Discoveries from New Zealand World Cinema

A small town is consumed by a missing person case.

Tyrannical Love is a film about the quirkiness of life and love when you are no longer a kid but not quite an adult. There is something for everyone in this ensemble piece about a close knit group of friends and the events that take place on New Years 1999. Most people believe that finding love is the greatest thing than can ever hapen to you, but some believe it is nothing but a fascist dictator that rules over your life.

Costa Rica, New Zealand, Hong Kong,Hawaii. Through the testimonies of 12 women, the issues of marriage, traditional conventions, being attracted to women and having children are addressed. How to break with traditional patterns, how to accept one's feelings of love when they are are directed towards a person of the same sex? So many serious subjects approached here with lightness. The documentary walks us and takes us towards these women who inevitably speak a little about about us.

A common garden snail's high speed adventure to cross a road for a feast of lettuce.

A young soldier’s memories of his dead mate haunt him, or is it the Siren calling him?

A son returns home to help is mother get her affairs in order.

On the day she gets her first menses, Hinekura is initiated into adulthood with ceremony and blessings. She's taken to a wananga where her role within the tribe is revealed to her.

To celebrate the release of The Hobbit, two Lord of the Rings super-fans attempt to walk over 120 miles across New Zealand from the filming location of Hobbiton to the real life Mount Doom in only six days.

At the age of fourteen, Tihei Harawira found his own unique way to connect with others – through freestyle rapping. Set in the vibrant world of the Otara Markets, amongst a community that has embraced Tihei, this film is an uplifting and inspiring look at a humble young man who has turned every challenge that he has faced into a positive.

Follow Mason and Chris as they discover something sinister lurking in their TV.

Don Brash stepped down as leader of the National Party in November 2006, the day before the release of investigative journalist, Nicky Hager's book ‘The Hollow Men’. Award-winning documentary maker Alister Barry (‘Someone Else's Country’, ‘In a Land of Plenty’) brings this exposé of behind-the-scenes politics in an all-too-real political thriller. Based on thousands of confidential emails, reports and memos written by Bash and his closest advisers, ‘The Hollow Men’ is an extraordinary story of unprincipled and anti-democratic politics.

New Zealand artist Michael Smither revisits two unfinished paintings and scores a lament for the Pike River miners. As he paints, he provides straightforward and illuminating commentary on technique and intention.

Sage’s world is riffled with an anxiety disorder that impedes all elements of her life. We follow her journey of isolation and raw existence. She's well practised at suppressing all signs of the illness but on a trip away with friends, her best friend becomes the catalyst for change.

This black and white short film (with hardboiled voiceover) follows canine filmmaker Quinn Hud to the dog-eat-dog world of the Cannes Film Festival to sell his latest work.

On a typical weekday, 14-year-old Glenn sprints to his after school job, delivering milk bottles up and down the suburban streets of Newtown, Wellington. This film follows Glenn and fellow milk boy Todd as they engage in a friendly race to deliver their crates first.

.TV is a found footage essay film: Voicemails left by an anonymous caller from the future guide us to the remote islands of Tuvalu, a place the global media has described as “the first country to disappear due to rising sea levels”. Surrounded by thousands of miles of open water, much of Tuvalu’s revenue comes from its country-code web extension .TV, a popular domain choice among global video-streaming and television industries. The caller describes how heat, digital screens, and distance gave him no choice but to leave his sinking home and escape into cyberspace where rising waters will never reach him.

John is left on the boat to fend for his life while Amy takes a trip to the shops.

The collective voices of whānau, hapu, and iwi gather in Te Kaha to reclaim Mātauranga Māori. This is their way of life.

In September 1982, the city of Chicago was swept with paranoia after it was revealed that a lethal dose of potassium cyanide was found laced inside the miracle drug, Tylenol. In this fictional re-telling of the story, we follow a character who, moments after taking Tylenol, finds out about the poisoning. We see what could be his final moments, in a sensitive and emotional character driven piece.

Live At The Void captures the DIY nature of the local music scene, with full sets filmed at a Mount Roskill flat during a 21st birthday bash. Featuring Neither Do I, Park Flyers, CCTV, and 花溪 Flowerstream, this concert film is a modern snapshot of the Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland City indie scene. It blends performance with on-screen commentary from film-makers Corey Fuimaono and Liam Hansen.

A lone tui bird must find her lost voice to speak up against her adoptive magpie family before they start a war.

The impressive firepower and fearsome reputation of the cobra family that rules the wilds of Africa and Asia.

A young mother struggling with the pressures of study and a dysfunctional relationship finds comfort in the make-believe world she shares with her daughter.

Ruarangi is a thriller set in the early 1800s. It begins with a young and mischievous Māori man, Ruarangi who flees his father's anger and soon finds himself a captive on a tall-ship heading to England.

This is the story of Puhi, an aged Maori woman and Niki, her fully grown but wholly dependent son. The world they occupy is not a world of large events but the rituals of everyday life, traditions and interdependence. “In Spring One Plants Alone” documents the minutiae of their very enclosed existence. Filmed over a period of one and a half years, it emerges as a rare, haunting and powerful portrayal of their life together. This is the story of their rituals and of their survival. The small and disconnected instances that we encounter form a lone vision of the rifts and the bond between an old woman and her disturbed son.

