From the icons (Sky Tower, Otara Market, Rangitoto, The Bridge), celebs, clans and stereotypes (Jafas), to the streets (Queen St, K Road), and Super City suburbs (Ferndale, Mt Raskill, Morningside), this collection celebrates Auckland onscreen. Reel through the moods and the multicultural, metro, muggy charms of New Zealand’s largest city. In this backgrounder, No. 2 director Toa Fraser writes about Auckland as a place of myth, diversity and broken jaws.

This National Film Unit travelogue, produced for the NZ Government Department of Tourist and Health Resorts, finds post-war Auckland basking in sunshine. Flowers bloom in parks and gardens, city streets bustle and public swimming pools are packed. Trams and flying boats are a reminder of a by-gone era in the city's transportation while a rug factory is a colourful if unexpected inclusion. Last stop is a visit to Kawau Island — home of Governor Grey's Mansion House — where the sun also shines and aquaplaning, sports and bush walks are the order of the day.

By the mid 1980s Auckland had shifted from city of sails, to city of cranes. In the lead-up to the 1987 sharemarket crash, it was in the grip of "an unprecedented building boom". This 1986 Kaleidoscope report looks at the demolition and development from an architectural angle, as malls and mirror glass transform the city. Interviewees include developer Seph Glew of the (ill-fated) Chase Corporation, and his architects. Architecture critic Mark Wigley rates the BNZ Tower an "insult", but says Auckland's "crude" new buildings have at least provoked debate about what the city needs. 

Reporter Neil Roberts ventures into South Auckland in this TVNZ documentary, and finds two rapidly growing but very different communities. Otara and Mangere are becoming New Zealand’s industrial powerhouse, but a huge influx of Māori and Pacific Island workers and their families are struggling to adapt in a brand new city that was farmland just decades earlier, and lacks amenities for its new citizens. Meanwhile, to the east, Howick and Pakuranga are also booming but their more upwardly mobile, prosperous and very Pākehā citizens seem to be living in a world of their own.

At the time of this 1984 interview with Catherine Tizard, Auckland had just been announced as host for the 1990 Commonwealth Games. Weekend's Terry Carter interviews the city’s mayor on her preparation plans: covering commercialism, chauvinism, Treaty of Waitangi, tourism, and a proposed All Blacks tour to South Africa (“it won’t help”). Tizard defends the controversial Aotea Centre and talks about family sacrifices she's made for the mayoral job. ‘Dame Cath’ was the first female Mayor of Auckland, and went on to be New Zealand’s first female Governor-General.

Subtitled 'Waiting for Summer', this Radio with Pictures report looks at live pop music in Auckland in 1982. Chris Knox, Graham Brazier, Hammond Gamble, Ian Morris, Peter Urlich, Michael O'Neill (The Screaming Meemees) and Tony Waine (The Narcs) muse on everything from Auckland vs Wellington, oldies vs youth, to the weather’s impact on songs, and the lack of venues. There are visits to The Gluepot and Urlich’s A Certain Bar. Label directors, booking agents and managers give their (mostly downbeat) take on the state of the scene. Rip It Up editor Murray Cammick talks lyrics.

In May 1871 Auckland became a city. One hundred years later reporter Hamish Keith looks back to see how Auckland developed and ahead to where it is going. In 1971 600,000 people lived in the greater Auckland area and it was rapidly expanding. Keith notes volcanoes, tribal war, pioneers, "booze and butter" booms, problematic bridges, PI influence, cars and suburbia; and muses on Auckland’s “marching to its own drum” spirit. Anticipating Super City angst, then-Auckland mayor Sir Dove-Myer Robinson frets that sprawling unruly Auckland is a city in search of a soul.

In this 1986 Kaleidoscope piece, presenter Mark Wigley offers his take on grand designs in Auckland housing. Fresh from completing a doctorate at Auckland University in architectural theory, Wigley argues that New Zealand has "had a building tradition rather than an architectural tradition". He finds that contemporary houses (from a David Mitchell-designed house in Parnell, to a Paritai Drive mansion) are starting to explore potential beyond simple boxes, toward being works of art. Wigley went on to become Dean of Architecture at Columbia University in the United States.

This episode of the Sticky Pictures’ arts show covers a 13 July 2008 concert that combined the musical talents of the Little Bushman with composer John Psathas and the Auckland Philharmonia. Trinity Roots alumnus Warren Maxwell is the frontman for Little Bushman and is a behind-the-scenes guide as they prepare their trademark psychedelic blues for Psathas (Olympics 2004 opening ceremony score composer) to wrangle for orchestral collaboration. Philharmonia met harmonica in one-off gig at Auckland Town Hall. The doco was directed by Mark Albiston.

It’s possible that Auckland’s early 60s urban growth has never seemed bigger, brighter or bolder than it does in this breathless NFU newsreel. As the city encroaches ever further into the countryside, suburbs blossom and improved roads, motorways and the new harbour bridge keep the citizenry moving. In the CBD, construction is booming with a 23 storey civic centre on the way up and an obsession with bigger and better parking buildings. Improved infrastructure is also demanded — with upgrades to ports, railways, telephone exchanges and sewage facilities.