Film Archive makes a home in Rotorua

Imagine having over 150,000 slices of New Zealand’s film and television history, from 1895 to the present, at your fingertips - and you don’t have to travel further than the Rotorua library.

The New Zealand Film Archive will be available on-site at the Rotorua District Library from June 3, providing immediate access to hundreds of titles and an online portal to over 150,000 feature films, short films, newsreels, documentaries, home movies, music videos, TV shows, commercials, experimental films and video arts - all for free.

The Friends of the Rotorua District Library has been instrumental in supporting the initiative.

A public launch function is set for 10am and 12midday, Friday June 3 in the Arawa Room, featuring a presentation from the Film Archive’s Diane Pivac with an illuminating tour of national and Rotorua’s local history. Media wishing to attend should contact Film Archive communications manager Phil Reed on 04 384 7647 ext 823.

The presentation has a significant local focus. Rotorua has been a spectacular backdrop for many of our homemade dramas, from the Romance of Hinemoa and Under the Southern Cross in the 1920s, the Howard Morrison showpiece Don't Let it Get You, a young Temuera Morrison in the short film Rangi's Catch, to the psycho-thriller feature Crush by Alison McClean.

There will also be home movies of caravans and tourists walking amongst the mudpools and shooting geysers. You could compare the welcome of Queen Elizabeth in 1953 to those of her parents fifty years earlier, or just put your feet up and savour the old ways of trout fishing.

Rotorua Library Manager, Jane Gilbert said the Film Archive’s arrival adds a new dimension to the library experience. “Having the Film Archive’s collection available here in Rotorua should be a real hit, both with locals and tourists,” she said. “We’re looking forward to pressing the button on the full Film Archive service in June.”

Based in Wellington, the Film Archive has successfully initiated 12 locally-based sites around New Zealand in libraries, museums and art galleries. Using modern digital video technology, the sites offer playlists of locally-themed and topical content for immediate and free use.

Meanwhile, it also offers a portal to the full array of Film Archive content which can be distributed on request. Researchers, students, inquisitive citizens or even just Joe Public with a few hours to spare can get access to a lifetime of New Zealand’s moving image history.

So if you want to look back at a slurring Robert Muldoon, marvel at a Colin Meads rampage, laugh nostalgically at life on a local farm, or catch the award-winning short film Two Cars, One Night, then you need only go as far as the Film Archive at the Rotorua District Library.

www.filmarchive.org.nz