Dragon's 'April Sun in Cuba' (from 1977 album Running Free) was originally released in Australia, where it charted at number two. New Zealand loved to hear Marc Hunter talking about Cuba and missile love too: in 1978, the song hit number nine. Later the Hunter/Paul Hewson composition made number 10 on the APRA list of Top 100 NZ Songs. This Aussie-made video, complete with footage of missiles, has the band in full big-hair rock star mode: a white-suited Marc Hunter gets in some high kicks while bassist brother Todd maintains his cool from behind his sunnies.

This episode of director Geoff Steven's USA road trip is another study in contrasts. In North Dakota, there’s impressive access to an underground missile control room staffed by highly trained officers who hope they never have to do the job for which they've prepared. Nearby, the members of a determinedly pacifist, Christian, socialist Hutterite community make for unlikely neighbours. There's also an exploration of small town values as Gilby celebrates its centenary on the 4th of July — while a John Birch Society member provides a less festive note.

An All-American boy from NZ, Christchurch born Riki Ellison (Ngāi Tahu) is the subject of this Māori Television documentary. After moving to the United States at age eight, he made a stellar career out of “kinetic energy intercept”. A fearless player with an intimidating “Māori look”, he was a champion college football defensive linebacker and three-time Superbowl winner with the San Francisco 49ers. Then, inspired by Ronald Reagan, he became a leading advocate for missile defence systems; while, along the way, reconnecting with his whānau and heritage.

Like many other current affairs shows in the 70s, Tonight had a fairly brief existence, but it provided the forum for this infamous battle of wills between journalist Simon Walker and Prime Minister Robert Muldoon. It is May 1976, and Walker is daring to interrogate Muldoon about his claims of a Soviet naval presence in the Pacific, and New Zealand's vulnerability to Russian nuclear attack. Muldoon grows increasingly annoyed and bullish at being asked questions that are not on his sheet: "I will not have some smart alec interviewer changing the rules half way through."

On land, sea and air during World War II, and from Korea to Vietnam, this group of old soldiers remember their years of service. Close calls are common place but often laughed off, but the horror of war is often close to the surface. The third series of interviews from director David Blyth (Our Oldest Soldier) and RSA museum curator Patricia Stroud provide a valuable archive of a time now almost beyond living memory — particularly World War II, as the veterans enter their 90s and beyond. 

A military exchange between New Zealand and the United Kingdom is the focus of this National Film Unit short. About 150 Kiwi soldiers head to London for Exercise Powderhorn in 1964, which includes guard duty at Buckingham Palace and the Tower of London. And they still have time to see the sights. Meanwhile a contingent from the Loyal Regiment in North Lancashire arrives in New Zealand for Exercise Te Rauparaha. They experience jungle warfare in a mock battle on the West Coast and practise mountain craft in the Southern Alps.

The third of Pasta Productions’ popular All Blacks documentaries sees winger John Kirwan provide running commentary on the team’s path to the 1991 World Cup in England: from Argentina to Sydney and Auckland to contest the Bledisloe; from facing bottle and orange missiles in Tucumán to touch on Bondi Beach. JK muses on why coach Alex Wyllie is nicknamed ‘Grizz’, Neil and Tim Finn provide musical accompaniment (“I see black”), and Canterbury Uglies are the training uniform du jour. Meanwhile on-field signs are ominous for the reigning world champs.  

In this sensitive short film written and directed by James Blick, a young boy breaks into an old man’s house in search of dirty magazines. The intrusion is just one more trial for the man (Grant Tilly) as he copes with loss and loneliness by clinging on to keepsakes and memories. He is eager for even a small measure of human contact — and the chance to do one last thing for his wife. For the boy there is an inkling of a world beyond his friend’s narrow experiences and the realisation that a stone might be more than just a missile.