Home » History » New Zealand History » History of New Zealand Film

History of New Zealand Film

© Philippa Jane Ballantine

The twentieth century has come and gone, but it has left us with many inventions that have changed how we live. We could all argue about what might have been the most significant, but perhaps the one that changed our lives the most, was the invention of moving pictures. They capture our stories, make us laugh and cry, and a nations films, like its books and music, reflects its inner character. So as New Zealand ventures out into a new century, with Peter Jackson bringing the Lord of the Rings to the screen, its good to look back and see where it came from.

In 1898, two years after the first movie had been shown in New Zealand A H Whitehouse shot the first film in the nation. He was one of those pioneer men, carrying his show around the country, through all weather, bringing moving pictures to small New Zealand towns. He captured events of the time including the Auckland Exhibition and racing. These news reels, by Whitehouse and later Joseph Perry, were supplements to those shown of the wider British Empire. They were the first images of New Zealand.

The first feature film however was Hinemoa in 1914. Based on a Maori legend of love and determination, its cast included many locals from the Rotorua area. Movies including New Zealand’s indigenous people were to become a mainstay of the nations film making. Many overseas film makers came over, bringing with them their expertise, and eager to capture unique footage of the Maori. New Zealand had its own version of the Rocky story shot nearly seventy years later with the amusingly titled The Kid from Timaru in 1917.

During the 1920s and 1930s most film shot was scenic or newsreels, with the major exception of The Birth of New Zealand, which featured a re-enactment of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. On that shoot, was a young man named Rudall Hayward, who might have only been assistant director, but would go on to become one of the real pioneers of New Zealand film. In 1921 Hayward had completed his first feature The Bloke from Freeman’s Bay, which his uncle Henry thought was so bad he offered his nephew one hundred and fifty pounds to burn it. But despite that Hayward would become renowned for his 1925 film Rewi’s Last Stand, which he later remade with sound and was released in 1940. He was a determined film maker, and despite the lack of financial success and small budgets, he traveled from town to town, soldiering on.

The copyright of the article History of New Zealand Film in New Zealand History is owned by . Permission to republish History of New Zealand Film in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.