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Hero image for Canterbury is a Hundred

Canterbury is a Hundred

Short Film (Full Length) – 1950

This booster's gem was produced by the NFU to mark Canterbury's centennial. The original Canterbury crusaders' dream of a model England colony is shown in settler life re-enactments. The importance of meat and wheat to the region's prosperity is extolled and a progressive narrative — "in one brief century they've turned the wilderness into fertile farms and built their red-roofed homes" — underpins contemporary scenes (cricket, church) and much bucolic (plains, alps) scenery. Trivia: Peter Jackson used an excerpt from the film to open Heavenly Creatures.

Carefully picked from all ranks of English these were the model settlers for the model colony ... whether capitalist or artisan squire or labourer life in Canterbury began in a V hut.
– from the narration

Acknowledgements

Archives New Zealand copy reference 550,003
16mm motion picture film

Music

Music composed by Anthony Noorts, played by the Alex. Lindsay Orchestra 

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