NZ On Screen

Praise Be - Christchurch Cathedral Special

2012-02-09T21:59:45Z

Television, 1998, (Full Length Episode)

TVNZ's long running religious and choral music programme visits Christchurch's Anglican cathedral. Before its devastation by earthquakes, it was the centre of the city and one of the most celebrated of its great Gothic buildings. It could also claim to be "the most visited, the most accessible and best known church in New Zealand". Host Graeme Thomson explores the cathedral, its chapels and bell tower and outlines its history. He interviews Dean John Bluck and introduces hymns and songs of praise sung by the cathedral's choir and an ecumenical congregation.

Jim Hopkins

2012-02-07T19:44:17Z

Writer, Presenter

Jim Hopkins's screen career has ranged from science reporting to shed anthropology. The long-time public speaker has been an NZ Herald columnist, talkback radio host, “thoroughly boring” Waitaki district councillor, and author (Blokes in Sheds; later a documentary). Though his television encounters have often been quirky or comedic, Hopkins has also done time as a straight reporter (80s science show Fast Forward).

Rowley Habib (Rore Hapipi)

2012-02-07T19:44:16Z

Writer [Ngāti Tūwharetoa]

Rowley Habib — also known as Rore Hapipi — is one of the first writers to bring a genuinely Māori perspective to New Zealand stage and screen. His play Death of the Land is seen as a landmark in the development of Māori theatre. In 1983 Habib won a Feltex Award for land rights drama The Protestors, part of a trio of pioneering one-off plays for television.

Pictorial Parade No.8 - New Zealand Celebrates Coronation

2012-02-07T19:44:13Z

Short Film, 1953, (Full Length Episode)

The Cathedral Bells ring out in Christchurch as New Zealand celebrates the coronation of Elizabeth II. Inside the cathedral and in other places of worship, such as the chapel at Longbeach Estate (near Ashburton) and in the picturesque St James church at the foot of Franz Josef Glacier, the faithful give thanks (including pioneering mountain guides Peter and Alex Graham). Outside, the day is marked by processions and military parades in the main centres (filmed on 02 June 1953); in Wellington Governor General Sir Willoughby Norrie commands "God Save the Queen!"

Christchurch - Garden City of New Zealand

2012-02-07T00:36:15Z

Short Film, 1952, (Full Length)

This promotional travelogue, made for the Christchurch City Council, shows off the city and its environs. Filmed at a time when New Zealand’s post-war economy was booming as it continued its role as a farmyard for the “Old Country”, it depicts Christchurch as a prosperous city, confident in its green and pleasant self-image as a “better Britain” (as James Belich coined NZ’s relationship to England), and architecturally dominated by its cathedrals, churches and schools. Many of these buildings were severely damaged or destroyed in the earthquakes of 2010 and 2011.

Bruce Allpress - a Kiwi character

2012-02-07T00:16:51Z

ScreenTalk, 2012

Veteran actor Bruce Allpress has had a long career in theatre, film and television. His television credits include Close to Home, Hanlon, Shark in the Park, Duggan, The Cult, and the lead role in the series Jocko. His many film appearances include The Piano, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, and, most recently, Rest for the Wicked. In this ScreenTalk interview, Allpress talks about:

Getting a dressing down from a producer on the set of Close to Home
How being ‘laconic’ at his audition got him the lead role in Jocko
Having to learn how to use a bullwhip in four days for the show
How the character of Jocko was a quintessential New Zealand character
What happened when his mate Ian Mune lost control of a horse on set
Getting the role of Sparky on Mortimer’s Patch by removing his teeth
Almost wrecking a camera while riding a quad bike on Duggan
Finding The Piano an odd film to be in
Not really understanding his role in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Acting with his ‘over 60s mates’ in the film Rest for the Wicked
How the best has yet to come in his career

This video is available on YouTube to embed and distribute via a Creative Commons licence.

Rest for the Wicked

2012-02-03T01:59:42Z

Film, 2011, (Trailer)

Comedy Rest for the Wicked showcases an all-star aged A-team of Kiwi actors — among them Ian Mune, John Bach, and Gloss boss Ilona Rodgers. Gravel-voiced Tony Barry (the man who uttered the immortal line "goodbye pork pie") stars as Murray, a retired detective going undercover in an upmarket rest-home. Frank hopes to catch his longtime nemesis (Bach). Instead he finds himself in the company of the randy, and the unexpectedly dead. The "sweet, rather knowing little movie" (Linda Burgess, Dominion Post) marks the feature debut of ad veteran Simon Pattison.

