Have a question?

Contact Us FAQ

Search results

  • Te Hokinga Mai Te Hokowhitu-a-Tū

    Video

    Look at the smiling soldiers, jam-packed along the ship’s rail, the Māori Pioneer Battalion is home at last.

    After a 36-day journey from Liverpool, the SS Westmoreland arrived in Auckland harbour on the evening of Saturday 5 April 1919. It berthed the following morning and 1,033 personnel disembarked to great fanfare – guns fired a salute, all the ships in the harbour sounded their sirens and horns, three bands played patriotic music and dignitaries greeted the men with brief speeches.

    Renowned Te Arawa leader Mita Taupopoki can be seen with his distinctive tāniko bonnet towards the end of the film clip. One of the haka being performed is the Ngāpuhi war cry “Ka eke te wīwī, ka eke te wāwā” – complete with the leaping in unison and brandishing of taiaha and tewhatewha fighting staffs.

    Following the reception at the wharf the Battalion marched to a pōwhiri at Auckland Domain. Tribes from all over the country gathered to welcome the men home, along with thousands of spectators.

    Of the 43,572 servicemen and nurses who returned home in 63 demobilisation sailings, only the Māori Pioneer Battalion returned together, as a complete unit.

  • The Treaty of Versailles

    Video

    The Paris Peace Conference, also known as the Versailles Peace Conference, saw representatives of the victorious Allied powers meeting to set peace terms for the defeated Central powers after the end of the First World War.

  • Tonight at O’Brien’s

    Video

    Savvy theatre operators were quick to recognise the power of the local when it came to filling the house. Many cinemas employed cameramen to record local events, rapidly processed the films, which were then on the cinema screen within days – and people flocked to see themselves.

    In this case O’Brien’s Empire Theatre, Dunedin’s De Luxe Picture House, filmed the 1921 Anzac Day Parade (25 April) and the unveiling of the North East Valley Memorial. By 28 April the Otago Daily Times carried the advertisement “Special Announcement Re Anzac Day. Pictures of the unveiling, the wreaths, the children, the parade of Anzacs, the councillors and the crowds etc would be shown that night at O’Brien’s”.

    This was a remarkable achievement when you consider the necessary developing, printing, processing, editing and delivery that had to occur to make these events happen so quickly.

  • Just enough speechifying

    Video

    In 1912, Sir Thomas Mackenzie, former Prime Minister, was appointed as the New Zealand High Commissioner to London; a post he held until 1920. Mackenzie was particularly concerned about the treatment of New Zealand soldiers and made several visits to see the troops during the war.

    In this clip, Mackenzie, with his back to the camera, talks to New Zealanders outside the 2nd New Zealand Field Ambulance station.

    During his visit, Mackenzie also joined the 2nd Otago church parade, inspected the New Zealand Engineers and made an address to the 3rd Otago Battalion. At the end of Mackenzie’s visit Major General Sir Andrew Russell noted in his diary: "The whole visit has been successful, fine weather – just enough speechifying but not too much”.

  • Jaffa scenes

    Video

    Street scenes in El Mejdel after the capture of Jaffa on 16 November 1917, by the Wellington Mounted Rifle Regiment, New Zealand Mounted Rifle Brigade and ANZAC Mounted Division.

    A shot of the town hall clock shows that filming had occurred within half an hour of the town’s capture. Members of a New Zealand troop, with their tethered horses, relax on the outskirts of the town. They are cleaning up, smoking and enjoying a drink in the shade after a week of hard riding and heavy fighting.

  • Carving Anzac Day

    Video

    An Anzac Day cinema advertisement encouraging Australians to not only mark Anzac Day as a day of significance but to 'carve’ its meaning into the nation’s psyche.

  • "The first gamble in human life"

    Video

    In 1916 the New Zealand Government introduced conscription (compulsory enlistment for military service), to reinforce the shrinking numbers of men volunteering to serve in WW1. All men eligible for service were then required to register their names and other details, such as age and marriage status. This silent film clip, shot by the government’s own cameraman, shows the first-ever ballot at the Government Statistician’s Office, to determine which registered men would be selected for war service. The registration cards are laid out in boxes on long tables. Their numbers are transferred onto wooden balls which are placed in a rotating tumbler and randomly selected.

