Best Kiwi documentary movies
A curated collection of popular documentary movies from New Zealand.
Nancy Wake: The White Mouse (2014)
Nancy Wake: The White Mouse (2014)
The thrilling true story of a NZ-born heroine who became the Gestapo's most wanted woman in WWII. This showcase documentary-drama follows Nancy Wake's remarkable life.
Mururoa 1973 (1973)
Mururoa 1973 (1973)
In 1973 Alister Barry joined the crew of a protest boat (The Fri) to Mururoa Atoll, where the French Government were testing nuclear weapons. Barry records the assembly of the crew, the long journey from Northland, and their reception in the test zone; when The Fri was boarded and impounded by French military he had to hide his camera in a barrel of oranges.
Chris Cree Brown: Electronic Composer (1980)
Chris Cree Brown: Electronic Composer (1980)
“Sonic artist” Chris Cree Brown discusses composing with new media and how he orchestrates particular sounds into formal compositional structures. Some sounds are made instrumentally, while others are recorded from his environment. In 1980 few classically-trained musicians in New Zealand experimented with synthesized sound and the gloriously large and sturdy equipment Brown uses to create his music will be of sure anthropological interest to many musos. The documentary was recorded with no script to capture the true art of creation.
Swagger of Thieves (2018)
Swagger of Thieves (2018)
Over a decade in the making, Swagger of Thieves follows rock band Head Like a Hole from the top of the charts to the bottom of a needle. Staring down their age, two pals and the main guts of HLAH, frontman Nigel Booga Beazley and 'co- conspirator' Nigel Regan strut the hard road out of hell, fighting to reconnect and return their band to past glory, amidst disgruntled band mates, a changed music industry, and disappointed wives. Struggling to place past addictions and sabotaged dreams behind them in their continuing quest for rock music relevance, the ever-collapsing binary stars of any Head Like a Hole lineup, are certain (not) to polish their legacy here. Swagger of Thieves captures what it means to be in a band with a reputation. Unrelentingly raw, wild and honest, to the point of being one of the most insightful music documentaries ever made. Essential viewing. New Zealand International Film Festival (NZIFF), Melbourne International Documentary Film Festival (MIDFF)
The Beths - Auckland, New Zealand, 2020 (2021)
Poi E: The Story of Our Song (2016)
Poi E: The Story of Our Song (2016)
Written and directed by Tearepa Kahi (Mt Zion) and starring Maaka Pohatu (The Modern Maori Quartet, Two Little Boys) the film tells the story of musician Dalvanius Prime and the origin of the song “Poi E”, a ground-breaking fusion of 1980s pop and traditional Māori music. “Poi E”, composed by Dalvanius and Ngoingoi Pēwhairangi and performed by the Patea Māori Club, remains the only song in Te Reo Māori to reach No 1 in the charts, over 30 years since its 1984 release.
Serj Tankian - Elect The Dead Symphony (2010)
Serj Tankian - Elect The Dead Symphony (2010)
Grammy award winning maestro of rock Serj Tankian is releasing his first live album that features a full orchestral performance of his critically-acclaimed debut solo rock album 'Elect The Dead'. With The Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra at his side, Tankian's epic songs and operatic vocals take on a whole new sense of grandeur when accompanied with a full 70 piece orchestra.
Alien Weaponry: Kua Tupu Te Ara (2025)
Alien Weaponry: Kua Tupu Te Ara (2025)
A documentary showcasing a group of young Maori musicians and their rise to fame, along with the struggles that come from success at a young age.
Mothers of the Revolution (2021)
Mothers of the Revolution (2021)
On 5th September 1981, a group of women came together to change the world. These women marched from Wales to Berkshire to protest over nuclear weapons being kept at RAF Greenham Common. The Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp that followed, challenged world leaders, altering the course of history and went on to inspire millions as the world’s first and biggest female-only demonstration, preceded only by the suffragettes.
Sir Len Southward: The Man, His Machines, The Museum (1998)
Sir Len Southward: The Man, His Machines, The Museum (1998)
A documentary about Sir Len Southward OBE and his collection of vehicles at his Southward Car Museum in Paraparaumu, New Zealand, among the largest car museums in the world.