Grunt Machine - Split Enz (Spellbound)

2012-02-03T01:59:41Z

Television, 1975, (Excerpts)

This simple but very effectively choreographed clip is possibly the only surviving music footage shot for mid-70s rock show The Grunt Machine. The extended instrumental introduction allows Phil Judd nearly two minutes of pacing and hovering in the Avalon Studio shadows before he confronts the camera at his malevolent best. The soon to depart Wally Wilkinson is on guitar; time in Australia has cemented the band's stage personas, Noel Crombie's black and white costumes are a visual treat, and the result is a perfect document of Mental Notes-era Enz.

Kai Purakau - The Storyteller

2012-02-03T01:59:41Z

Film, 1987, (Excerpts)

Gaylene Preston's documentary on writer Keri Hulme — filmed two years after Hulme shot to global fame on the back of her Booker Prize-winning novel the bone people — is both a poetic travelogue of Okarito (the township where she resided for 40 years), and a sampler-box of affable musings on her writing process, whitebait fishing, the supernatural, and the 1200 pages of notes for her next novel, the elusive Bait. Leon Narbey's camera is aptly alert to the magical qualities of the coast, from the resident kotuku to the surf and birdsong peppering Hulme’s crib.

Block of Wood

2012-02-02T21:34:54Z

Music Video, 1987

The trademark warm, jangling sound of veteran Flying Nun band The Bats masks a Robert Scott lyric about emotional numbness on this song from their debut album Daddy's Highway. Director Jonathan Ogilvy's clip features a chainsaw of Damocles and the ventriloquist's dummy from the album cover — and a poignant Christchurch location. The distinctive, triangular ANZ Bank Chambers (where the band members play on the balconies) and surrounding buildings at the intersection of Manchester, High and Lichfield streets were devastated in the city's earthquakes.

Teuila Blakely

2012-02-02T00:16:47Z

Actor/Presenter

A founding host for both Channel 4, and hip hop station Flava FM, Samoan-born Teuila Blakely spent three years presenting C4's live show Freestyle. Since writing and starring in 2003 play Island Girls, she has also been acting. Blakely’s comic skills were showcased in bro’Town and a straight-talking role in Sione’s Wedding; her drama CV includes Shortland Street (as solo mother Vasa Levi) and thriller This is Not My Life.

Bursting Through

2012-02-02T00:16:31Z

Music Video, 1998

The second single from singer-songwriter Bic Runga's critically acclaimed debut album Drive, 'Bursting Through' is a spare but quietly insistent plea for emotional warmth. Director Melanie Bridge’s video finds Runga elegantly coiffeured and styled in a white gown with a black guitar. The setting favours bleached whites and pale blues, and water surrounds her in a myriad of forms — dripping, pooled, condensed — but there’s the promise of sunlight and succour as well. Bridge would shortly co-found award-winning commercials agency The Sweet Shop.

Hotu Painu

2012-02-02T00:16:31Z

Television, 1988, (Full Length)

Peter Turei's wide-ranging doco explores the history of nuclear testing in the Pacific — and its relationship with French colonialism in Tahiti (which locals claim has made them strangers or "Hotu Painu" in their own land). There is compelling testimony of serious health effects from previous tests; and Turei's cameras follow a Greenpeace protest flotilla to Moruroa as the French keep watch. Interwoven throughout is the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior — and its aftermath as DGSE agents are tried and the ship finds a final resting place at Matauri Bay.

The Nuclear Reaction

2012-02-02T00:16:30Z

Television, 1995, (Full Length)

In this documentary, George Andrews plots NZ's progress from enthusiastic supporter of the atomic bomb in the 1940s to proudly nuclear free by the late 1980s. New Zealand — the birthplace of "father of the atom" Ernest Rutherford — willingly participated in British tests at Christmas Island in the 1950s (and looked eagerly for uranium in the Buller Gorge) but as testing increased in the Pacific, Prime Ministers Holyoake, Kirk and Lange voiced opposition — and Moruroa, nuclear ship visit protests and the Rainbow Warrior bombing fuelled the anti-nuclear cause.

Miss New Zealand 1973

2012-01-31T00:46:53Z

Television, 1973, (Full Length)

A line-up of receptionists, trainee teachers, and models talk horse-riding and modesty, vying to win Miss New Zealand 1973. Miss Otago (Pam King) proves a popular winner — the show was filmed in Dunedin; she was later a semi-finalist at that year's Miss World contest. The compere provides innuendo-laced links, and introduces reigning Miss New Zealand (Kristine Allan), Miss World (Australia's Belinda Green), Canadian singer Gary Buck, and blind Māori crooner Eddie Low. Miss Horowhenua — a hairdresser — highlights 1973 style: wigs are out for women, but in for men.

