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By NZ On Screen Team
Three years of NZ screen culture = 1,500,000 visits (now 75,000 a month), a Qantas Media Award and 1700+ titles. This collection honours our Top 10 most-watched titles (to Jan 2012). There's something for everyone in the sampler pack of NZ On Screen goodness: from Gloss to Billy T, Snell to Patu!, to motorheads, meat-eater mountain parrots, and market-mad future-Prime Ministers.
This Ian Taylor-produced doco on John Britten ("the New Zealander who stood the world of racing-motorcycle design on its head", Guggenheim curator Ultan Guilfoyle) is our all-time most-watched title inspiring 50,000+ views, and connecting with racing communities from Slovenia to Southland.
Our second most-watched title ever, this NHNZ award-winner went viral overnight courtesy of a mention on BoingBoing.net. Over 23,000 have checked out night footage that reveals the usually delightfully inventive kea, starved and in horror movie mode eating live sheep (clip four).
Exploring the tragic glory of the need for speed this acclaimed doco about motorcyclist Kim Newcombe (who turned heads in the 70s on a König motorbike he developed himself before being killed racing) proved an instant hit with international bike racing fans, revving up DVD sales and 20,000+ views.
Fourth on the list with 18,000 views, this NFU film tells Snell's story up to just prior to his double Olympic triumph at Tokyo, 1964. Priceless footage of Snell, Halberg et al running in the Waiatarua hills, and of legendary coach Arthur Lydiard, has connected with running communities worldwide.
Merata Mita’s startling record of the mass civil disobedience that took place in the winter of 1981 — protesting the South African rugby tour and apartheid regime — is a landmark in NZ film history. Able to be widely seen for the first time via NZ On Screen, it’s been watched 17,000+ times.
This intriguing 80s time capsule follows the life of a 'forex' dealer: 25-year-old squash-playing accountancy grad, John Key. The trademark grin of "smiling assassin" and future Prime Minister is already salient amidst the heady young cowboys playing for Porsches, fortunes, and ... waterbeds.
This selection of Billy T's classic TV skits is seventh on the all-time list, and was 2011's most-watched runner-up on the back of a feature-length Billy T telly-drama and doco release. There's Te News, the first contact gags, Turangi Vice, and the priceless "where'd you get your bag?" ad spoof.
Freestyle skiers perform a 70s 'ski ballet' at Mount Hutt, Queenstown and Ruapehu. Eighth on the list (15,000+ views) this doco was made by Sam Neill (shortly to find fame as an actor); it features awesome jumps and (more dated!) interpretive moves, with retro beards, sunnies and jumpsuits galore.
More way-we-were fascination continues to drive punters to the Redfern family saga and 80s classic: our ninth most-watched title of all-time. Yuppies, Sony Walkman, shoulder-pads and methode champenoise abound ... "Here we come and we are sailing" (as the infamous America's Cup campaign song warbled).
Six Māori Battalion soldiers camped in Italian ruins wait in silence during a pause in fighting; the bros-in-arms distract themselves with jokes before they return to the fray. From Boy director Taika Waititi, the award-winning short film has been watched 12,500 times on NZ On Screen.
Celebrate 50 years of telly in New Zealand with this selection of landmarks on the box: from Thingee’s eye-pop to Goodnight Kiwi. Watch >
Is there a classic television show, documentary, film or music video you’d like to see represented on NZ On Screen? Email us.
NZ ON SCREEN 2013
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