Māori (1981)
Māori (1981)
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.
Gung Ho - Rewi Alley of China (1980)
Gung Ho - Rewi Alley of China (1980)
Expat Kiwi Rewi Alley became one of the best known foreigners in 20th Century China and advocate for the Communist Revolution. When China was under siege from Japan in the late 1930s, Alley instigated an industrial co-op movement he termed ‘gung ho' (work together). Its success led to the phrase entering the global idiom. For this documentary a Geoff Steven-led crew travelled 15,000km in China in 1979, filming Alley as he gave his account of an engrossing, complex life story. Co-writer Geoff Chapple later wrote a biography of Alley.
Beyond The Edge (2013)
Shackleton's Captain (2012)
Shackleton's Captain (2012)
In 1914 Sir Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans Antarctic Expedition headed for the South Pole and disaster. Shackleton's Captain reveals the truth behind the spectacular survival of all the crew and shows how one man's extraordinary skill and unsung heroism made it possible: Frank Worsley, Captain of the expedition ship, Endurance.
Six Angry Women (2021)
Six Angry Women (2021)
Revisit the events of 1984, when six female vigilantes kidnapped an Auckland University lecturer and assaulted him in a violent political action, triggering debates about gender politics that divided New Zealand and led to social change.
Rain of the Children (2008)
Rain of the Children (2008)
In Rain of the Children, Ward further explores the subject of his earlier film, In Spring One Plants Alone when, as a young film student he travelled to the Ureweras and documented the lives of an elderly Māori woman (Puhi) and her schizophrenic son (Niki).
Tickled (2016)
Tickled (2016)
Journalist David Farrier stumbles upon a mysterious tickling competition online. As he delves deeper he comes up against fierce resistance, but that doesn’t stop him getting to the bottom of a story stranger than fiction.
West of Memphis (2012)
West of Memphis (2012)
The documentary tells the hitherto unknown story behind an extraordinary and desperate fight to bring the truth to light. Told and made by those who lived it, the filmmakers' unprecedented access to the inner workings of the defense allows the film to show the investigation, research, and appeals process in a way that has never been seen before; revealing shocking and disturbing new information about a case that still haunts the American South.
McLaren (2016)
Capital in the Twenty-First Century (2019)
Billion Dollar Heist (2023)
Billion Dollar Heist (2023)
Global, dynamic, and eye-opening, this is story of the most daring cyber heist of all time, the Bangladeshi Central Bank theft, tracing the origins of cyber-crime from basic credit card fraud to the wildly complex criminal organisations in existence today, supported by commentary and fascinating insight from highly regarded cyber security experts.
Mister Organ (2022)
Mister Organ (2022)
Following reports of fraudulent car clamping in Auckland, journalist and filmmaker David Farrier opens an investigation that pushes him to the limits of his sanity in this incredible true story of psychological warfare.
Chasing Great (2016)
Chasing Great (2016)
Chasing Great is an insightful portrayal that weaves Richie McCaw's life story into his final season as an All Black, revealing the determination and mental toughness of an international sporting legend who still sees himself as an 'ordinary guy' from small town New Zealand.
Belief: The Possession of Janet Moses (2015)
Belief: The Possession of Janet Moses (2015)
This impressive doco disperses the fog of shame and sensationalism to shed light on the tragedy that made international headlines in 2007 when a young Wainuiomata woman died during a mākutu lifting.
Merata: How Mum Decolonised the Screen (2019)
Merata: How Mum Decolonised the Screen (2019)
This film is an intimate portrayal of pioneering filmmaker Merata Mita told through the eyes of her children. Using hours of archive footage, some never before seen, her youngest child and director Hepi Mita discovers the filmmaker he never knew and shares the mother he lost, with the world.
The Lie: The Murder of Grace Millane (2024)
The Lie: The Murder of Grace Millane (2024)
The shocking murder of 21-year-old British backpacker, Grace Millane, in New Zealand grabbed headlines around the world in 2018, as did the ensuing investigation and trial. This chilling true-crime documentary revisits the night of her tragic murder with previously unseen footage and expert analysis, exploring the alarming, regressive attitudes laid bare in the subsequent trial, and highlighting important, broader issues of violence against women in today’s society.
