Film and Video

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision’s Film and Video Collection, predominantly of New Zealand material, consists of more than 160,000 moving image items dating from 1895 to the present day.

As well as a variety of television content, this diverse and all-encompassing collection includes:

• Feature films
• Short films
• Newsreels
• Home movies
• Documentaries
• Experimental films
• Animated films
• Cine club productions
• Promotional films
• Advertising films

The Film and Video Collection encompasses a range of amateur productions, government-produced output, and commercially released films. It reflects a variety of perspectives on what it has meant to be a New Zealander, or be connected with this country, over the decades.

Films are on a wide array of formats that reflects the history of the medium – 70mm, 35mm, 16mm, 8mm, several generations of video tape, contemporary digital projection files, and a plethora of less common formats.

Taonga Māori Collection

The Taonga Māori Collection is a special collection of materials with significant Māori content. The collection includes moving image and audio records of karanga, whaikōrero, iwi and hapū whakapapa, pōwhiri, wharenui and marae, kapa haka, Waitangi Day events (from 1934), raranga, tukutuku and whakairo.

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision actively maintains and develops relationships with whānau, hapū and iwi to ensure appropriate long-term care of and access to the collection. Learn more about the Taonga Māori Collection.

The Gaylene Preston Collection

Boasting hundreds of unique titles and over 2,000 material items deposited across four decades, Dame Gaylene Preston’s collection is one of the largest of an individual’s work in the entire Ngā Taonga archive. It is also remarkably diverse, covering feature films, documentaries, shorts, commercials, and television series.

Learn more about the Gaylene Preston Collection and access the Finding Aid.