1980s - 2010s

Goodbye Pork Pie

Geoff Murphy, 1981

Goodbye Pork Pie was the first box-office hit of the new wave of films made in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It became the first New Zealand film to gross over $1 million at the local box office.

This clip is the trailer for Goodbye Pork Pie.

Directed by Geoff Murphy, Goodbye Pork Pie can be called New Zealand’s first blockbuster. On release, this Kiwi road movie was seen by half a million New Zealanders and it was sold to 26 countries overseas. It was well received internationally – it was the first New Zealand feature film to screen at Cannes and Variety described it as: “Easy Rider meets the Keystone Cops”.

The release of Goodbye Pork Pie set the scene for a revival of New Zealand feature-film making.

Goodbye Pork Pie is also the first New Zealand film, since Rewi’s Last Stand in 1940, to be remade. In 2017 Pork Pie, a modern reimagining, was released and it was directed by Matt Murphy, one of Geoff’s sons.

Find out more about Geoff Murphy in this blog by his son Heperi Mita.

The Silent One

Yvonne MacKay, 1984

The Silent One is New Zealandʼs first feature by a female director and was the first film with a Dolby stereo soundtrack.

This extract shows the use of underwater photography and acknowledges how we, as an audience, now have a sophisticated film language to draw on. As the baby floats, he is shot from below. Light beams down through the water and the effect is reminiscent of early religious paintings. The scene cuts to a boy swimming underwater as an adolescent, demonstrating that it is the same child years later.

Vigil

Vincent Ward, 1984

A tax shelter during the 1980s encouraged private-sector investment in the film industry, which was previously dependent on the New Zealand Film Commission. This created a boom in feature film production.

Although they are very different films Vigil, like Runaway (1964) was influenced by European art cinema. Through clever composition, a discordant soundtrack and minimal dialogue, Vincent Ward creates an atmosphere and sense of space that help convey the young character’s isolation and despair.

Mr Wrong

Gaylene Preston, Preston–Laing Productions, 1985

Mr Wrong was Dame Gaylene Preston’s first feature film and played with genre and stereotypes – ushering in a new kind of film in Aotearoa.

This clip is the trailer for Mr Wrong.

Described as a ’feminist thriller’, the film is based on a short story by Elizabeth Jane Howard.

Determined to make films in New Zealand, Preston has said she wants to leave her audience with something to think about.

In Mr Wrong, Preston moves away from traditional thriller conventions as the heroine, Meg, learns to control her fear and triumphs.

Preston has continued to make films that explore women’s experiences. Her films have covered a range of genres and topics from breast cancer (Titless Wonders, 2001) to women and politics (My Year with Helen, 2017).

Drum/Sing

Gregor Nicholas, 1985

Drum/Sing is a study of the experimental music and performance group, From Scratch.

Since the 1970s, a group of Auckland filmmakers with connections to Auckland University and the Alternative Cinema cooperative had been creating and exhibiting 8mm and 16mm films under the title of the New Film Group, of which Gregor Nicholas was a member.

Local audiences reacted hesitantly to the film which was screened in mainstream theatres before The Quiet Earth (1985). However, internationally the film proved successful and was selected for the New Directors' season at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and added to MOMA's permanent collection.

Footrot Flats

Murray Ball, 1986

Footrot Flats: The Dog's Tale, is New Zealandʼs first and only animated feature. It was produced by Pat Cox and John Barnett.

Using cel animation, images are traced or drawn directly onto the negative. The same number of frames (25 per second) are required to achieve movement at the speed of the human eye.

The actual animation was done in Sydney because New Zealand did not have the number of animators to create the 100,000 frames needed for the 70-minute feature. The cartoon was based around the life of Wal Footrot's sheepdog, called ’Dog’ on their farm Footrot Flats, and the other characters – human and animal – that came into their lives.

Ngati

Barry Barclay, 1987

Ngati was the first feature film conceived, directed, produced and acted by Māori.

Compositionally, the frames are filled with people who reinforce a sense of community, and the pace of the film is considerably slower than most films. It was hailed as having offered, for the first time, a truly Māori perspective.

Set in 1948, Ngati chronicles the effects of economic change on a small East Coast community.

Ngati was included in the official Cannes selection and proved a critical success at home.

