The Jonathan Dennis Library has been officially launched at the New Zealand Film Archive in Wellington. This new library contains a wealth of research material now open to the public on the second floor of the Taranaki St building.

The reference library, named after the first director of the Film Archive, Jonathan Dennis, contains a wealth of film-related material including photographs, posters, publicity files, private papers and ephemera. Examples of the resources now available include photographs and posters from the silent 1927 epic by Rudall Hayward, The Te Kooti Trail, production papers and photographs from Goodbye Pork Pie (1981, Geoff Murphy) and press and publicity files on screen personalities ranging from Lisa Reihana, Bill Ralston, Peter Jackson and Gaylene Preston to Len Lye, Barry Barclay, Taika Waititi and New Zealand silent screen actress Dale Austen.

Documentation Collection Manager Kristen Wineera says her favourite items include a scrapbook from 1930 recording the introduction of “talkies” to Christchurch cinemas, and Jake the Muss’s boots from Once Were Warriors (1994). “It’s very exciting that researchers, students and members of the public with specific research interests will now be able to come on-site and be assisted in their investigations into our moving image history. This library is designed to cater to people who approach us with specific queries or interests, and are proactively seeking information.”

Chief Executive Frank Stark says this is an important stage in the development of public access facilities for the Film Archive’s massive collection of film and television related materials. “There are around 900 linear meters of books, periodicals, photographs, press clippings, manuscripts, company archives, scripts, sound recordings, ephemera, artwork and artefacts in this specialist collection. Not only does it document screen culture, history and technology of the moving image in New Zealand and overseas, but it’s also unique within New Zealand. It is a heritage resource of national significance.”

The library facility itself was funded in late 2007 by a generous grant from the Combined Community Trusts, with initial support from the Community Trust of Wellington. It incorporates a public user area for researchers and reference materials, a vault for storage of preservation materials, and a collection processing room for cataloguing and conservation work. The library is open by arrangement, but full time staff are available to receive queries and discuss researchers’ interests at any time. Readily accessible reference material includes books, periodicals, photographs, and 30 cabinets of press and publicity files.

The library is named after the Film Archive’s first director (1981-1990), whose personal library formed the origins of the book collection. Dennis’s research into early New Zealand films - many of which were poorly documented when the Film Archive was founded - have also contributed much to our knowledge of them today.

Other material of interest includes press and publicity files on a wide range of film and TV related subjects such as actors; censorship; TV networks; cinema-going; funding; advertising; violence in film /TV; video art and tourism. There are thousands of publicity stills, from lost feature film Carbine's Heritage (1927, Ted Coubray) to Woodenhead (2003, Florian Habicht).

Design students will be able to view cinema advertising originally printed on glass slides, advertising everything from cigarettes to banks to political parties, while film buffs will be able to see magic lantern projectors and slides first-hand. There is animation artwork from Footrot Flats (New Zealand's only animated feature film) and scripts from the Worzel Gummidge Down Under TV series. Records of the Hutt Valley Film Society sit alongside records of Auckland-based experimental filmmakers co-operative Alternative Cinema while the correspondence and press recordings of (irate) public reaction to the broadcast of mockumentary Forgotten Silver make fascinating reading.

The Jonathan Dennis Library will complement the existing medialibrary in the Film Archive basement which offers free viewing facilities for over 25,000 moving image titles. The medialibrary is open daily from noon til 5pm while The Jonathan Dennis Library will be open by arrangement. Currently unpublished materials housed in The Jonathan Dennis Library are not available on the Film Archive catalogue so interaction with library staff and a declared topic of interest on the part of the user are essential to the access process.

The opening of the Jonathan Dennis Library coincided with the fourth birthday of the Film Archive mediaplex and is recognised as the next phase of public access for the independent charitable trust, established in 1981 to collect, protect and connect the nation with its moving image heritage.