This is the final episode of the pioneering Kiwi soap. TV One’s Hearte family saga achieved enormous popularity during its eight year run, and provided a training ground for a generation of screen talent. But by 1982 Close to Home’s characters were aging or departed, and the show faced competition from American youth-focused fare (eg Fame, The Six Million Dollar Man). With this 818th episode it was time for moving house, nostalgic re-caps, for The Seekers’ ‘Carnival is Over’ to score the opening credits, and for Tom (John Bach) to stub out his last ciggie and write the ending.

In 2012 a number of state houses were relocated from Glen Innes in Auckland to Kaitaia, making way for property developers. A Place to Call Home follows two women at odds with each other, both railing for positive change. Betty Kanuta is an evicted tenant, leading protests against the destruction of her community. Fleur Palmer is purchasing some of the state houses to build a Māori housing development, to help poor families in Kaitaia. Director Briar March's documentary debuted on Māori Television in 2014 as Whare Tapa Whā, before being expanded into a feature-length cut.

Intergenerational warfare, mad aunts, bored teens, affairs, abortions and the ache of regret are on the menu in place of sausage rolls in Home Movie. A christening is the crux around which a family does its best to pull apart at the seams. Performances and a script attuned to the details of domestic disturbance don't hold back (America's Funniest Home Videos this ain't). Directed and written by Fiona Samuel, it was part of TV One's Montana Sunday Drama series. It won best actor, actress and TV drama at the 1998 NZ Film and TV Awards. Samuel writes about making Home Movie here.

This documentary explores the stories of the people who live at Waiorua Bay on bird sanctuary Kāpiti Island. John Barrett talks about his Kāpiti tīpuna, from bloody iwi battles, whaling and farming, to his whānau's consciousness of their kaitiakitanga (guardianship) role. It looks at DIY island life (exercycle-powered water pumps) and its development as an unique eco-tourism destination where kākā parrots and kererū flock, and kiwi and dodo-like takahē wander freely. Says Amo Barrett: "we've got a treasure here that we should share with others".

Poet Hone Tuwhare was born in the far north, near Kaikohe, but forced by poverty to leave as a child. "75 years after Hone Glenn Colquhoun (doctor, poet, Tuwhare fan) wrote a poem in the Listener inviting him back." Hone accepted the invitation and this documentary is a record of his March 2002 Hokianga homecoming, taking in song, readings and plenty of laughs and kai moana. Silver-haired Tuwhare is irresistible, crooning Sinatra, charming school children with bawdy jokes or channelling the fire of his most famous poem: "For this is no mere axe to blunt!"

“How could I capture a New Zealand home in three minutes? Could I make a film without relying on standard documentary conventions of interview, cutaways and narration?” Inspired by the idea of making a more reflective, meditative piece for viewers watching on computers or phones, filmmaker Andrew Scott uses a single shot to move through a Kiwi summer home. There’s no one home but the minutiae of sound — from cicadas to the Mr Whippy tune — evoke the life of the place. Homing was made as part of Loading Docs, a series of short films designed for viewing online. 

Take Home Pay marks the third self-funded feature for writer/director SQS. Three Wise Cousins and Hibiscus and Ruthless both proved popular with audiences and critics. This 'action comedy' focusses on Samoan brothers Popo (Ronnie Taulafo) and Alama (Vito Vito) who ditch the taro fields of home for the promise of big money, picking kiwifruit in Aotearoa. When Popo steals their wages and goes AWOL, Alama calls on his relative, unorthodox private investigator Bob Titilo (ex Laughing Samoan Tofiga Fepulea'i) to help track his brother down. Magnum P.I. he ain't.

Home by Christmas sees Gaylene Preston returning to the hidden stories of ordinary New Zealanders. Inspired by attempts to get her father Ed to reveal his WWII experiences, this finely-balanced docu-drama moves between three strands: Preston’s father (Goodbye Pork Pie's Tony Barry, in a Qantas award-winning performance) retelling his story; recreations of Ed’s wartime OE; and life for the woman he left behind in Greymouth. The dream cast sees Preston’s own daughter Chelsie Preston Crayford playing Preston's mother Tui, alongside Martin Henderson.

In this dark short film, an isolated rural idyll is spoiled when a farmhand (Craig Hall) gets ideas above his station. There will be blood in the barn as the interloper puts new meaning into dirty dairying, and upturns the lives of farmer Ken (Ross Harper), his wife (Sara Wiseman) and Ken’s simple sibling (Leighton Cardno). Director Andrew Bancroft’s earlier short Planet Man (an award-winner at Cannes) was set in a dark future; Home Kill takes the dystopia to the heartland with gothic horror glee, depicting farm life in a way that is unlikely to be endorsed by Fonterra.

In this 2010 Tagata Pasifika story, reporter Adrian Stevanon follows efforts by a group of Pacific Island mariners to preserve the traditions and skills of the great Polynesian voyagers — as an armada of canoes from the Cook Islands, Tahiti, Fiji and Aotearoa takes to the seas of Te Moananui a Kiwa (the Pacific Ocean). Stevanon has zero sailing hours when he joins the Pan-Pacific crew of Hine Moana in the Cook Islands, en route to Samoa. Unsure “if this city boy can handle the high seas”, he takes time to find his sea legs, but eventually gets on the foi (tiller) and into ‘vaka mode’.