    Conscription was politically contentious, and the film shows a party of journalists invited to view and report on the first ballot. They include Harry Holland, reporting for the labour movement paper, the Maoriland Worker. He had been imprisoned for sedition, for speaking out against conscription two years ealier in 1914.

  • The sound of the silents

    Audio

    Although there were no sound tracks recorded, or played, on films made during the First World War, audiences never watched films silently. In cinemas across Australia and New Zealand orchestras (which could mean anything from a single pianist to a full instrumental ensemble) provided music to accompany movies, and played as the audience entered and exited the cinema.

    Violet Donaldson (nee Capstick) worked for many years as a pianist at three cinemas in Timaru.  In this extract she recalls the “primitive conditions” in the theatres and also how she wrote and played tunes based on sheet music she listened to at the music shop she worked at, surprising returned servicemen who weren’t expecting to hear the latest in European music back home.

  • Short films, audiences and nitrate fires

    Audio

    Harry Kennedy was a long-time picture theatre manager in Timaru. In this interview, recorded on his retirement after decades working in showbiz, he recalls the types of films shown to cinema-goers, the enthusiastic applause and appreciation of the audience to films shown to them, as well as one of the hazards of film at the time: a nitrate fire in the biobox (projection booth).

  • Projectionists, orchestras & silent films

    Audio

    Harry Kennedy was a long-time picture theatre manager in Timaru. In this interview, recorded on his retirement after decades working in showbiz, he recalls some of the challenges projectionists faced as well as the sounds that accompanied “silent films”. Sound effects were supplied by staff watching the action on screen, and orchestras, made up of “tip top” musicians”, played music to bring the movies to life.

  • Early newsreels: A 1915 Pathé Animated Gazette

    Video

    People went to cinemas during the war to be entertained, but moving-pictures also played an important role in providing cinema-goers with news and information from abroad. Early newsreels, or topical films, were an important part of the typical cinema programme of the time.

    This film is an example of a full-length Pathé Animated Gazette newsreel that was shown during the war. It demonstrates the contents of these types of films and how they mixed serious topics with more light-hearted footage: scenes of the Algerian Native Cavalry in Flanders, a brief glimpse of King George V and Queen Mary making their way through packed London Streets to a service at St Paul’s Cathedral, the opening of a New Zealand military hospital, and Zouaves (Algerian French Infantry).

  • German war films

    Image

    As the war raged on, all the combatant nations quickly realised the power of film. Germany used its film industry to try to sway the hearts and minds of neutral countries – particularly the United States. This image is from the American trade journal, The Moving Picture World, published in November 1915, and is part of the Henry Gore Collection. It is an example of the feature film propaganda produced by the German film industry for exhibition in the United States, which was still neutral at the time. These types of films was quickly banned from being shown in New Zealand.

  • Bringing the audience into the picture

    Image

    The experience of the cinema-going public remains perhaps the most challenging aspect of understanding film and audiences in New Zealand and Australia during the Great War. This image, taken circa 1910 in an unknown New Zealand cinema, is a rare glimpse back at a packed house.

  • Spruiking the pics

    Image

    Cinema managers pulled out every trick in the book to draw crowds to their theatres, from boys wearing sandwich boards to getting them dressed up in fancy costumes. This picture, which dates from around 1910, is from the E. Trevor Hill album and shows one such advertising stunt. It looks as though the young boys employed by the cinema built the horse-drawn cart which would have been led around the city streets encouraging punters to roll up to that day’s matinee show.

  • “The Answer to Declining Enlistment Numbers”

    Video

    This pro-conscription cartoon appeared shortly after August 1915.  Although Australia had not long been involved in the war, it was already becoming apparent that casualty rates in Turkey were extremely high.

  • Flags for Victory

    Video

    Belgian Flag Days, along with French Flag Days, Violet Day and Wattle Day, occurred across Australia during World War One. They were organised to raise funds, engage communities and encourage new recruits, as well as to honour and pay respect to the wounded, the fallen and their families.  This film shows a Belgian Flag Day held at the former mining town of Burra, South Australia, on 10 May 1915.

  • Dunedin’s movie-maker: Henry Gore and his staff

    Image

    This photograph shows Henry Gore, a prolific Dunedin-based maker of topical (ie. current affairs) films, with the staff of the Plaza Cinema c.1918. Gore was then one of the first New Zealanders with overseas film-making experience, since he had travelled to Hollywood two years earlier.

