Aeon
2004 · 12m · Documentary
Dealing heavily with perceptions of time, Aeon documents the urban cityscape as Wellington transforms through a zen-influenced eternal cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth within a 24-hour period.
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Operation 8
2011
Operation 8 examines the so-called 'anti-terror' raids that took place around New Zealand on October 15, 2007 - asking how and why they took place and at what cost to those targeted.
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2022
A documentary exploring the human-cat love story amidst a movement to eradicate cats in New Zealand.
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Dame Valerie Adams: More Than Gold
2022 · ★ 7
Olympic Champion, Kiwi Icon, Tongan Leader, Orphan, Mother...winning was just part of the journey.
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Meuthen's Party
2017
MEUTHEN'S PARTY unmasks the rise of the provincial politician Dr. Jörg Meuthen who doesn't shy away from spreading racist sentiments with a smile on his face.
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6-18-67
1967 · ★ 5.9
Filmed during the production of the Columbia Pictures western "Mackenna’s Gold," this short work presents a non-narrative visual study of the Arizona desert. Rather than documenting the film set itself, "6-18-67" assembles landscape images, time-lapse photography, and ambient sound into an abstract record of place and duration.
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Games '74: Official Film of the Xth British Commonwealth Games, Christchurch, New Zealand, 1974
1974
This chronicle of the Christchurch Commonwealth Games marked one of the National Film Unit's most ambitious productions. Though a range of events (including famous runs by John Walker and Dick Tayler), are covered, the film often bypasses the pomp and glory approach; instead it dares to talk to the injured and mention that most competitors lose. The closing ceremonies of the "friendly games" feature the athletes gathering to — as the official song's chorus put it — "join together". Four directors joined together to work on it: Arthur Everard, John King, Paul Maunder and Sam Pillsbury.
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Someone Else's Country
1996
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”.
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In a Land of Plenty
2002
The story of unemployment in New Zealand and In A Land of Plenty is an exploration of just that; it takes as its starting point the consensus from The Depression onwards that Godzone economic policy should focus on achieving full employment, and explores how this was radically shifted by the 1984 Labour government. Director Alister Barry's perspective is clear, as he trains a humanist lens on ‘Rogernomics' to argue for the policy's negative effects on society, as a new poverty-stricken underclass developed.
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Flare - A Ski Trip
1977 · ★ 8
A short documentary about freestyle skiing made for the New Zealand Tourist and Publicity Department.
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Beyond Conversion
2022 · ★ 1
BEYOND CONVERSION is a deep-dive into conversion therapy in Aotearoa through the eyes of Kiwi conversion therapy survivors.
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