Seeing Red

[John Grierson] was critical of the largely scenic government films of the the time, saying he’d seen enough pictures of mountains, sheep and butter-making to last him a lifetime. What was needed now were films that showed for the first time the face of the New Zealander.

– Narrator Jennifer-Ward Lealand describes a 1940 visit to New Zealand by UK filmmaker John Grierson

Curiously, public opinion was now swinging in my favour. I was taking on the appearance of an innocent, albeit misguided. On union instructions, I asked the police for my satchel with contents. Having been kept waiting for hours, I was blandly informed they had no trace of it ... we won the court case. I got my job back, and a year's back pay.

– Cecil Holmes on legal attempts to get his job back after the satchel incident, in his 1986 autobiography One Man's Way