  • The Pioneers - Graveyard scene

    Image

    The lost 1916 Australian silent movie The Pioneers is known only from contemporary descriptions and a few stills such as this one, probably from the closing scenes of the film. It shows Deirdre, played by Alma Rock Phillips, and a boy contemplating the graves of pioneers Donald and Mary Cameron.

  • ‘It's a Long Way to Tipperary’

    Video

    In this animated film, a British soldier dodges bullets and explosions. He grits his teeth as he thinks, ‘It’s a Long Way to Tipperary’. If you want to sing along, as cinema audiences did when it was presented, the lyrics are right there on the screen.

  • The Pioneers - In the bush

    Image

    Well-known actors, elaborate sets and a sizeable budget were assembled to make The Pioneers. This 1916 silent movie, set in the 19th century, follows the lives of a pioneering family and two escaped convicts. The film is considered lost and is known only from contemporary descriptions and a few stills such as this one. It probably shows the pioneering couple Mary and Dan Cameron, cutting timber in the bush.

  • Tamworth celebrates the 8-hour day and war efforts

    Video

    Rain poured and cold winds blustered, but that didn’t dampen Tamworth’s annual 8 hour day festivities and patriotic parade on 23 October 1916.

  • "Shine, Sir?" Kiwi Boot Polish advertisment

    Video

    In this groundbreaking early cinema ad, Boot Room staff at London’s Imperial Hotel depart to join the Army, leaving the hotel short-staffed. Two boys offer to tackle the guests’ footwear. Thanks to the Kiwi Polish bought for them by a kind Australian soldier, they polish and buff their way into employment.

  • Mutiny of the Bounty: Daybill

    Image

    The daybill, or poster, for the first known cinematic dramatisation of the story Mutiny of the Bounty, directed by Raymond Longford  (1916).

  • Charlie Chaplin at the Sydney Show?

    Video

    Was Charlie Chaplin at Sydney’s 1916 Royal Easter Show? Yes, but not the real Charlie Chaplin. Just one of thousands of impersonators, as Chaplin’s worldwide fame grew.

  • Officer 666

    Video

    This two-minute clip is taken from the Australian-made 1916 silent comedy Officer 666, based on a Broadway play. The director, Fred Niblo, also stars as millionaire Travers Gladwin. To foil an art theft, Gladwin disguises himself as Police Officer 666. However, one of the thieves arrives disguised as Gladwin, and merry confusion ensues.

    As war raged across Europe, and Hollywood began building cinema audiences internationally, the Australian film industry was thriving. An impressive 16 feature films were released in 1916. Officer 666 was one of four features released by theatrical company J.C. Williamson. Williamson aimed to film hit US plays before the American companies, and then import them into Australia.

  • Percy’s First Holiday

    Video

    W.S. Percy was a favourite Australian comic opera star. This film clip shows the crowd outside Sydney’s Crystal Palace cinema for a special matinee screening of his first film, Percy’s First Holiday.

  • The first ‘War Year’ Melbourne Cup - 1915

    Video

    The Great War did not succeed in killing interest in horseracing in Australia. The 1915 Melbourne Cup was filmed and screened less than 24 hours after the race. 

    Since 1896 the Melbourne Cup was filmed annually and screened shortly afterwards. In 1915 the tradition continued with the filming of the same scenes Marius Sestier had originally filmed in 1896. This Australasian Films newsreel reveals how far filmmaking had come in just those nine years. Camera techniques had become more dynamic and creative, and the film industry was a crucial element in the circulation of news.

  • Trentham Military Training Camp

    Video

    This film shows a panoramic view of Trentham Military Training Camp, north of Wellington. In the foreground, groups of men can be seen practising drills. Behind them is the camp; a few permanent structures surrounded by rows of characteristic cone-shaped tents. Trentham was where many soldiers of the Main Body completed their brief training.

  • Training at Trentham

    Video

    The New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF) required fit, young, trained solders, both to prepare them for the realities of marching and fighting on the Western Front, but also to reinforce those who met their deaths there. Many men who were trained during the First World War had already received compulsory drilling during junior cadet training at school. The Trentham Military Camp in the Hutt Valley was opened in 1915 to accommodate and train newly recruited soldiers before they were sent to Europe, where their training would continue.