"Drip, release, in complete memory focuses on an adorned feminine hand as it delicately moves around the rim of a wine glass, creating and manipulating a resonant sound. The glass swirls consistently, set atop a hidden turntable. The hypnotic, droning tone from the glass draws focus to the physical gestures. They’re stilted, unsure and tentative. This dance of the wrist and fingers is in reference to the clunky and sometimes difficult learning associated with transitioning. Female associated behaviours are internalised at a much younger age for cis women than they are for a trans women, this works speaks to the process of learning that I am currently within." - Artist's statement

A look inside the bondage scene in Auckland, New Zealand, where professional dominatrixes discuss the therapeutic and theatrical aspects of sadomasochism.

With the end of a floundering adventure in sight, neither grandfather nor grandchild are quite ready to part ways. They depend on one another to stave off mundanity. For grandpa, that means living alone; for Charlie, school.

Fourteen-year-old George has to find her own way to celebrate her birthday when everyone else forgets it.

A dramatization of the events at Gallipoli using the letters of the soldiers who were there.

New Zealand-born Margot Nash scrutinises the memories and mementoes of her childhood to understand the unhappiness of her parents, and the corrosive instability of the household from which she fled as a young woman in the early 70s.

Gain exclusive insight into the lives of elite athletes with disabilities, as six Kiwi contenders work relentlessly to qualify for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.

When Cardboard City catches fire, it's up to an energetic fire chief and his brave deputies to save its citizens from the encroaching flames.

How a South Pacific love song touched hearts around the world.

Filmmaker unknown. One of the few tinted silent films in the Archives New Zealand holdings, this film was part of a series completed by the NZ Government Tourist and Publicity Department. This episode depicts weaving with harakeke and the creation of a piupiu.

Paul Wolffram’s urgent documentary takes us into the remote highlands of Papua New Guinea and one indigenous woman’s fight against the insidious influence of sanguma – sorcery violence.

A close-knit family bond over food, mahjong, and a prime minister.

A tragic portrait of mother and child exploring grief through music and lyrical imagery.

A long overdue documentary tribute to one of nation’s best loved songwriters, charting Don McGlashan’s storied career from arty punk upstart to one of the strongest voices in the chorus of Aotearoa’s national identity.

A group of friends get together at an abandoned building to take drugs. After a short moment of fun, everything starts to go wrong when the group starts acting differently.

Two gamer geeks are forced to have an adventure in the real world after one of them has their scooter and phone stolen whilst delivering pizzas.

To six-year-old Ben, the world is full of loud noises and frightening images. As Ben struggles with everyday life, his mother searches desperately to find a way to help her son; an immersive short film about how a takiwātanga (autistic) child sees and hears the world.

Australian outlaw Ned Kelly and his gang face off against law enforcement, led by the diligent Standish O'Connor.

depicted events in New Zealand history, including ancient Maori wars, Captain Cook's landing and the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi.

In a quiet dream, a housewife lives a peaceful life in nature with her cat. She is jolted awake by the harsh drone of her husband mowing the lawn. The relentless chorus of lawn mowers operated by the husbands on her street grows increasingly unbearable.

Trapped in the gaming world, a kiwi-Asian boy races against time to reach reality. Dire consequences await.

Documentation of live Expanded Cinema performance.

Merata Mita, Leon Narbey and Gerd Pohlmann’s powerful documentary Bastion Point: Day 507 depicts the eviction of protestors from Bastion Point during the struggle for Māori land rights.

Seven young adults learn to stand up to their parents through a confrontational new workshop.

A documentary showcasing a group of young Maori musicians and their rise to fame, along with the struggles that come from success at a young age.

Twenty-something Kate and Jeremy contemplate love and commitment in the face of an approaching separation.

Sequel to the 2023 film Inky Pinky Ponky

A lonely, misanthropic scientist gets a crash-course in social niceties after his homunculus is exposed to size-changing goo and escapes.

A young stag, lacking impressive antlers, must improvise with sweet music in order to have any chance during the mating season.

The story of Māori-Pakeha relationships during the New Zealand Land Wars. Styles and themes are borrowed from 1920s filmmaking whilst the content is reinterpreted for a 1980s perspective.

Max is a small boy with a big imagination. Him and his Dad form a tight knit crew. But when Dad gets a new girlfriend, Max must find a way to confront this new menace before she steals his dad forever.

This is the story of Bella, a defiantly proud transsexual and part-time tattooist, whose mere presence arouses the ire of one of the prison guards. But the guard's taunts are more complicated than they appear.

Brently Ford had a life-changing moment 30 years ago when he was given a brain to hold at the Richard Faull's Centre of Brain Research. From then on he made it his mission to make sure his brain is donated to Sir Richard Faull when he passes away. There is only one slight snag; he lives on his own on Waiheke Island.