Finola Dwyer: an education in production

2012-01-30T02:09:17Z

ScreenTalk, 2012

Internationally successful Kiwi film producer Finola Dwyer began her career as an editor at the National Film Unit and then moved onto editing and producing at TVNZ. Dwyer migrated over to the film industry and worked as an editor and producer. Some of the memorable New Zealand films she worked on include Came a Hot Friday, Starlight Hotel, and The Quiet Earth. In the 90s, Dwyer moved to the UK where she has made a name for herself producing films such as Backbeat, An Education and Dean Spanley. Her latest project is Quartet, a film directed by Dustin Hoffman. In this ScreenTalk, Dwyer talks about:

Learning to edit film at the National Film Unit
Editing the classic short film Score with director Arthur Everard
How editing Country Calendar for TV was more stressful than NFU editing
How an unplanned visit to the beach led to Raglan by the Sea
Creating the quirky chat show McCormick Country
Having to re-record the dialogue and soundtrack for The Quiet Earth
How her first producing job on Queen City Rocker was a baptism by fire
Overcoming fear by producing the Beatles biopic Backbeat
Being proud of the film Dean Spanley and its cast and crew
Sharing teenage dating stories while co-producing An Education
How the film struck controversy due to its subject matter
Feeling blessed to be working and continuing to learn in the film industry

This video is available on YouTube to embed and distribute via a Creative Commons licence.

Sitting In The Rain

2012-01-29T23:28:44Z

Music Video, 1967

Sitting in the Rain is a New Zealand pop landmark. One of the earliest music promo clips, filmed for television in 1967 by the NZBC, it is a cover version by a local band that became better known than the original (by UK blues stalwart John Mayall). The Underdogs were a powerful electric blues combo, but with 'Sitting in the Rain' they knew that less is more; the film clip, used to fill TV scheduling gaps, is similarly unfussy. Like a surly, underground Monkees, the anarchic Underdogs don't hide the fact that the performance is mimed.

The Underdogs

2012-01-29T23:28:44Z

Music Video

The Underdogs were a mid-60s Auckland blues band notorious for their antics on stage and in the TV pop show C'mon. Wearing street clothes or Sgt Pepper-influenced op-shop uniforms, they were teenagers with an attitude, pushing the bounds of behaviour and grooming. 'Sitting in the Rain' is their best remembered recording, though it sold few copies on its release in 1967. Murray Grindlay's weary vocal is supported by the mercurial, lead guitar lines of Lou Rawnsley, and minimal backing from the rhythm section, bassist Neil Edwards and drummer Tony Walton.

Nicole Whippy – creating memorable characters

2012-01-25T00:13:31Z

ScreenTalk, 2012

Vivacious actor Nicole Whippy has created some memorable characters on our television screens. She debuted playing a warrior queen on Xena and then appeared in the film Vertical Limit. She made a splash on the drama Jackson's Wharf before appearing in a slew of TV series such as Mercy Peak, Being Eve, The Strip and Outrageous Fortune. In 2011, she starred in the comedy/drama hit Nothing Trivial. In this ScreenTalk, Whippy talks about:

Being terrified having to ride horses on Xena
Having all her acting flaws pointed out by a producer on Jackson's Wharf
How a sexy costume helped her create Elektra in Being Eve
Being taken on an intense emotional journey on the set of Mercy Peak
Filming scenes from The Strip in a real strip club and refusing to go in the spa pool
Playing an extreme version of herself on Outrageous Fortune
How people on the street had some negative reactions to the role
Auditioning for a role on Nothing Trivial that was modeled on her
Feeling that her role on the show is the 'big one' in her career

This video is available on YouTube to embed and distribute via a Creative Commons licence.

Iaheto Ah Hi

2012-01-24T02:01:26Z

Actor, Writer

Toi Whakaari graduate Iaheto Ah Hi moved into features with hit comedy Sione’s Wedding, after time in comedy theatre group the Naked Samoans. His play Tautai — the tale of a car thief emulating his Tokelauan fishing ancestors — helped inspire 2010 ensemble movie Matariki, with Ah Hi himself winning an award in one of the main roles. Alongside his acting, Ah Hi has also had a long involvement in the Kiwi hip hop scene.

Buffalo

2012-01-24T02:01:26Z

Music Video, 2010

In this promo for the title track from the Phoenix Foundation's 2010 album a boy practises holding his breath, to better himself for meeting a sea nymph. It's a suitably giddy concept for a song that builds from its simple two-note intro onwards to a surging crescendo. "I'm on the sea floor / I am the mammal you adore / I'm on the sea floor, closer to the planet's core". A submarine South Coast swim and a glide through the pine trees of Wellington's Town Belt later, and our hero is united with his maiden. Directed by Nathan Hickey aka drummer for Beastwars.