An Angel at My Table

Jane Campion, Hibiscus Films, 1990

In the 1990s, with the emergence of a new generation of filmmakers, the New Zealand film industry displayed a new maturity and gained increasing recognition internationally as a fresh, lively source of English-language films.

This clip is the trailer for An Angel at My Table.

Dame Jane Campion brings to the screen the harrowing true-life story of Janet Frame – New Zealand’s most distinguished author. Based on the three-volume autobiography, An Angel at My Table was adapted for the screen by Laura Jones.

Starting out as a mini-series, An Angel at My Table was so successful it was repackaged as a film and went on to receive international critical acclaim.

At home, it scooped many awards at the 1990 New Zealand Film and Television Awards.

Ruby and Rata

Gaylene Preston, Preston–Laing Productions, 1990

Dame Gaylene Preston's playfulness with preconceptions and stereotypes is very much in evidence in Ruby and Rata – a serious comedy exploring women’s experiences with age and poverty.

Trailer for Ruby and Rata.

The film won People’s Choice awards at the Melbourne, Sydney and Toronto Film Festivals, as well as awards for Best Editing, Best Soundtrack, Best Film Score and Best Performance (Male) at the New Zealand Film Awards in 1990.

The End of the Golden Weather

Ian Mune, South Pacific Pictures, 1991

The End of the Golden Weather is based on the play of the same name by renowned New Zealand playwright, Bruce Mason.

This clip is the trailer for The End of the Golden Weather.

Director Ian Mune worked with Bruce Mason over 15 years to adapt the play into a screenplay. The screenplay was not finished until after Mason’s death.

The film focuses on the relationship between a young boy and a social outcast. A classic piece of New Zealand theatre, the film adaptation also received critical praise. Writing in the Listener, Mark Tierney noted that “Mune and South Pacific Pictures have successfully recast a New Zealand classic into a different medium with its entertainment value enhanced”.

The End of the Golden Weather had its world premiere in 1991 in Canada. Its New Zealand release was in 1992 – and it scooped the New Zealand Film Awards – winning Best Film, Best Director, Best Performance (Male), Best Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Film Score, Best Contribution to Design and Best Production Design.

The Piano

Jane Campion, Jan Chapman Productions, CIBY 2000, 1993

Dame Jane Campion made history with The Piano, becoming the first woman to win the prestigious Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1993.

The following year, The Piano was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including: Costume, Cinematography, Editing and Best Picture. Jane Campion won the award for Best Original Screenplay, while Holly Hunter and Anna Paquin won the Best Actress and Supporting Actress awards respectively.

Whether The Piano can be called a ‘New Zealand film’ has been the subject of some debate. Although directed by a New Zealander, adapted from a New Zealand story, and filmed in Aotearoa with a large New Zealand cast, the film was produced in Australia and funded from France. Regardless, it is recognised as one of this country’s prime artistic achievements.

Heavenly Creatures

Peter Jackson, 1994

Following the success of Sir Peter Jacksonʼs earlier films, Bad Taste (1988) and Braindead (1992), he received international backing to make Heavenly Creatures with his wife, Dame Fran Walsh.

Perhaps the most local of any of his films, it told the true story of a famous 1954 matricide (the killing of one's mother) in Christchurch. The film employed Jackson-owned Weta studios to create detailed fantasy elements and went on to receive an Academy Award nomination for best Original Screenplay.

Sir Peter Jackson has since become New Zealandʼs most famous filmmaker with the blockbuster The Lord of the Rings' trilogy. His success has encouraged international investment in New Zealand filmmaking, and the development of a New Zealand-based infrastructure which services offshore and local films.

Once Were Warriors

Lee Tamahori, 1994

Based on the Alan Duff novel, with a screenplay by Riwia Brown, Once Were Warriors became the most successful film in the history of New Zealand cinema, at the time of its release in 1994.

It is estimated that one in every three New Zealanders saw Once Were Warriors, and it scooped most of the awards at the 1994 New Zealand Film Awards. It also reached a large international audience and screened in festivals from Montréal to Portugal and Belgium to the Czech Republic.

This clip features the opening shot – a pan across an idyllic New Zealand landscape that opens out to reveal an urban highway (the landscape image was actually on a billboard). This is an early signal that the film is not going to portray the New Zealand typically shown in our films.

