The Collections

The Film Archive holds a range of collections which reflect the breadth and depth of New Zealand’s moving image heritage.

From the arrival of cinema to these shores in 1896 to the latest New Zealand music videos, everything is carefully collected, catalogued and made available for viewing to all New Zealanders.

Film and Video Collection

The Film and Video Collection, of predominantly New Zealand material, contains moving images from 1895 to the present day.

This collection is expansive and all-encompassing, containing around 150,000 separate titles. It includes features and short films, newsreels (our first broadcast news programmes), documentaries, home movies, music videos, television programmes, commercials, experimental films and video art.

Documentation Collection

The Documentation Collection, which you'll find at the Jonathan Dennis Library on the second floor of the Film Archive in Wellington, includes promotional, critical and historical materials from 1896 to the present. The current research librarian describes it as "everything in the collection non-moving. "

Researchers are invited to access the vast collection of stills, posters, scripts, clippings, printed programmes, publicity material, production records and files, personal records, storyboards, props and costumes, animation cels, taped interviews, glass advertising slides, ephemera and equipment.

Taonga Maori Collection

The Taonga Maori Collection consists of items with significant Maori content.

This includes records of karanga, whaikorero, iwi and hapu whakapapa, powhiri, wharenui and marae, kapa haka, Waitangi Day events (from 1934), raranga, tukutuku and whakairo.

The Film Archive actively maintains and develops relationships with whanau, hapu and iwi to ensure appropriate long-term care of and access to the Taonga Maori Collection.

National Television Collection

The Film Archive also maintains the National Television Collection on behalf of NZ on Air.

This means the Film Archive is constantly recording off-air broadcasts including television news, dramas, documentaries, games shows, music videos, infomercials, youth programming and sport.

Maori Television Collection

Maori broadcasting is archived by the Film Archive on behalf of Te Mangai Paho, the Maori Broadcasting Funding Agency.

This collection consists of Maori television programmes across the history of New Zealand broadcasting, with special emphasis on the output of the Maori Television Service over the last 5 years. All genres are represented including all programmes in Te Reo.

The Chapman Collection

The Chapman Collection of television news and current affairs provides a vivid insight into New Zealand politics and society.

Deposited by Professor Robert and Noeline Chapman of the Political Studies Department at Auckland University, the collection starts with impressively consistent audio recordings of television news from the 1960s through to VHS recordings which date from the 1984 snap election. This incredible collection preceeds Television New Zealand's own archival collections of television news.