This six-part web series about a small town rising up against big business reaches its heartwarming conclusion in this episode. Sid (Byron Coll), is shooting the last few scenes of his doco on the proud Tararua town (including one with a frisky dog which is meant to be dying). Bella (Vanessa Stacey) makes her entrance as the Brockovich-ian lawyer who saves the day. As the town gathers for an open-air screening of the finished film, Sid gets another chance at love. Woodville, written by Christopher Brandon, was selected for London’s Raindance Festival in 2013.  

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 Whakatane production The Death of Di and Dodi. This NZ On Air-funded six-part series was selected for London’s Raindance Festival in 2013.

This online mockumentary series sees Sid (played by Byron Coll of “Nonu, Nonu, Nonu. Boom!” Mastercard ad fame) receive Woodville Arts Council funding to document a landmark David vs Goliath legal battle won by the town against BPC, a Belgian petrochemical giant. This pilot episode sees Sid meet the locals and introduce the story of how they beat “the muscles from Brussels”. Clayweaver Productions received funding from NZ On Air’s digital media fund Ignite to produce the six short ‘webisodes’; Woodville was selected for indie film festival Raindance in 2013.

The tables are turned in the second episode of this online comedy as Sid (Byron Coll) get tongue-tied while being interviewed about being a sexy new doco maker. Sid exhorts his fellow residents to star in a recreation of the town’s battle against a Belgian petrochemical corporation, but actor Molly (Gentiane Lupi) takes direction a bit too enthusiastically. Don Longridge deadpans as deaf Mr Baker, whose fart gag permeates a pair of near wordless scenes with Sid and Bella (Vanessa Stacey). Woodville was selected for London’s Raindance Festival in 2013.

In the third episode of this doco about a doco, Byron Coll’s Sid shows visits Uncle Clive (Tim Spite) to ask for a loan, while his gung ho film crew prepares to launch some vigilante justice if the deal doesn’t go through. He shows Clive the dramatic slow-mo trailer, featuring Mr Baker as the king of Belgium and head of the petrochemical company crushed by the small Hawkes Bay town of Woodville. Sid is reacquainted with the lovely aspiring actress Jane (musical comedienne Hayley Sproull) but makes a dodgy impression.

On a Tuesday evening in April 1968, the ferry Wahine set out from Lyttelton for Wellington. Around 6am the next morning, cyclone-fuelled winds surged in strength as it began to enter Wellington Harbour. At 1.30pm, with the ferry listing heavily to starboard, the call was finally made for 734 passengers and crew to abandon ship. The news coverage and documentaries in this collection explore the Wahine disaster from many angles. Meanwhile Keith Aberdein — one of the TV reporters who was there — explores his memories and regrets over that fateful day on 10 April 1968.

The decade of fondue and flares also cooked up colour television. Our black and white living room icons — from Selwyn Toogood to Space Waltz — melted into a Kiwi kaleidoscope of Top Town, Grunt Machine, and Close to Home. And 'our stories' and rights fights — boks, hikoi, nukes and 'nam — echoed onscreen (Sleeping Dogs, Tangata Whenua). Ready to roll?

Shot for an Australian Travel Agents Seminar, this short film seeks to portray 1969 New Zealand as a hip and happening place. The tourism clichés of a scenic wonderland remain, but the film attempts to present a more sophisticated NZ to entice jet-set Aussies east. After all, we "got rid of six o'clock closing ages ago." To complement the Anzac staples of sport, beer and gambling there are mountains and Māori. Nightclubs offer show bands and strippers for "relaxation" after strenuous days of sightseeing. C’mon is a fascinating snapshot of a nation in transition.

Someone Else’s Country looks critically at the radical economic changes implemented by the 1984 Labour Government - where privatisation of state assets was part of a wider agenda that sought to remake New Zealand as a model free market state. The trickle-down ‘Rogernomics’ rhetoric warned of no gain without pain, and here the theory is counterpointed by the social effects (redundant workers, Post Office closures). Made by Alister Barry in 1996 when the effects were raw, the film draws extensively on archive footage and interviews with key “witnesses to history”.

In the third episode of The Big Art Trip the little green car heads first to Piha, where hosts Nick Ward and Douglas Lloyd-Jenkins interview hip-hop artist King Kapisi. After that they visit jewellery and multimedia artist Lisa Reihana at her K Road apartment, discuss contemporary furniture with designer Kim Martinengo and drop in on hot glass artist Stephen Bradbourne. They also check out art in a corporate setting before meeting sculptor Emily Siddell, and finish up by visiting painter Andy Leleisi’uao at his home studio in Mangere.