Uncomfortable Comfortable

Diane McAllen and Campbell Walker, 1999

Uncomfortable Comfortable was shot, edited and exhibited by a group of friends in Wellington, on low-budget digital video which had recently become more available.

It attracted considerable critical attention and within a year, others were following suit – highlighting the potential for people outside the industry to start experimenting with filmmaking.

The film uses long shots with relatively little action, impromptu dialogue and simple panning from character to character.

Whale Rider

Niki Caro, 2002

In 1999, the incoming government created a $22 million fund to enable experienced filmmakers to make bigger budget films. Whale Rider was one of these films.

Based on a novel by Witi Ihimaera, the film retells a Ngāti Porou legend of Paikea – the tribal ancestor who came to New Zealand on a whale's back.

There was considerable controversy at the time over a Pākehā director telling a Māori story, but the film went on to be a box-office hit in New Zealand and a Hollywood success for Niki Caro and Keisha Castle-Hughes – who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.

Sione’s Wedding

Chris Graham, South Pacific Pictures, 2006

“Sione’s Wedding is a very deliberate attempt to reflect contemporary urban Samoan life with its generational conflicts and tension between New Zealand values and community ways” — Paul Little, Sunday Star Times.

The feel-good comedy is about four 30-something men who are struggling to grow up. Their penchant for hell-raising has marred a number of weddings, to such an extent that the local minister has banned them from the upcoming nuptials of a younger brother – unless they arrive accompanied by proper girlfriends, not just dates for the evening.

Created by Oscar Kightley and the Naked Samoans comedy group, the film uses humour to explore the experience of first-generation Samoan New Zealanders.

Sione’s Wedding was a hit at the New Zealand box office, setting a new record for its opening weekend.

The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls

Leanne Pooley, Diva Films Ltd, 2009

This documentary is not just the story of two remarkable sisters, but also of 50 years of New Zealand’s cultural and political history.

Since the early 1980s, twins Jools and Lynda Topp, The Topp Twins, have been entertaining New Zealand with their humour and music. Director Leanne Pooley describes them as New Zealand icons: “The Twins have been part of New Zealand’s history. So, in making a film about the Twins I’ve been given the chance to make a film about New Zealand.”

The Topp Twins’ fans range from hard-core political activists to sheep farmers and ‘ladies who lunch’. Through their humour and their music, Dame Jools and Dame Lynda Topp are able to relate to all kinds of people – from the fringes to the mainstream.

Boy

Taika Waititi, 2010

The comedy-drama Boy, by Taika Waititi, was a box-office hit, taking over as the highest-grossing New Zealand film (it was later superseded by Waititi’s 2016 film, Hunt for the Wilderpeople).

Waititi developed the story from his short film, Two Cars, One Night (2003) – for which he received an Academy Award Nomination for Best Short Film.

In this extract, the editing cleverly combines film footage with maps, magazine photographs, drawings, archival photos and re-enactments, indicating the complexity and creativity of Boy. This technique is inspired by the postmodern art movement.

The Orator

Tusi Tamasese, 2011

The Orator was made by the Wellington director Tusi Tamasese and was the first-ever Samoan feature film, shot entirely in Samoa, in the Samoan language, with a Samoan cast and story.

Like Ngati (1987) achieved with a Māori story, The Orator attempts to show the world through a Samoan perspective. The camera work by Leon Narbey shows a great detail of nature and texture. The film is slow with shots of ten seconds being the rule, not the exception – reflecting the value of patience and the pace of life in Samoa.

He Kākano Ahau – From the Spaces in Between

Kathleen Winter, Notable Pictures, 2017

Kathleen Winter’s He Kākano Ahau embraced a new format and a new platform.

He Kākano Ahau is a short documentary that tells the personal story of Kassie (Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga) through the Loading Docs platform. A courageous takatāpui (Māori LGBTQI) activist is fighting for true diversity in our Gay Pride celebrations.

Director Kathleen Winter says of the film: “It's basically trying to give a different view of the LGBQT community and the way we celebrate pride. It is trying to do that by introducing us to takatāpui, which is a Māori word that is being reclaimed and used as a blanket term for Māori who are LGBQT in many different ways. It's mainly about my friend Kassie who identifies with takatāpui, and she – along with a lot of people – feel alienated with our pride celebrations.” Stuff.co.nz