

2022-10-18 | en

Someone Else's Country

Someone Else’s Country looks critically at the radical economic changes implemented by the 1984 Labour Government - where privatisation of state assets was part of a wider agenda that sought to remake New Zealand as a model free market state. The trickle-down ‘Rogernomics’ rhetoric warned of no gain without pain, and here the theory is counterpointed by the social effects (redundant workers, Post Office closures). Made by Alister Barry in 1996 when the effects were raw, the film draws extensively on archive footage and interviews with key “witnesses to history”.

1996-04-18 | en

Tackling the All Blacks

Before the summer of 2022, Ireland had never beaten the All Blacks in New Zealand. Using behind the scenes footage and interviews with players and coaches this documentary reflects on the experience of triumphing in New Zealand for the first time.

2022-12-29 | en

The Hollow Men

The 'stolen' insider emails that informed Nicky Hager's best-selling account of National's 2005 election campaign return in Alister Barry's (Someone Else's Country) new film - just in time to caution us against campaigning politicians in 2008. Addressing each other like schoolboy Machiavellis, party leader Don Brash and his advisors spelled out how they'd copy the big boys in Australia and the US in order to win the votes of people who'd never support the kind of policies such men are widely presumed to represent. The dividing and conquering began at Orewa.

2008-07-07 | en

Total Steam

Great New Zealand Railway Journeys

2005-12-31 | en

Elementa

A black-and-white visual meditation of wilderness and the elements. Wildlife filmmaker Richard Sidey returns to the triptych format for a cinematic experience like no other.

2020-07-04 | en

Rendalf the Wizard

A Lord of the Rings tour guide in New Zealand processes his grief in a wonderful way.

2022-06-01 | en

The Breath Connection

A portrait of free diver Kathryn Nevatt, former World Champion and current New Zealand record holder in all three disciplines.

2019-05-01 | en

Fathers and Sons

"Fathers and Sons" is a short documentary project of Kaan Müjdeci that was shot in 2012 during the research for director's first feature film entitled SIVAS. Fathers and Sons tells the story of kangal dogs and their owners. Kangal is a breed of shepherd’s dog, unique to the land of Anatolia. The owners fight their kangals and make money off them from bettings. However, they treat and take care of their dogs like their sons, sometimes even better. Even though their sons may get hurt, a father still takes pride in having sent his son to the military, doesn’t he? Fathers and Sons is about the duality of this father-son relationship. But after all, every father would like to be proud of his son.

2012-01-01 | en