This high-rating 1999 documentary follows Gary McCormick to Ireland to investigate "those strands which tie" Kiwis to the Emerald Isle, from Dublin to the north, where his forebears originated in the 1870s. He meets locals, (musicians, tinkers, playwrights, scuba divers) and Kiwi expats, and talks The Troubles, Celtic Tigers, and why Irish emigrated to Aotearoa. Irish Connection was another collaboration between McCormick and director Bruce Morrison (Heartland, Raglan by the Sea). Companion title The London Connection saw McCormick examining Kiwi links to London. 

After being spotted performing for tourists in Rotorua, 11-year-old Temuera Morrison was given his very first starring role in this British TV series, shot downunder by expat Kiwi director Michael Forlong. In this clip, Rangi (Morrison) and co have adventures with sharks, crayfish and a stranded sheep near their remote South Island farm. Meanwhile two robbers (Ian Mune and Michael Woolf) sneak into the house. The scene is set for crims and and children to chase each other all the way to Rotorua. The series was seen in New Zealand cinemas in a shortened movie version.

Tom Gould’s short film documents the life of Martyka ‘Skin’ Brandt — Mongrel Mob gangster, speedway driver and devoted solo father to 10 children (four of his own, six fostered). Brandt was a rare Pākehā who joined the Mob in the 70s. His stereotype-defying life spans escaping from Sunnyside mental institution as a teen, violence and ‘Mongrelism’, then transformation via parenthood. NYC-based Kiwi Gould filmed Skin in Brandt’s Napier home. Skin won international attention as a Vimeo Staff Pick, Short of the Week, and selection in Dazed magazine’s ‘Doc X’ strand.

Contact was introduced as TV2’s slot for local documentaries when TVNZ was established in 1980. At 7pm on Monday nights, it featured 30 minute programmes made both in-house and by independent producers. Multiple episode series within the strand included historian Les Cleveland’s archive based Not So Long Ago, and Ian Taylor Adventures, where the former Spot On presenter tried his hand at various extreme sports. The Contact brand was transferred to TV1 in 1981, as TV2 began to move towards more of an entertainment focus.  

This promo, directed by Simon Ward, showcases a single from Wellington’s Disasteradio. The bespectacled "D-rad" broadcasts a soup of synth-pop from the safety of his bedroom bunker via walkie talkie to his bandit girl, stranded outside in a post apocalyptic landscape. She fends off zombie marauders after her dog; he eats - and gets infected by - a pizza ... and talks to his hand. And his hand talks back.

This popular C4 series counted down 100 moments in New Zealand music history, scouring the archives en route to number one. Taken from episode three, this musical moment covers the time bands Hello Sailor and Dragon shared digs. Musos Graham Brazier and Todd Hunter, alongside music writer John Dix (Stranded in Paradise), provide the goss on the early 70s 'Ponsonby Rock' scene revolving around Mandrax Mansion — where members of the bands lived, played and partied hard. Brazier quotes lyrics from an unrecorded song about the then working class suburb.

Pioneering series Pukemanu (the NZBC’s first continuing drama) was set in a North Island timber town. Its portrait of the town’s folk offered an archetypal screen image that Kiwis could relate to: rural, bi-cultural, boozy and blokey; viewers and reviewers praised its Swannie-clad authenticity. This first episode sees a culture clash as a motorcycle gang (including a young Bruno Lawrence) comes to town and causes trouble, running Ray (Geoff Murphy) off the road; and stranded townie Diana (Ginette McDonald) falls in love with a local axeman while hunting.

With the establishment of TVNZ in 1980, Lookout was introduced as TV1’s local documentary slot featuring 45 minute programmes on Friday nights. The series didn’t have a unifying theme but, instead, featured work made in-house and independently (with the latter including a number of NFU productions). As well as documentaries, Lookout also included a number of episodes of Trial Run where juries of everyday people examined current issues. In 1981, TV1’s documentary strand was renamed Contact but it returned sporadically as Lookout in 1982. 

This was a series of stand-alone documentaries that examined the work of some of New Zealand’s iconic visual artists. Commissioned from some of NZ’s best producers and directors, Work of Art was the result of a funding initiative from NZ On Air. With slightly more generous budgets and a broad creative brief, the Work of Art series gave our more accomplished television and film practitioners a canvas for their own art. This was a forerunner to the Artsville and Festival documentary strands.

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.