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Over Here

Television (Full Length) – 1992

At any one time between mid 1942 and mid 1944, between 15,000 and 45,000 US servicemen were camped in NZ preparing for, and recovering from, war in the Pacific. The marines brought colour and drama to the austerity of home front life. Fifty years later this TV documentary used interviews, reenactments and archive material to explore the “American invasion”. Sonja Davies recalls a Wellington street fight kicked off by a racist insult directed at Māori, and her wartime pregnancy and romance (1,500 marriages ensued from “when the Americans were here”).

They were quite a sexy lot, the yanks!
– A Kiwi sheila remembers

Produced by

Miranda Productions

Acknowledgements

Made with funding from NZ On Air

Music

Includes music performed by the Queen City Big Band, Carmel Carroll and Moya Rea.