Before X Factor there was New Faces, before Masterchef ... Graham Kerr, before Country Calendar there was ... er, Country Calendar. This collection picks the screen gems from the decade that gave Kiwi pop culture, "miniskirts, teenagers — and television." Peter Sinclair, Sandy Edmonds, Howard Morrison, and Ray Columbus star. Do your mod's nod and C'mon! 

In this interview before the 2007 Rugby World Cup, All Black flanker Jerry Collins visits Trust Porirua Park, where he started playing rugby at the age of 11 for Norths RFC (other ex members include Hika Reid, and Christian Cullen). Collins, who was widely known as a hard-hitting and physical player, discusses how "getting smashed" was part of the game from the beginning: "I became good at it. Then I became good at doing it to other people”. He also reveals what he thinks about during the national anthem and haka. Collins and his partner Alana Madill died in a car crash in June 2015.

The Māori Sidesteps began as a live band, then starred in this fictionalised web series. The tale begins at Pete's Emporium in Porirua, where the staff need an escape from the daily grind. Managing the new band is the Emporium’s owner Dollar$ (Raybon Kan). In series one the band struggle for gigs, band members and a sense of identity. An earthquake in season two triggers a tsunami of absurd challenges, including rival bands and a seductive demigod. Starring as the Sidesteps are Jamie McCaskill, Cohen Holloway, Rob Mokaraka, Jerome Leota and Erroll Anderson.

The Wellington region is the focus of this 1958 edition in the long-running NFU series. The newsreel shows the rapidly developing town of Porirua, where farmland is being converted into state housing. Meanwhile in Taita the Hutt Valley Youth club provides entertainment for bored young people on Sunday afternoons. Highland dancing vies with skiffle and rock and roll, and Elvis-style quiffs date the teen spirit. Such clubs were set up after the 1954 Mazengarb inquiry into juvenile delinquency. And at Athletic Park a classic All Black line-up wallops the Wallabies 25-3.

Aileen O'Sullivan's and Toby Mills' documentary follows Black Grace as they prepare for an appearance at premier dance festival Jacob's Pillow, in Massachusetts. The film also charts the personal journey of the dance group's founder, choreographer Neil Ieremia, from the community halls of Porirua to the global stage, powered by an unrelenting perfectionism that makes for some heated rehearsal footage. Shortly after the performances shown here, Ieremia fired the entire touring company, rebuilding his vision from scratch. Ken Sparks' editing won an NZ Screen Award.

This headline-grabbing 1979 documentary examines inequality via interviews with an unemployed student, a young widow and a Porirua family of eight; plus visits to a Fijian village and a Hong Kong housing estate. The film's arguments that business and government monopolies had caused poverty in “egalitarian New Zealand”, and that NZ trade practices had added to it elsewhere, displeased Prime Minister Robert Muldoon. State television refused to screen the Greg Stitt-directed documentary; CORSO, the charity who commissioned it, was removed from the government’s funding list.  

Tired of working his go nowhere job at Pete’s Emporium in Porirua, Jamie (Jamie McCaskill) persuades some of his workmates (Cohen Holloway, Rob Mokaraka and Jerome Leota) to form band The Māori Sidesteps. Throughout this web series they find themselves at inopportune gigs, deal with interference from their over-reaching manager Dollar$ (Raybon Kan), and face an early band break up. Luckily the band is reinforced by Jamie’s brother Kelly (Erroll Anderson), who joins as a fifth member — outshining several other auditionees (including Jemaine Clement). 

TV series The Deep End saw reporter Bill Manson trying his hand at a variety of tasks, from female impersonator to Robinson Crusoe to captaining a navy frigate. In this episode, Manson is given six weeks to get in shape for a pro wrestling bout. To prepare himself for the dangerous job, 12 stone Manson hits the weights, grapples with wrestling legend Steve Rickard (On the Mat) and works with an acting tutor, barber and promoters on his onstage persona: ‘Doctor Mindbender’. “The thing that scares me," he says, "is just breaking my neck…”

This early episode from the award-winning arts series drops in on the Urale sisters — directors Sima and Makerita and publicist Maila — in the living room of their Lyall Bay fale. The prolific Samoan-Kiwi siblings visit local haunts, discuss work, and brother Bill (aka King Kapisi) is mentioned in dispatches. Other Kiwi creatives featured include 'nu jazz' practitioner Mark de Clive-Lowe playing at Cargo in London; designer Ross Stevens building his challenging Happy Valley shipping container conversion; and Cannons Creek beatbox king Dougie B breaking it down.

Hosts Olly Coddington, Gabrielle Paringatai and Candice Davis front this TVNZ youth series from the era of Bebo and Obama. The series flavours youth TV fare (music videos, sport, online competitions) with reo and tikanga. This final episode from the show’s first year is set around a roof party on top of Auckland’s TVNZ HQ. Hip hop dance crews, Shortland Street stars and DJs are mixed with clips of the year’s 'best of' moments: field reports (from robot te reo to toilet advice and office Olympics) and special guests (from rapper Savage to actor Te Kohe Tuhaka playing Scrabble).