In the late 90s Kiwi treasures The Topp Twins (aka Lynda and Jools Topp) created their own TV series. Over three seasons it showcased their iconic cast of Kiwi characters and singing and yodelling talents. These excerpts from the second season feature a country and western saloon musical dream sequence (with fluffy pink slippers, feather boas and sharpshooters and car sharks in drag). Meanwhile Camp Mother and Ken Moller compete at the speedway in a bambina and a Hillman Hunter respectively.

National treasures The Topp Twins (aka twins Lynda and Jools Topp) have performed as a country-music singing comedy duo for more than 25 years. In the late 1990s they created their own award-winning TV series which ran for three seasons. It showcased their iconic cast of Kiwi characters, including Camp Mother, the Bowling Ladies and cross-dressing Ken and Ken. This episode from the third and final series features the twins in their many guises enjoying an afternoon at the Waipu Highland Games. "Look at the leather work in that sporran!" 

National treasures twins Lynda and Jools Topp have served up their distinctive mixture of comedy and country music for more than three decades. In the late 90s the twins starred in their own TV series, which ran for three seasons and showcased their iconic cast of Kiwi characters. These excerpts from series one feature a Topp day at the beach where a beefy Mount Maunganui lifeguard rubs lotion onto Lynda's body. Meanwhile Camp Leader competes in a Tauranga triathlon. Her unconventional swimsuit includes a neon pink buoyancy aid, and jelly sandals for running shoes.

Part concept film, part biopic, part historical record and part comedy, Leanne Pooley’s documentary was made to mark the Topp Twins' 50th birthday. New Zealand's favourite comedic, country singing, dancing and yodeling lesbian twin sisters tell their personal story: from their 'coming out' to Jools' brush with breast cancer. The film features archive material, home movies and interviews with the Topps' alter egos. Alongside local box office success and dozens of international awards, Girls won the People’s Choice award for favourite documentary at the 2009 Toronto Film Festival.

The 'art star' is renowned contemporary artist Vanessa Beecroft; this film follows her from Africa to New York and Europe in her efforts to adopt two orphaned Sudanese twins. How the process impacts on her art and personal life, and the contradictions of her mission, are provokingly documented by director Pietra Brettkelly. Art Star won best doco, director and editing at 2009's Qantas Film and TV Awards and was selected for multiple festivals, including Sundance. LA Times: "a brutally honest, remarkably self-critical reflection on foreign adoption".

'Our people' at Holmes' 1997 Christmas party included tearaway teenage twins Sarah and Joanne Ingham. Earlier that year the sisters had stowed away on a Malaysian container ship after Sarah had fallen for a sailor. The 18-year-olds made global headlines when they jumped overboard off the Queensland coast, supposedly swam through shark and croc-infested waters and spent two weeks in the bush, before being found and deported back to Nelson. As Holmes tries to elicit soundbites the notorious lasses display the laconic style that made them Kiwi folk heroes.

Twins are afflicted with a strange power: the power to make others stare. Presented by singer Jackie Clarke, herself a twin, this documentary grabs a fascinating topic with both hands. Among those interviewed are two sets of twins who are romantically involved, a family with twin sets of twins, and an uncanny pair of older women whose thoughts seem to run in tandem, every time they turn up on screen. There is talk of the close relationships twins have, identical medical misaventures, tricks paid on the unsuspecting, and how fathers are often less able to tell twins apart.

In director Garth Maxwell’s 1993 gothic horror twins Jack and Dora (late US actor Alexis Arquette and Kiwi Sarah Smuts-Kennedy) are separated while young; their adult reunion sees them battling the trauma of their past while being pursued by Jack’s sadistic step sisters. Complete with ESP, and a steam-driven hypnosis machine, Maxwell makes an exuberant and surreal contribution to the cinema of unease. New York Times’ Stephen Holden lauded the heady head-spinner as “a superior genre film” with a “feverish intensity that recalls scenes from Hitchcock and De Palma.” 

Maurice Gee's classic novel about aliens running amok under Auckland has rarely gone out of print, since its debut in 1979. First adapted as a memorable 80s TV series, this movie retooling sees teenage twins Theo and Rachel stumbling across shape-shifting creatures that are hiding beneath Auckland's extinct volcanoes. American showbiz magazine Variety praised Black Sheep director Jonathan King's "solid helming", and the excellent acting of Sam Neill as the mysterious Mr Jones. Oliver Driver plays lead villain Mr Wilberforce, under four hours of make-up.

This full-length documentary gives warm-spirited context to the song that has been the soundtrack to countless back lawn crate parties and freezing works chains (watch the credits). It was released as the B-side of singer Engelbert Humperdinck's Please Release Me, and became an unlikely hit in Aotearoa with fans who have done the "dance, dance, dance ...": including Dalvanius (who discusses its "pop-schlock" charms), Bunny Walters, The Topp Twins, and a special group of ten guitarists. The documentary also explores why "the national anthem of Patea" is so appealing to Māori.