Without the NZ Film Commission, the list of Kiwi features and short films would be far shorter. In celebration of the Commission turning 40, this collection gathers up movie clips, plus documentaries and news coverage of Kiwi films. Among the directors to have had a major leg up from the Commission are Geoff Murphy, Peter Jackson, Taika Waititi and Gaylene Preston. In the backgrounders, Preston remembers the days when the commission was up an old marble staircase, and producer John Barnett jumps 40 years and beyond, to an age when local stories were seen as fringe. 

South Pacific Pictures marked its 30th anniversary in 2018. With drama production at its core, this collection highlights the production company’s prodigious output. The collection spans everything from Marlin Bay to Westside — including hit movies Sione's Wedding and Whale Rider  — plus the long-running and beloved Shortland Street. In the backgrounder, longtime SPP boss John Barnett reminisces, and charts the company’s history.

Over four seasons, Street Legal’s slick Kiwi take on urban crime and law genres racked up a stack of award nominations - including a 2003 NZ TV Award for best drama series. Although initially wary that the Auckland setting might alienate viewers, writer Greg McGee chose a Samoan lawyer (Jay Laga’aia) as his main character, to exploit the show’s inner-city Ponsonby setting (where cafe society bumps into Pacific Island immigrant culture). Other key characters included Silesi’s lawyer ex-girlfriend Joni, and her new partner Kees, an overstressed sergeant.

Rebel lawyer Rob Moodie likes to side with the underdog — this excerpt from a documentary about his life and work reveals why. In 1981, when he was secretary of the Police Association, he began wearing kaftans. Two decades later, he changed his name to Miss Alice and fought contempt charges at the High Court in Wellington, wearing an Alice in Wonderland costume. Moodie's aversion to convention and macho culture is traced back to his traumatic childhood in state care. Lost in Wonderland won Best Documentary at the 2010 Qantas Film and Television Awards.

Leading criminal barrister and QC Mike Bungay offers a lawyer’s perspective on nine of New Zealand’s most notable police investigations and criminal trials, in this series of dramatised documentaries. In each episode, Bungay explores a different legal theme and they include circumstantial evidence, forensics, immunity deals and the validity of confessions. Featured cases include the Margaret Bell 'Mainstreet' murder, the disappearance of Milton Harris, Karl Sim’s Goldie forgeries and the William Sutch espionage trial. Mike Bungay died in 1993.

Made for TV ONE’s Montana Sunday Theatre slot, this award-winning one-off drama stars Peter Elliott as a disgraced lawyer, who may or may not have a gambling problem. A down-on-his-luck reporter (Mark Clare) on the trail of the story finds there is more to it than meets the eye, and decides to scam the scammer, with dangerous consequences. Writer/director Jonothan Cullinane went on to make the feature film We’re Here to Help.

Sid (Byron Coll) is somewhat distracted in this fourth instalment of online mini-comedy Woodville, when he meets his Uncle Clive’s beautiful assistant Jane (Hayley Sproull) to discuss a role in his documentary about the town’s heroic battle against a Belgian petrochemical corporation. Things get serious on set, with a proper table read in which Jane reveals her acting talent recently honed in the Whakatāne production The Death of Di and Dodi. This NZ On Air-funded six-part series was selected for London’s Raindance Festival in 2013.

The “disappearance” of American tourist Milton Harris became one of New Zealand’s most bizarre insurance frauds. Barrister and QC Mike Bungay examines this curious case over two episodes from his series exploring notable criminal investigations. Part one focuses on Harris’ apparent loss overboard from the Cook Strait ferry and strange events during his trip to NZ which aroused the suspicions of Lloyds, who were facing a multi-million dollar claim. Police officers recall the arrest for shoplifting which undid Harris, and his peculiar behaviour in custody.

The second season of web series Dislawderly sees outspoken law student Audrey facing love and student elections, and preparing for a moot (a mock trial). Series creator and real life law student Georgia Rippin (who also stars) used responses from the law school’s 2016 gender survey to frame her storylines — like female students being chided for speaking in a high pitch in the courtroom. Dislawderly's mockery of sexism proved timely. The second season dropped two months after a scandal over how female student clerks had been treated at a major New Zealand law firm. 

After her husband is jailed, matriarch Cheryl West (Robyn Malcolm) decides the time has come to set her family on the straight and narrow. But can the Wests change old habits? So begins the six season saga of the Westie dynasty. Hugely popular (beloved by public, critics and awards givers alike), Outrageous Fortune was a flag-bearer for TV3 and New Zealand television drama. The series proved — in all its grow-your-own glory — that television in Aotearoa could mield comedy and drama, and be so much more than overseas stories pasted to a local setting.