Film
Explore stories from Aotearoa New Zealand’s rich and diverse film history.
1 to 36 of 94 items
7 December 2023
A look at how homegrown sound-on-film technology changed the making and showing of feature films in the 1930s.
8 November 2023
Producer John Barnett reflects on the film that brought Murray Ball's beloved comic strip to life on the big screen.
3 July 2023
We reflect on the documentary films of Jan and Luit Bieringa and our time working with them, ahead of the National Library's special screenings of their films.
24 January 2023
Norman Blackie was a keen amateur filmmaker, who arrived in Tauranga with his wife Odine in 1942.
8 December 2022
In 1934 Ōtaki was the site of a major commemoration – the Diamond Jubilee of Archbishop Francis Redwood. The occasion is beautifully captured in a newsreel.
2 November 2022
An intern discusses the project to create a database and finding aid for the archived works of Dame Gaylene Preston.
3 October 2022
We asked a few questions for Annabel Cooper about the portrayal of the New Zealand Wars in Utu and The Te Kooti Trail.
19 July 2022
Read about footage captured by W. Franklyn Barrett in 1909 of Aotearoa New Zealand's stunning natural landscapes.
14 June 2022
Learn about this recently digitised collection of WWII films and photographs.
14 June 2022
The origins of the project to digitise and bring the Norm Hatch collection to New Zealand.
13 June 2022
Norman was one of 21,000 US Marines who arrived in the Wellington region to prepare for or recover from combat in the Pacific, between June 1942 and November 1943.
14 April 2022
Ramarihi MacDougall, a Collections Archivist at Ngā Taonga, describes her journey of mahi raranga (Māori weaving)
1 February 2022
For Waitangi Day 2022, staff at Ngā Taonga combed through the archives to make a special audiovisual programme to commemorate the signing of Te Tiriti.
28 December 2021
The classic Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision ‘Don’t Let It Get You’ (Mary-Louise Browne, 2010) artwork has delighted viewers for more than 10 years.
2 November 2021
We talk with film preservationists about the choices and the challenges involved in working on items in our collection.
19 October 2021
Young viewers share their first impressions of Len Lye's art films.
6 July 2021
Our online exhibition Free Radical: Len Lye at 120 is an exciting showcase of two dozen of Len Lye’s remarkable films.
8 June 2021
Dredging of the Ōtaki River in the 1940s. Digitised for an exhibition at the Ōtaki Museum – Ōtaki is the River.
25 May 2021
As part of commemorations of the 40th anniversary of the Film Archive, we’re sharing this article, first published in 2002.
27 April 2021
We recently made this new scan – comparing our latest scan of archival material with an earlier version.
9 March 2021
Carmen Rupe (1936–2011) was an entertainer, café owner, sex worker and the most prominent transgender woman of her time.
2 March 2021
Inspired by artist Len Lye, this special reputation was recently at the core of a collaboration Dries van Noten.
16 February 2021
Fred O’Neill was an award-winning New Zealand filmmaker, and a specialist in Claymation and stop-motion.
2 February 2021
Waitangi Day has been officially commemorated since 1934 and the way New Zealanders mark the day has changed over time.
19 January 2021
Ngā Taonga played a part in officially launching Wellington’s strategy for its first four years as a UNESCO City of Film.
12 January 2021
2020 has been a wild ride and we hope you’ve come through safely. It’s certainly forced a few rethinks on how things are handled.
1 December 2020
As part of our search for the missing early films of Robert Steele, we received a slew of tips and insights.
10 November 2020
Hydroelectric power has a long history in Aotearoa New Zealand, with the first projects commissioned in the early 20th century.
3 November 2020
One of the films in the Reel Life Home and Garden programme [which screened in Featherston and Wellington in July 2014] shows a Wairarapa property, ‘Plas-Gwyn’
18 September 2020
We need your help solving a mystery of missing movies! Robert Steele's lost film.
8 September 2020
Discover what it took to get a Fell Locomotive over the Remutaka Range.
11 August 2020
The curation and development of a video compilation that would become 'Ngā Wai e Rua: Stories of Us'
20 July 2020
Many pre-existing legends, indigenous oral histories, short stories and novels have been adapted into moving image and sound recordings.
13 July 2020
Matariki is the Māori new year and an important time in New Zealand
16 June 2020
We’ve asked staff to describe an item from the collection that they really like. Here’s Collection Developer Siobhán Garrett.