  • HMS New Zealand anchored at Dunedin

    Video

    In 1913 the brand-new HMS New Zealand steamed around the North and South islands, docking at every harbour or anchoring offshore to receive visitors. The citizens of Dunedin were disappointed that the ship was obliged to anchor in the lower harbour, due to concerns over the depth of the inner harbour and a lack of suitable docking facilities. Nevertheless, boatloads of people made their way out for tours, as did the prolific local film-maker Henry Gore. This film, taken for exhibition in a local cinema, shows the New Zealand from the water, the forward 12-inch guns and the ship’s coat of arms. Look out for a glimpse of a man operating the ship’s flashlight. He wears a civilian suit and so is not a regular sailor, but perhaps one of Gore’s assistants taking a rare leading role.

  • Dust in our ears, eyes, mouth, nose and everywhere

    Video

    In late 1914 the New Zealand and Australian forces were diverted from their original destination of England to Egypt. There they combined to form the ANZAC Corps that would eventually fight in the Gallipoli campaign. This film shows an activity that became a routine part of soldiers’ life - the troop inspection.

    As well as the blazing Egyptian heat, the ANZAC troops had another menace to contend with – dust. Herbert Hart wrote in his diary “[t]he sand is worked into such fine dust near camp, that it now flies everywhere whenever the troops move over it. We had dust in our ears, eyes, mouth, nose and everywhere, it fell from our puggarees [cloth wrapped around the regulation sun helmets], pouches, pockets, putties [long cloth strips wrapped around the calves] or from all our clothes.”

  • Tea for two, and an unknown soldier

    Video

    In the war years, home movie-making in New Zealand was a rare event. Intimate scenes like the ones shown in this film are even rarer. We believe that this is Rob Millington, who is pictured having tea at his home in Wellington in 1916, with his fiancée Daisy and their cat. Millington was a camera operator employed by Henry Hayward. Soon after this film was made Millington signed up to serve with the merchant navy as a wireless operator; he was killed in November 1917 when the ship he was serving on, the Aparima, was sunk by a German torpedo. The name of the older soldier shown toward the end of the film is unknown. He may be a relative of the Hayward or Fuller families, who were both prominent NZ cinema-owning families.

    This film is an uncommon portrait of an individual soldier at a time when only large bodies of men were usually shown on screen.

  • A sea of faces say goodbye in Dunedin

    Video

    Tahuna Park in Dunedin was the initial training camp for soldiers of the Otago and Southland Section of the Main Body of the NZEF. It was also the site for this civic reception farewelling the men on 16 September 1914. The Otago Daily Times reported that “seldom, if ever, has such a large Dunedin crowd been gathered together at one time." (17 September 1914, p. 2).

    The soldiers seem all smiles and expectant faces, and eager to be off to war. The film also gives rare glimpses of how Dunedin people felt as their fathers, husbands, brothers and sons headed off to the front. There is a sense of apprehension amongst this sea of faces, and it was well founded. Many of the troops shown in this film later became casualties of the 1915 Gallipoli Campaign.

  • An army marches on its stomach

    Video

    Raising the main body of the NZEF was a huge logistical exercise and needed to be done quickly. By early August 1914 the first recruits arrived at training camps established in the four military regions across the country (Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Otago-Southland). One of the most important tasks, beside basic training, was housing and feeding the new troops.

    Tahuna Park in Dunedin was chosen as the initial training camp for the Otago-Southland region. This rare ‘behind the scenes’ footage shows the work of the tin shed cookhouse set up to feed the 1100 men camped there. The Cook Sergeant, with a bandaged arm, orders around the cookhouse fatigues (work teams). Notice how everyone is puffing away on pipes or cigarettes, adding extra fibre, flavour and aroma to the camp stew!

  • “Jimmys and Nellies”, 1912

    Video

    In the years around the First World War the midsummer picnic on the beach was a highlight of the year in the rural North Island district of Taranaki. In January 1912 the picnic was filmed by the region’s own cinema mogul and movie producer, Garnett Saunders. A week later, scenes of the pillow fights on the beam, barrel rolling and tape chewing competitions were screened to a capacity audience at Saunders’ New Theatre in New Plymouth. The local newspaper reported, “parents joyfully recognising their own particular 'Jimmys' and 'Nellies', and some groups of merrymakers gave vent to their feelings in little suppressed exclamations of satisfaction".

