NZ Museum Award for “Reel Life in Rural New Zealand”
– By Ellen Pullar (NZFA Publicist)
Last week Reel Life in Rural New Zealand – a screening tour organised as part of a partnership between the Film Archive and the New Zealand Historic Places Trust
– won the Most Innovative Public Programme category in Museums Aotearoa’s 2014 New Zealand Museum Awards. Jane Paul (NZFA Outreach Screenings Manager) and Zoe Roland (NZHPT Canterbury/West Coast Area Coordinator) were thrilled to accept the shiny trophy at the awards ceremony.
Watch a video from the Reel Life in Rural New Zealand tour:
In March 2013 Film Archive and NZHPT staff toured the Reel Life in Rural New Zealand programme of films made in the Wairarapa and Hawke’s Bay regions around five NZHPT registered heritage woolsheds from Maraekakaho to Tinui. The films featured farming history, shearing gangs, kiwi inventions dating back to 1913, and some of the unique rituals of country life.
At the awards ceremony Museums Aotearoa announced that the Reel Life programme won the Public Programmes category by “capturing a strong feeling of nostalgia and authenticity”, and “playing an active part in those rural communities.”
The Film Archive regularly takes films on the road as part of the Travelling Film Show initiative, which takes films from the collections to towns and cities across New Zealand – frequently to the places where the films were made. The Reel Life in Rural New Zealand tour was unique though – this was the first time we had screened films in woolsheds!
Here are some photos from the tour:
