Heavenly Creatures
Precocious teenager Juliet moves to New Zealand with her family and soon befriends the quiet, brooding Pauline through their shared love of fantasy and literature. This friendship gradually develops into an intense and obsessive bond.
Tinā
A woman grieving her daughter's death in the Christchurch earthquakes, becomes a substitute teacher at an elite private school. Unexpectedly, she discovers students lacking guidance and care, prompting her to provide inspiration and support.
The Changeover
Laura Chant, 16, lives with her mother and four-year-old brother Jacko in a poor new suburb on the edge of a partially demolished Christchurch, New Zealand. Laura is drawn into a supernatural battle with an ancient spirit who attacks Jacko and slowly drains the life out of him as the spirit becomes ever younger. Laura discovers her true identity and the supernatural ability within her, and must harness it to save her brother's life.
Bride Flight
A romantic drama that charts the lives of three women from different backgrounds, forever changed when they emigrate to New Zealand as war brides.
Sunday
Eve and Charlie are about to have a baby but they are no longer together. After years of history and months of separation they have 24 hours to find their way forward. Set in Christchurch, New Zealand one year after the earthquakes that devastated the city. 'Sunday' is a story like the city, one of past devastation and a chance at rebuilding.
Ablaze
In November 1947 forty-one people died in a massive blaze that gutted the huge Ballantynes Department Store complex in the heart of Christchurch’s business district. This is the tragic story of New Zealand’s worst fire disaster.
Mixed Media
A bunch of friends are making a movie in an attempt to win the shortest film competition. But when people have to go to work, things get challenging. Can they finish the movie in time for the deadline?
To Catch a Fish
A man wants to catch an unknown fish and name it, but troubles arise when someone else catches the fish before him. What whacky shenanigans could possibly come from that?
Picturesque New Zealand
This Traveltalk series short visit to New Zealand starts in Auckland, a bustling, modern city. Next is Christchurch, home of Canterbury University, where rowing teams participate in a regatta. Nearby is Lake Wakatipu, which inspires artists to put their impressions on canvas. We then visit Rotorua, a city famous for its geysers, hot springs, bubbling mud pools, and other geothermal activity. At Ferry Springs there is lots of trout for fishing. Later, a group of natives performs a canoe dance.
Canterbury is a Hundred
The film 'Canterbury is One Hundred' was produced by the National Film Unit in 1950 to celebrate the region's centennial. Written and directed by Oxley Hughan, it emphasises the bucolic agricultural productivity of the Canterbury region, particularly through the lambing and wheat-growing industries. Life in Canterbury's cities is presented as people 'taking pleasure in their neat gardens and comfortable wooden houses', in contrast to the rustic huts built by the early settlers a century earlier. The film is also a poignant tribute to Christchurch's celebrated Neo-Gothic architecture, much of which was destroyed following the February 2011 earthquake.
The Blunt Truth
A young, disinfranchised and manipulative woman, Jude, sets out for revenge after serving six months in rehab.
Christchurch - Garden City of New Zealand
This promotional travelogue, made for the Christchurch City Council, shows off the city and its environs. Filmed at a time when New Zealand’s post-war economy was booming as it continued its role as a farmyard for the “Old Country”, it depicts Christchurch as a prosperous city, confident in its green and pleasant self-image as a “better Britain” (as James Belich coined NZ’s relationship to England), and architecturally dominated by its cathedrals, churches and schools. Many of these buildings were severely damaged or destroyed in the earthquakes of 2010 and 2011.
Chimney Book
Chimney Book takes rubble from the Christchurch earthquake, and turns it into the building blocks of a film exploring life in the quake zone. Christchurch musician Blair Parkes took bricks from his chimney — destroyed in the 22 February 2011 aftershocks — painted a letter or symbol on each, then scanned them into his computer. Sound and word form the spine of the result, which is part diary, part experimental film. Parkes explores his experiences of living in Christchurch since the quake through words like 'dust', 'memory', 'place', and a question: 'is it over?'
Games '74: Official Film of the Xth British Commonwealth Games, Christchurch, New Zealand, 1974
This chronicle of the Christchurch Commonwealth Games marked one of the National Film Unit's most ambitious productions. Though a range of events (including famous runs by John Walker and Dick Tayler), are covered, the film often bypasses the pomp and glory approach; instead it dares to talk to the injured and mention that most competitors lose. The closing ceremonies of the "friendly games" feature the athletes gathering to — as the official song's chorus put it — "join together". Four directors joined together to work on it: Arthur Everard, John King, Paul Maunder and Sam Pillsbury.
Rumble & Bang
From 1964 to 1966 Chants R&B were a fixture of the Christchurch music scene, and local bar The Stage Door. The band’s near mythic status is highlighted in this hour-long documentary featuring band and audience members, plus their former peers. Musicians Ray Columbus and Midge Marsden rave about the group, while music experts Nick Bollinger and Tony Mitchell speculate as to why they were so compelling. Mixed in is archive 60s footage shot by Fred Goldring, capturing raucous scenes in the dank underground bar in central Christchurch. Rumble & Bang was directed by Simon Ogston (Skeptics - Sheen of Gold) and Jeff Smith.