The first movie from Otara-based Pele Nili — aka musician Siavani — is the music heavy story of a man trying to do right by his family and his community. After tragedy hits his family, Solomon (played by Nili) returns to the neighbourhood he grew up in, and makes it his mission to ensure his brothers and other local youth don’t make his mistakes. Originally filmed in Manukau in 2010, the "likeable, and often completely loveable" (Stuff's Graeme Tuckett) movie was self-funded — and inspired by workshops Nili ran in South Auckland, that provided training in the arts.

Auckland Museum's Volume exhibition told the story of Kiwi pop music. It's time to turn the speakers up to 11, for NZ On Screen's biggest collection yet. Turning Up the Volume showcases NZ music and musicians. Drill down into playlists of favourite artists and topics (look for the orange labels). Plus NZOS Content Director Kathryn Quirk on NZ music on screen. 

This NZ Music Month collection showcases NZ music television, spun from a playlist of classic documentaries and beloved music shows. From Split Enz to the NZSO, Heavenly Pop Hits to Hip Hop New Zealand, whether you count the beat or roll like this, there’s something here for all ears (and eyes). Plus music writer Chris Bourke gets Ready to Roll with this pop history primer.

Hello Sailor's time in the sun saw them spending time in Ponsonby, LA and Sydney, becoming a legendary live act, and releasing an iconic debut album. This collection features documentary Sailor's Voyage, founder member Harry Lyon's account of the birth of the band, and tracks from Hello Sailor, both together and apart. Some of the solo songs were incorporated into the group's live set after they reunited. Included are 'Blue Lady', 'New Tattoo' and 'Gutter Black’, later reborn on TV's Outrageous Fortune.

Music festivals aren’t all counterculture, mud and hangovers. As this collection can attest, there’s also flying missiles (including a tomato), fire poi and unpaid performers. And, of course, the music! AudioCulture, our sister site, can give you the complete lowdown on all the festivals (see Links), but watch them here: from Aotearoa’s very own Woodstock — Redwood 70 — to the groove of The Gathering. Follow Shapeshifter’s journey to Gisborne’s hot ticket, Rhythm and Vines, and see Courtney Love give Newsboy the glad eye at 1999's Big Day Out.

Music videos — often they're no more than a promotional tool; sometimes they are works of art. They provide a chart of changing fashions and trends, and offer emerging filmmakers the chance to really show their stuff. The best clips lift the music even higher. So get your groove on for this career-spanning, 'best of' compilation: from mad scientists to metalheads, from Supergroove to The Naked and Famous — almost every Best Music Video winner at New Zealand's local music awards, since Andrew Shaw first took the prize for DD Smash's 'Outlook for Thursday' in 1983.

Decades after the words "and Hugo said you go" first entered eardrums, this animated Kentucky Fried Chicken ad is still beloved by many on both sides of the Tasman. Two children sit in the car with a hunger so strong, they're "getting thinner" (though not so you'd notice). Song, lyrics and imagery work as one: the car, the animals and the KFC store all move in time with the music, sending a 'we're all in this together' message that is as hypnotic as it is logic-defying. The promo was animated by Australia's Zap Productions. Wayne Myers' song 'Hugo' was released there as a single.  

Colin Broadley was part of the Kiwi soundtrack during a decade of dramatic change. A DJ on NZ's first pirate radio station, he was also hunky star of Runaway, the first local movie in 12 years. In 1986 'whatever happened to' style series Then Again found him in the Coromandel, where he was tending bees and living back to the basics. Broadley talks exciting times on the Radio Hauraki boat, and inside a cell; the perils of kissing Bond girl Nadja Regin in the Opononi mud; a near-fatal crash; visits to China, and his belief that modern day economics and land use are unsustainable.

The band plays a hypnotic groove in a room washed with red and then blue light as a woman with an expression of grim foreboding walks down a beach carrying two bags, towards a scarecrow with a mannequin’s face standing in the sand. Vertical scratches mark the film of the band’s performance, as the woman unpacks the contents of her bags and turns the area beneath the scarecrow into a shrine which she kneels before. But then, as the band briefly breaks free of its groove, she circles the scarecrow, wrestles with it and drags it towards the sea.

Canadian import Tami Neilson showcased her range with fourth album Dynamite!, colouring her country roots with lashings of rockabilly and gospel — plus this track, where she channels torch singer Peggy Lee doing a “sultry nightclub blues” (as the Herald's Graham Reid put it). The black and white video reflects the deliberately retro, minimalist vibe of the song, with Neilson grooving at front and centre while guitarist, bongo drummer and a trio of doo-wop vocalists chime in behind. 'Walk' won Tami and brother Joshua Neilson the 2014 Silver Scroll songwriting award.