About the Images on this Page

Mother Tongue (1999)
Director: Zoe Roland
NZFA Stills Collection

A frame enlargement from an experimental short film exploring the experience of being an immigrant. Using still images, home movie footage, diaries and oral history extracts, Roland evokes the sense of dislocation and distance experienced by her family in New Zealand.

London 1939, Coastal New Zealand,
Wellington (1939)
Camera: Kitty Vane
NZFA Stills Collection

This frame enlargement is from a film shot by Katherine Airini Vane, an artist, and the only daughter of Captain Gilbert Mair. Before the outbreak of World War One, she travelled to Great Britain to study painting, and lived there until the early 1930s. Kitty Vane travelled widely, returning many times to New Zealand, before settling at Langs Beach, near Whangarei. She became known for her landscape paintings, in particular her South Island mountain and snow scenes, elements of which can be seen in her films.

Coubray-Tone (1930)
Photographer unknown
Coubray Collection, NZFA

This photograph is of a Radio Films Sound Truck filming Bishop Cleary’s funeral in Auckland on 12 December, 1929. The Coubray-Tone Newsreel of the funeral was the first sound film recorded in New Zealand. The cameramen, brothers Fred and Ted Coubray, film from the roof of their truck. On the ground are Eric Platt (far left) and electrician Allen Rogers. The camera is a Debrie all metal model and is mounted on the first sound-on-film recording unit made in Australasia. The truck was adapted to run the recording system and had to be big enough to accommodate the 40 six-volt car batteries necessary to run the Coubray-Tone system. The roof was also modified, so the cameramen could shoot from the top of the truck.

Nga Tohu ­ Signatures (1999)
Manukau Films/Legal Services Board
Image courtesy of Legal Services Board

This production still shows the filming of the drama Nga Tohu – Signatures on the set of ‘Onehora’, a fictional New Zealand community. The drama was produced as an educational resource about the legal and social implications of the Treaty of Waitangi. The film alternates between the colonial period and contemporary New Zealand, exploring what the Treaty meant to both Maori and the Crown at the time of signing, and how the Treaty is experienced today. As the characters work through the legal process of taking a claim to the Waitangi Tribunal, the emotional and personal impact of the process is explored.

National Party ­ Superannuation (1975)
Director: Michael Wall; Colenso
NZFA Stills Collection

This image – part of an animated sequence by Hanna Barbera featuring dancing Russian Cossacks – is from a party political broadcast screened during the lead up to the 1975 general election. Commissioned by the National Party of New Zealand, the advertisement criticises the Labour Party’s superannuation policies by suggesting that Labour’s tax policies verged on communism.

Dallas Project ­ Better Than Change (1999)
Director: Sima Urale; Flying Fish
NZFA Stills Collection

Image shows Wellington musician Dallas Tamaira in his music video, Better Than Change from the EP of the same name. New Zealand Herald described Dallas as a ‘Wellington nouveau soul bloke’ who impresses “for his liquid melodies and languid moods which swing gently from jazz club to expansive dubscape.” The video also features the photographs of renowned New Zealand photographer Ans Westra.

Caravan Holiday (c.1950)
Camera: Dr GBA Cowie
NZFA Stills Collection

An image taken from the Cowie’s home movie of their caravan holiday in the North Island. The film includes footage of the family packing for the trip, scenes from the road, the view from Maraenui Hill, a visit to Wairakei Thermal Park, bush walks and beach activities. While many of Dr Cowie’s films are of family holidays, he also provided a valuable record of New Zealanders at war, by filming his service in the Fifth Field Ambulance Unit in the Western Desert (1942–1943).