    A year after the war ended, the picnic was held again. The games and competitions were the same, but there would have been a distinct decrease in the number of men present.

  • Fashion on the field, 1912

    Video

    “To-day is Taranaki Cup day – the sportsman’s day in Taranaki – and from near and far worshippers at the shrine of Pegasus will do pilgrimage to the local racecourse to lay their offerings on the altar of sport.” (Taranaki Daily News, 14 February 1912)

    By 1912 signs of militarism in New Zealand - like compulsory military training, and the commissioning of the battleship HMS New Zealand - were increasing. In the rural province of Taranaki, however, the threat of war seemed a million miles away as crowds assembled for the Taranaki Cup horse race. They are seen here dressed in their finest, parading on the lawn, meeting and greeting, seeing and being seen. These scenes were quickly processed and screened at the local Empire Picture Palace, “the home of intellectual refinement”, the very next day.

  • New furs from Georges

    Video

    While a bitter war raged on the other side of the world, some wealthy Melbourne residents carried on with their lives just as usual. This 1915 newsreel item shows women modelling expensive fur coats, stoles, muffs and hats for Georges Department Store in Collins Street, Melbourne. Georges was a 'favoured spot with most of the smartest people in Melbourne'. The furs shown here would have been beyond the reach of most Melbourne residents at that time. As the war progressed, public condemnation of excessive or wasteful fashion became more prominent in the press.

    Originally silent, this footage has had the 1911 song Every Girl is a Fisher Girl added.

  • “The Rushin’ Bear and the Flying Turk”

    Video

    Australian sketch artist and caricaturist Harry Julius often ridiculed the enemy by using the techniques of political cartoonists. In this episode of his weekly Cartoons of the Moment, ironically captioned The German Dove of Peace, an eagle represents Germany. His second sketch deals provocatively with contemporary fashion trends, while the third refers to the ‘Rushin’ Bear’ and the ‘Flying Turk’ to show the capture of the eastern Turkish city of Erzurum by Russian forces in February 1916.

  • Departure of Reinforcements for the Front

    Video

    Troops (seen from dock) wave from ship prior to departure. Numerous civilians hold streamers connected with occupants of ship, while other civilians wave handkerchiefs as the ship leaves the wharf. The HMAT A20 Hororata weighed 9,400 tons with an average cruise speed of 14 knots or 25.92 kmph. It was owned by the New Zealand Shipping Co Ltd, London, and leased by the Commonwealth until 11 September 1917.

  • A troopship departs for Albany, 1914

    Video

    When Australia entered the First World War in support of Britain, ships were urgently needed to transport troops to the distant battlefields. The hastily refitted ships also had to carry the troops’ horses and military stores, plus wool, metals, meat, flour and other foodstuffs, mainly for the armies of Britain and France. This film shows the loading and departure of troops HMAT (His Majesty’s Australian Transport) A20 Hororata from Port Melbourne, Victoria on 18 October 1914. Troops move up the gangplanks of the transport ship. A tug then tows the Hororata out of port and it joins other ships in the convoy to head out to sea.

  • ‘Worst comes to wurst’

    Video

    A German soldier’s horse is turned into German sausage (or ‘wurst’) in the first sketch in this weekly episode of Harry Julius’ Cartoons of the Moment. Next, a battered fez-wearing turkey represents the beleaguered Turkish forces. In the third sketch of this clip, Kaiser Wilhelm II – the Crown Prince of Germany – is caricatured with human skulls adorning his uniform to emphasise the enormous loss of life suffered by German troops.

  • Farewelling troops in Wellington

    Video

    This rare film records a civic ceremony for New Zealand troops departing for the front. It shows the official farewell to the Wellington Section of the NZ Expeditionary Force on 24 September 1914. The troops are inspected by a group of dignitaries, including Prime Minister William Massey, Lord Liverpool the Governor-General and Major General Sir Alexander Godley. They then march four abreast down Adelaide Road and along Lambton Quay, Wellington’s main shopping street. The men of the NZEF are then seen crammed on board the deck and high up on the rigging of a troopship. Most have happy faces as they await what they expected would be a grand adventure. Contrast this with the more subdued figures of the 6th Reinforcement who appear at the end of the film. They are seen departing for the front in August 1915, when the horrors of the Gallipoli Campaign had become widely known.