nz on screenIn a little office on Tarana­ki St, a small group of ded­ic­ated pro­fes­sion­als (known as the NZ On Screen team) have been cre­at­ing a web­site which cel­eb­rates and show­cases tele­vi­sion and film pro­duced in New Zea­l­and. A year in the mak­ing, NZ On Screen launched at the end of Octo­ber and has over 300 titles avail­able to view – many in full length, some with just excerpts.

For each title there’s also pro­files of key cast and crew, as well as back­ground stor­ies, com­ments, pho­tos and links to oth­er related mater­i­al. Hours can dis­ap­pear when you start look­ing through the site – and it pays to have your broad­band speed high and your cap fresh!

So take a look: www.nzonscreen.com   … let us know what you think, sug­gest titles we should add, tell all your friends and loved ones, and enjoy NZ On Screen!

But what does that have to do with Wel­ling­ton you might ask?

Aside from the fact that the NZ On Screen team is based here … Wel­ling­ton is well known as a bit of a hub for the film industry. Most people would say that’s all down to Peter Jack­son and Lord of the Rings. To be fair, he’s had a reas­on­ably large influ­ence.

But the Wel­ling­ton has been the scene for film and tele­vi­sion for a long time.  On the NZ On Screen site you will find some gems of Wel­ling­ton-ness…

Pro­grammes that are about or fea­ture Wel­ling­ton in all its glory:

  • Town and Around – Wel­ling­ton (1968)
  • NZBC Clas­sics – Wahine Dis­aster (1968)
  • A Nice Sort of Day (1977) 
    This full length short film from 1977 gives con­trast­ing impres­sions of two places over the course of a day: Mana Island and Wel­ling­ton city. Two young climbers row out to the island while the sun rises and the city wakes up. Over smokes and beer, the men dis­cuss why they climb; evoc­at­ive shots of their rock­face ascent are par­alleled with shots of city bustle: traffic, Radio Windy DJs and new high rises.
  • The Coast­er (1950)
    The coast­er Breeze was immor­tal­ised in this film, trav­el­ling from Wel­ling­ton to Lyttleton then back to Wan­ganui. Writ­ten by the poet Denis Glover and nar­rated by Sel­wyn Too­good, the com­ment­ary is rhythmic and lyr­ic­al. The Coast­er became fam­ous as the film which led to Cecil Holmes los­ing his job, after its con­tent riled uni­on­ist Fintan Patrick Walsh. The infam­ous ‘satchel snatch’ incid­ent and ensu­ing smear cam­paign got Holmes sacked for com­mun­ist lean­ings. He was rein­stated after a court case.
  • Maori Bat­talion Returns (1946)
    This post war news­reel fea­tures foot­age of Maori Bat­talion solders return­ing from WWII onboard the ship Domin­ion Mon­arch, into Wel­ling­ton Har­bour. The sol­diers are greeted with a huge powhiri and ensu­ing hakari at Pori­rua marae where the kaimoana and pia flow freely. The reel then fol­lows the region­al cel­eb­ra­tions of men return­ing home in Kuku and Ngaruiawahia. The nar­rat­or soberly recalls the cas­u­alty rate of the Maori Bat­talion (five men in sev­en).

Pro­grammes that just hap­pen to be set in Wel­ling­ton:

  • To Live in the City (1967)
    This doc­u­ment­ary pur­sues four young M?ori – Ripeka, Moana, Grace and Phil­lip – as they trans­ition from school, wh?nau and rur­al life To Live In the City. We fol­low them as they arrive in Wel­ling­ton and attend a pre-employ­ment course run by The Depart­ment of M?ori Affairs which offers accom­mod­a­tion and advice on employ­ment options. Dir­ect­or Arthur Ever­ard, fol­lowed up in 1991 with To Live in the City 24 years on, which picks up on the lives of the four, now middle aged.
  • Tongan Ninja (2002)
    Dir­ect­or Jason Stut­ter­’s endear­ing mar­tial arts par­ody (and cult clas­sic in the mak­ing) was filmed on a shoes­tring on the mean streets of Wel­ling­ton. Sam Manu stars as the Tongan Ninja, while Jemaine Clem­ent (Flight of the Conchords), who co-wrote the script, chews the scenery as his arch nemes­is, the anonym­ously named Action Fight­er. The film plays for laughs – think B movie accents and bad post-dub­bing – and hangs off a flimsy plot involving an evil crime syn­dic­ate’s hos­tile takeover of a Chinese res­taur­ant.

And pro­grammes made loc­ally, by com­pan­ies that call Wel­ling­ton home:

  • Good Taste Made Bad Taste
    This film by Tony Hiles was made to show some of the tricks of the trade used by Peter Jack­son in the mak­ing of his first fea­ture film, Bad Taste. Shot at PJ’s Wel­ling­ton home and on loc­a­tion, the film util­izes excerpts from Peter’s early films, pro­duc­tions stills, inter­views with the key cast, and excerpts from Bad Taste itself. Nev­er broad­cast by tele­vi­sion, this doc­u­ment­ary is the only inde­pend­ent film com­mer­cially avail­able show­ing Jack­son’s work.
  • The Insiders Guide to Hap­pi­ness (2004)
    This high-rat­ing drama series from Gib­son Group fol­lows the inter­con­nect­ing lives of eight twentyso­mething char­ac­ters, one dead, as they search for hap­pi­ness. Dra­mat­ic, com­ic, sexy, sur­real, fresh and ori­gin­al, this is New Zea­l­and tele­vi­sion at its finest. Razor-sharp scripts are enriched by superb per­form­ances, styl­ish pic­tures, an excel­lent soundtrack, Wel­ling­ton loc­a­tions and real-life but­ter­flies.
  • The Insiders Guide to Love (2005)
    The second, but pre­quel, series to The Insiders Guide to Hap­pi­ness is chaos the­ory in action: sev­en young strangers whose lives inter­sect, linked togeth­er by a bizarre incid­ent. Pro­duced by the Gib­son Group, The Insiders Guide mix of meta-tangle story-telling with fresh shoot­ing and faces, was a hit with the same youth demo­graph­ic as Hap­pi­ness, and it won sev­er­al gongs at the 2006 Film and TV Awards, and Dir­ect­ors’ Guild Awards.

 That’s just for starters … there’s more being added all the time!

- Brenda Leeuwen­berg

And if you need any fur­ther encour­age­ment to get into NZon­Screen check out your swag bag at the TAWAs – you might just find an awe­some tea tow­el from them in there…