The Concert for Bangladesh

A film about the first benefit rock concert when major musicians performed to raise relief funds for the poor of Bangladesh. The Concert for Bangladesh was a pair of benefit concerts organised by former Beatles guitarist George Harrison and Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar. The shows were held at 2:30 and 8:00 pm on Sunday, 1 August 1971, at Madison Square Garden in New York City, to raise international awareness of, and fund relief for refugees from East Pakistan, following the Bangladesh Liberation War-related genocide.

1972-03-23 | en

Strike! The Village That Fought Back

The inside story of Polmaise Colliery and the miners who were the first to walk out and the last to go back to work during the miners' strike.

2024-03-24 | en

The Hollow Men

The 'stolen' insider emails that informed Nicky Hager's best-selling account of National's 2005 election campaign return in Alister Barry's (Someone Else's Country) new film - just in time to caution us against campaigning politicians in 2008. Addressing each other like schoolboy Machiavellis, party leader Don Brash and his advisors spelled out how they'd copy the big boys in Australia and the US in order to win the votes of people who'd never support the kind of policies such men are widely presumed to represent. The dividing and conquering began at Orewa.

2008-07-07 | en

Bischofferode. Das Treuhand Trauma

In 1990, when Bischofferode entered the market economy, potash production in East Germany was in third place in the world's export ranking and in West Germany in fourth place. Bischofferöder Kalisalz is of a special quality and the plant therefore had loyal customers in Western Europe, especially in Scandinavia, even before the fall of the Wall. In the West, there is a major competitor - BASF subsidiary Kali und Salz AG from Kassel. The film reconstructs the mega-deal in one of the world's most important raw materials markets. The so-called potash merger was the biggest economic deal of German reunification, which has cost the taxpayer almost two billion euros to date. The Free State of Thuringia - the federal state with the best potash deposits in Germany - is still the big loser of the mega-deal today. Thuringia may be rich, but it loses almost all its potash mines, along with Bischofferode, and now has to spend millions of euros each year to rehabilitate and secure its mines.

2018-07-05 | de

Zielitz - Der Kampf ums Weiße Gold

2020-06-09 | de

My Song Goes Forth

Featuring Paul Robeson, this is the first documentary film to take a serious look at social conditions and race relations in South Africa.

1937-01-01 | en

Offerings to the God of Speed

Short subject documentary about land speed record holder Burt Munro. Produced for NZBC.

1971-01-01 | en

Mind the Gap

Why is the gap between the rich and the poor growing faster in New Zealand than in most other OECD countries? And why is inequality bad for all of us? Award winning documentary maker Bryan Bruce files his special report on what’s gone wrong with our economy and what we can do about it.

2013-04-22 | en

Coal Face

1935 documentary about the hard working life of Welsh coal miners.

1935-06-03 | en

Lost Dinosaurs of New Zealand

The discovery of dinosaurs by retired housewife turned scientist Joan Wiffen has cast a new light on the behaviour of dinosaurs during the late cretaceous period, and the puzzle of why dinosaurs, in general, became extinct. This programme tells the remarkable story of Joan Wiffen, who at age 68, went fossil hunting and found New Zealand's first dinosaur bones.

2002-06-30 | en

The Green Chain

This homegrown Erin Brockovich story follows former Whakatāne sawmill worker Joe Harawira and his long battle to reveal the impact that workplace toxins have had on his community. In the '80s after being afflicted by health issues, Harawira noticed co-workers getting sick. In 1988 he helped found SWAP (Sawmill Workers Against Poisons) and began investigating the effects of exposure to dioxins, a byproduct of timber treatment.

2011-08-20 | en

The Breath Connection

A portrait of free diver Kathryn Nevatt, former World Champion and current New Zealand record holder in all three disciplines.

2019-05-01 | en

Total Steam

Great New Zealand Railway Journeys

2005-12-31 | en

Rails in the Wilderness

Indigenous Logging and Bush Tramways in New Zealand.

2005-12-31 | en

North Island Main Trunk

New Zealand's Epic Railway Story.

2005-12-31 | en

Sabotage

The Second World War is a black page in the history of the Belgian national railways. The company was taken over by the German occupiers and 'trains of death' transported victims of the Nazi regime to concentration camps. In this documentary from 1945 filmmaker Jacques Kupissonoff reconstructs the activities of 'Group G' that specialized in the sabotage of the railway network during the Second World War. The film includes exclusive images of wrecked railway infrastructure.

1945-01-01 | fr

Elementa

A black-and-white visual meditation of wilderness and the elements. Wildlife filmmaker Richard Sidey returns to the triptych format for a cinematic experience like no other.

2020-07-04 | en

The Road Taken

This 1996 documentary takes a nostalgic ride through history to present the experiences of Black sleeping-car porters who worked on Canada's railways from the early 1900s through the 1960s. There was a strong sense of pride among these men and they were well-respected by their community. Yet, harsh working conditions prevented them from being promoted to other railway jobs until finally, in 1955, porter Lee Williams took his fight to the union.

1996-09-12 | en

Dread

An East Coast community in Ruatōria, New Zealand attempts to live in autarchy according to the tenets of their movement. Bob Marley, a prophet of our electronic age, is the soundtrack to the everyday lives of these Māori who feel closer to their own roots by observing a blend of Afro-Carribean Rastafarianism and the Ringatū faith. Merata Mita's camera respectfully portrays this singular cultural dialogue. The outsider cultures of Jamaicans, Ethiopians and Māori have come together, vibrating to a common cosmic chord. They find an underground brotherhood, across continents and seas.

1996-07-26 | en

Māori

This 1981 NFU film is a tour of the contemporary world of Aotearoa’s tangata whenua. It won headlines over claims that its portrayal of Māori had been sanitised for overseas viewers. Debate and a recut ensued. Writer Witi Ihimaera felt that mentions of contentious issues (Bastion Point, the land march) in his original script were ignored or elided in the final film, and withdrew from the project. He later told journalists that the controversy showed that educated members of minority groups were no longer prepared to let the majority interpret the minority view.

1981-07-25 | en