Dread (1996)

Kea: The Smartest Parrot (2005)

Sir David Attenborough narrates a documentary about the Kea, the world's only alpine parrot. Playful and destructive, it attacks cars, starts landslides and terrorises New Zealand ski resorts but behind the bad behaviour there's a sharp mind at work. David tries to play chess with a kea and discovers how its cheeky character is the key to its survival.

• Documentary
• TV Movie

Operation 8 (2011)

Operation 8 examines the so-called 'anti-terror' raids that took place around New Zealand on October 15, 2007 - asking how and why they took place and at what cost to those targeted.

• Documentary

Quest for the Ring (2001)

• Documentary
• TV Movie

Aeon (2004)

Dealing heavily with perceptions of time, Aeon documents the urban cityscape as Wellington transforms through a zen-influenced eternal cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth within a 24-hour period.

• Documentary

Gallipoli from Above (2012)

Gallipoli from Above: The Untold Story is the true story of how a team of Australian officers used aerial intelligence, emerging technology and innovative tactics to plan the landing at Anzac Cove. It is now nearly 100 years since the landing and hundreds of books, movies and documentaries have failed to grasp the significance of the ANZAC achievement. Instead, the mythology has clouded the real story of how these two influential Australian officers took control of the landing using every innovation they could muster to safely land their men on Z beach.

• Documentary
• History
• War

River Deep, Mountain High: James Nesbitt in New Zealand (2013)

James Nesbitt moved to New Zealand in 2011 when he landed the role of Bofur in Peter Jackson's Hobbit trilogy, but he says the country remains largely unknown to him. Travelling more than 1,000 miles from the tip of the North Island down to the South, the actor finds out more about the place he has called home, visiting areas of natural beauty and learning about the nation's history and traditions. Along the way, he meets former All Blacks player the late great Jonah Lomu, takes a trip around film star Sam Neill's vineyards in Queenstown, catches up with Peter Jackson and goes Base-jumping from the tallest building in Auckland.

• Documentary

Suêtes (1999)

This documentary traces the folklore, stories, and reality of living under the hurricane force winds, that beat down upon the residents of the Acadian region of Western Cape Breton Island, between Margaree Harbour and Cheticamp. The film contains stunning landscapes shot in winds of 130 miles per hour. While there is often serious damage from these Suêtes, roofs blowing off buildings and even homes blowing apart, there is also a good dose of local humour surrounding life under these harsh environmental conditions. Residents from young to more than 90 years old tell their tales of life under these winds.

• Documentary

Erebus: Operation Overdue (2014)

On 28 November 1979, an Air New Zealand jet with 257 passengers went missing during a sightseeing tour over Antarctica. Within hours 11 ordinary police officers were called to duty to face the formidable Mount Erebus. As the police recovered the victims, an investigation team tried to uncover the mystery of how a jet could fly into a mountain in broad daylight. Did the airline have a secret it wanted to bury? This film tells the story of four New Zealand police officers who went to Antarctica as part of the police operation to recover the victims of the crash. Set in the beautiful yet hostile environment of Antarctica, this is the emotional and compelling true story of an extraordinary police operation.

• Documentary

Backroom Troubles (1997)

Women talk about the circumstances that drove them to seek illegal abortions and the often traumatic result. Interwoven with historical photographs and newsreel footage, the stories expose how the reality of women's lives were counterposed to what was socially and morally expected of them.

• Documentary

Skin Pics (1980)

A bold reveal of a rose tattoo opens this 1980 documentary on tattooing in New Zealand. The potted history includes visits to tattoo parlours on K' Road and Hastings, and the studios of industry legends Steve Johnson and Roger Ingerton. Tattooists discuss public stigma, people's reasons for getting inked, and popular designs: sailors, serpents, swallows and tā moko. Made for documentary slot Contact, Skin Pics chronicles a time when "folk art has become high art".

• Documentary

New Country - New People (1978)

A documentary about the history of settler groups that came to New Zealand from Europe.

• Documentary

Into the Basement (2024)

A documentary team in small town New Zealand investigate claims by scared locals that their kids have turned into devil worshipers, only to find out the truth has been grossly overstated.

• Comedy
• Drama
• Documentary
• Horror

Kim Dotcom: Caught in the Web (2017)

The larger-than-life story of Kim Dotcom, the 'most wanted man online', is extraordinary enough, but the battle between Dotcom and the US Government and entertainment industry—being fought in New Zealand—is one that goes to the heart of ownership, privacy and piracy in the digital age.

• Documentary

Māori (1981)

This 1981 NFU film is a tour of the contemporary world of Aotearoa’s tangata whenua. It won headlines over claims that its portrayal of Māori had been sanitised for overseas viewers. Debate and a recut ensued. Writer Witi Ihimaera felt that mentions of contentious issues (Bastion Point, the land march) in his original script were ignored or elided in the final film, and withdrew from the project. He later told journalists that the controversy showed that educated members of minority groups were no longer prepared to let the majority interpret the minority view.

• Documentary
• History

Mururoa 1973 (1973)

In 1973 Alister Barry joined the crew of a protest boat (The Fri) to Mururoa Atoll, where the French Government were testing nuclear weapons. Barry records the assembly of the crew, the long journey from Northland, and their reception in the test zone; when The Fri was boarded and impounded by French military he had to hide his camera in a barrel of oranges.

• Documentary
• War

In the Theatre of the Gogs (2021)

A contemplation of art and adventure in the southern wilds of New Zealand by both a landscape photographer and an adventure filmmaker. This film is the unexpected result of their two unique perspectives.

• Adventure
• Documentary

Picturesque New Zealand (1952)

This Traveltalk series short visit to New Zealand starts in Auckland, a bustling, modern city. Next is Christchurch, home of Canterbury University, where rowing teams participate in a regatta. Nearby is Lake Wakatipu, which inspires artists to put their impressions on canvas. We then visit Rotorua, a city famous for its geysers, hot springs, bubbling mud pools, and other geothermal activity. At Ferry Springs there is lots of trout for fishing. Later, a group of natives performs a canoe dance.

• Documentary

Hot Air (2014)

In the years since New Zealand politicians began to grapple with climate change our greenhouse gas emissions have burgeoned. Alister Barry’s doco draws on TV archives and interviews with key participants to find out why.

• Documentary

Pirates of the Airwaves (2014)

In 1966 a group of determined young men defied the New Zealand government and launched a pirate radio station aboard a ship in the Hauraki Gulf.

• Documentary
• Drama
• TV Movie

Set In Stone (2017)

The race to save the world's only dedicated Māori World War One Memorial from collapse reveals an unknown soldier's heroic story to the community he was once part of.

• Documentary
• War