About the Images on this Page

Skitz: The Semisis (1998)
Director: Danny Mulheron; Gibson Group
NZFA Stills Collection

This image comes from the opening sequence to Skitz series four, and features Lyndee–Jane Rutherford and Hori Ahipene as members of the Semisi family. Skitz was a comedy series with a mixture of sketches, commercial rip-offs and computer animations. One on-going sketch was an affectionate send up of a Samoan immigrant family, known as Milburn Place. Milburn Place was later renamed The Semisis and was developed into a stand alone series in 1998.

Children of the Sun (c.1970)
Director: Andrew McAlpine; McAlpine Productions
NZFA Stills Collection

Image features a road sign directing traffic to Raglan, location of the best left hand break in New Zealand. McAlpine’s documentary celebrates surfing and surf culture in New Zealand and Australia during the late 1960s. Locations include: Piha, Marsden Point, Mangamaunu (Kaikoura Coast), Gisborne, Whangamata, Eagle Palm (Brisbane) and Noosa Headlands. Features board action from Wayne Parks, Mike Tinkler, John Catherly, Steve King, Roger Linden, Frank Catherly and Alan Burn, plus Australia’s Russell Hughes and Laurie Fineger and George Greenhaugh from California.

Happy Faces at the Duchess Theatre
Last Saturday (1927)
Filmmaker unknown
NZFA Stills Collection

This image of children walking into a movie theatre was the result of an advertisement in the Wanganui Chronicle on 1 October, 1927, announcing that “all children attending this Matinee will be photographed by the ‘movie man’”. Children lined up that day to see The Call of The Wild (1923), featuring ‘Buck the Marvel Dog’. In a steady stream they walked past a sweet shop window and into Wanganui’s Duchess Theatre.

Smash Palace (1981)
Director: Roger Donaldson; Aardvark Films
New Zealand Film Commission
NZFA Stills Collection

Image shows Ray (Keith Aberdein) held hostage by Al (Bruno Lawrence), in a scene near the end of the film. Al is an ex-racing car driver whose marriage is breaking down. He is prevented, by a court order, from seeing his seven year old daughter, Georgie, so he kidnaps her and terrorises the pursuing police. This film was Roger Donaldson’s second feature and the last he made in New Zealand.

The Fisher Monoplane (c.1920)
Camera: Charlie Barton
NZFA Stills Collection

This image shows the Fisher Monoplane on trial in the Wairarapa district on 21 June 1913. The film documents the first successful test flight of a New Zealand-built plane. The footage of the plane was shot in 1913, but the titles suggests that the film was assembled at a later date. The Fisher Monoplane was designed and constructed by DP Fisher in Wellington and was the first aeroplane built in New Zealand to fly successfully. The pilot was Reginald White.

Manly (1943)
Camera: AD Lambourne
NZFA Stills Collection

This image is from home movie footage of the Lambourne family and their friends on a beach holiday. Along with professional film and video, the Film Archive has a unique collection of film shot by people who were not film industry professionals. This type of film production represents the bulk of filmmaking in New Zealand prior to the 1960s, and is a valuable record of New Zealand’s social history.

The Theme Song of the Young New Zealanders’ Club (c.1946)
Filmmaker unknown
NZFA Stills Collection

The theme song and “promise” of the Young New Zealanders Club was hosted by Mr Edward Silver (aka Uncle Neddo), a well known Auckland radio announcer, and played before matinees in Kerridge cinemas across New Zealand: “we are the girls, we are the boys, of the Young New Zealanders Club. So let’s join hands to-gether and never sel-fish be. We’ll tell the world just how proud we are of our grand YNZC.” The club was formed in August 1946 and lasted until 1948.