When Night Falls is a mystery thriller involving an isolated house, a dark night and an unseen killer. Tania Nolan (Go Girls, The Hothouse) takes centre stage as a 30s-era nurse with a soft spot for her only patient (Kevin Keys, from The Blue Rose). But as darkness falls she finds herself facing off against a killer on the loose, who is seemingly out to play games with her mind. The full length film marks the feature debut of writer/director Alex Galvin (Eternity). Galvin took on multiple roles behind the scenes, some under assumed names; he also cameos early on, as a doctor.

In this documentary, artist Helen Pollock discusses her sculpture Falls the Shadow. Using clay from the Coromandel and the Passchendaele (Netherlands) battlefield, she created a grove of arms reaching up against a background of trees stripped bare by gunfire in World War I. The work was inspired by her father, a wartime signaller. Pollock discusses her installation and the effect of combat on New Zealand troops in the war (846 Kiwis died in two hours during the 1917 battle of Passchendaele). The work is now on permanent display at Passchendaele Memorial Museum.

Described as a “tour of duty at knee height” this short film sees a bunch of boys playing war games confronting reality on a rural New Zealand ‘battlefield’. Actor turned director Murray Keane described the film as an atonement for putting a rubbish bin atop a local war memorial when he was a boy. It was nominated for Best Film and Best Script at the Nokia NZ Film Awards. The young cast includes Daniel Logan (young Boba Fett in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones) Tyler Read (Shortland Street’s Evan Cooper) and Elliot Lawless (The Bridge of Terabithia).

Gerard Smyth's acclaimed documentary about the Christchurch earthquakes is the story of people coping — for better or worse — with the huge physical and emotional toll that the quakes, and continuing aftershocks, inflicted on them, their homes and their city. It began as a home movie while the devastation of September was surveyed (with thanks given that no-one had been killed); but, as shooting of the recovery continued, the February quake compounded the destruction and claimed 182 lives (including their researcher and 16 colleagues at CTV).

In July 1998 Shortland Street added a tragically memorable entry to its catalogue of births, deaths and marriages. Pregnant nurse and fan favourite Tiffany (Alison James) is out shopping, when she sees suicidal patient Tim (Kelson Henderson) heading for the roof of a high rise. She races up the stairs and successfully talks him down, but then she falls. Knowing she is badly injured and brain-dead, her husband Johnny Marinovich (Stelios Yiakmis) has to make the difficult choice between letting her go, or keeping her on life support until their baby is born. 

The making of this Anika Moa video arguably puts the singer's heady early rise in a nutshell. American label Atlantic Records flew an executive down to New Zealand to monitor proceedings, and ensure that the singer looked as slim on screen as possible. Moa and director Justin Pemberton came up with the idea of Moa lusting after every male she passes. The taxi is driven by actor Antony Starr (before Outrageous Fortune). As for Moa, she soon returned home from the US. A local top five hit, the song ended up on the soundtrack of Julia Roberts romance America’s Sweethearts.

As a showcase history of Christchurch on screen this collection is backwards looking; but the devastation caused by the earthquakes gives it much more than nostalgic poignancy. As Russell Brown reflects in his introduction, the clips are mementos from, "a place whose face has changed". They testify to the buildings, culture and life of a city now lost, but sure to rise. 

It started with grunge and ended with Spice Girls; Di died, Clinton didn't inhale and the All Blacks were poisoned. On screen, Ice TV and Havoc were for the kids and a grown-up Kiwi cinema delivered a powerful triple punch. Tua's linguistic jab proved just as memorable, Tem got a geography lesson and Thingee's eye popped and reverberated around our living rooms.

This collection looks at some of New Zealand's most significant national tragedies. Spanning 150+ years, it tells stories of drama, caution, hope and recovery — from the 1863 wreck of the Orpheus at Manukau Heads, to Tarawera, the Wahine, Erebus, Pike River and Christchurch. In the backgrounder, Jock Phillips writes about the collection, and the "common sequence" to disaster.

In this short off-beat romance, Penelope (Anna Kennedy), a temp and unpublished romance novelist, discovers that in order to find love, she has to find herself. Combining fact and fantasy Penelope goes on a quirky quest to write her own love story: from dating, to group therapy, to a 'man rack' that memorably visualises Penelope's tendencies towards the fictional. Veterans Ginette McDonald (Penelope's agent) and Jed Brophy (a short date) are included amongst the supporting cast. Darryn Exists won an honourable mention at Nashville Film Festival.