Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa
12 February 2012 - 7:57 pm NZ time
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Documentaries
This section has documentaries on demand, and information about past and future broadcasts.
There is a separate section for Lectures and Forums.
- 20 Years Out!
- 20 Years Out! marks the twentieth anniversary of the passage of the Homosexual Law Reform Bill in New Zealand.
- A To B
- Amelia Nurse strikes out to discover how planes stay in the air, why boats float and what a dead man's pedal is. She takes us on a helicopter, a ferry, a train, a plane and an evening with Dial a Driver.
- Becoming New Zealand
- George Andrews looks at the people and events that determined the route we followed on our journey towards nationhood.
- Big Science
- Justin Gregory accompanied the winners of the Royal Society of New Zealand's Big Science Adventure competition on their trip to visit astronomers and other scientists in the UK and Italy.
- Books that Built New Zealand
- Four New Zealand writers and thinkers nominate the locally-grown work that they think has done the most to create our country, to inculcate an idea of ourselves and to nurture a notion of New Zealandness.
- Broken River
- Days after the city of Christchurch was devastated by a 6.3 magnitude earthquake, This Way Up's presenter Simon Morton traverses the city using the Avon River as his route.
- City Talk
- The Waitakere Eco Village Project: The hunt is on for a site in Auckland for an ecologically sustainable co-housing community.
- Diary of a Quitter
- After 17 years of smoking, Amelia Nurse gave up. She kept an audio diary as she set the slow wheels of change in motion.
- Earthshock
- A reconstruction from contemporary accounts and eyewitnesses, made in February 1981 by Jack Perkins, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Hawkes Bay earthquake.
- EarthWorks
- A six-part series that explores, reveals and celebrates all the many factors that support life on this planet.
- Enzology
- Radio New Zealand's documentary covering the history of New Zealand's most iconic band - Split Enz.
- Fault Lines
- A special feature about the residents of Canterbury, beginning at the moment when they were jolted awake at 4.35am on Saturday 4 September, and exploring what happened in the days and weeks which followed.
- Flavour
- Flavour comprises taste, aroma, odour, pungency and mouthfeel. Amelia Nurse takes Justin to chef Ryan Tattersal’s restaurant Cobar in Days Bay to discuss these elements of taste and conduct related experiments on the unsuspecting Carol Davidson.
- Flying Nun Records
- One of the great Rock 'n' Roll stories, full of big personalities, high ideals, opportunities both seized and lost, and a soundtrack to die for because, in the end, (as in the beginning) Flying Nun is all about the music.
- Four Regional Parks
- David Steemson visits four Auckland regional parks - Tawhitokino, Awhitu, Duder and Scandrett.
- From Age to Age
- David Steemson talks to people, many of whom have had unusual lives, about growing older.
- Full Name Please
- Amelia Nurse looks below the surface of the names of people we encounter every day to consider what names can tell us about the society they originated from, the naming protocols in other cultures, where they come from and why we have two or more names?
- Global Perspectives
- An annual series in which eight documentary makers from around the world bring together stories that offer unique perspectives and thoughts on a single theme.
- Gone Country
- John Bluck left a busy urban life and moved to a small country village north of Auckland. In this series he describes his attempts to learn the art of living rurally.
- Great Barrier Island
- Great Barrier Island stands ninety kilometres away from Auckland City and is twenty eight thousand hectares of beautiful but rugged landscape and beaches. This four part series looks at issues arising from the changing dynamics of the island.
- Human Rights in Papua
- 2009 marked the 40th anniversary of the incorporation of the Papua region into Indonesia. A controversial UN sponsored referendum decided the former Dutch colony's destiny in 1969, but there's still resistance to Indonesian rule. Johnny Blades of Radio New Zealand International looks at the events of 2009.
- In the Goldilocks Zone
- A six-part series about climate, life, extinction, the great migrations, the rise of civilization, human diseases, and asks the Big Question: what happens now?
- Jack Perkins Retrospective
- A series celebrating the work of New Zealand’s premier radio documentary producer.
- Journey to Haida Gwaii
- A Haida language play revitalises a community facing their language's extinction.
- Literary Translation: Art or Echo?
- A four part New Zealand Society feature series looking at the role of the literary translator and the role of translations in society.
- Marrying Out
- An award-winning radio series on sectarianism and mixed marriage in Australia.
- Mary MacKillop
- A look at New Zealand aspects of the life of Mary MacKillop - the Melbourne woman who co founded the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart) and became Australia's first Saint on 17 October 2010.
- Monumental New Zealand
- Justin Gregory explores our nation’s fascination with monuments, memorials, plaques and statues.
- Muslim Communities in New Zealand
- A four part documentary series exploring the diversity of our country’s Muslim communities.
- Nelsonian Indians
- Jason Moon takes a look into a small but well-established Indian community living in Nelson.
- Ngā Uruora
- A six-part series paralleling the 1995 book: Ngā Uruora - The Groves of Life Ecology and History in a New Zealand Landscape by Geoff Park.
- Nine to Noon in Antarctica
- In early December 2011 Nine to Noon's presenter Kathryn Ryan and producer, Caitlin Cherry were invited by Antarctica New Zealand to visit Scott Base on Ross Island in Antarctica.
- On Safari
- A three part documentary from Lynn Freeman about her experiences in Tanzania and Kenya.
- Pathfinders
- Keith Richardson talks to members of the British Pathfinder squadron whose job was to highlight enemy targets for following bomber crews in the 1940s.
- Pole to Pole
- This three-part documentary series marks the International Polar Year 2007-2008 by exploring some of the world’s most remote and vulnerable regions.
- Queensland's Ark
- Lynn Freeman visits the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary on the Gold Coast armed with a microphone and a curiosity about Australia's endangered creatures.
- RNZI 60th Anniversary
- Radio New Zealand celebrates 60 years of international shortwave broadcasting.
- Sailing
- In this New Zealand Society series Amelia Nurse looks into what keeps us returning to the sea.
- Screens in Motion
- While New Zealand is enjoying being in the spotlight for the Rugby World Cup, New Zealand On Screen is putting New Zealand's film and television heritage front and centre.
- Sir Edmund Hillary - A Tribute
- Documentaries about the life of Sir Edmund Hillary and audio from the state funeral.
- Skyhawks
- Amelia Nurse spent some time with former Air Force personnel from No 75 (Skyhawks) Squadron.
- Solander's Legacy
- There were two botanists on the Endeavour when it arrived in New Zealand in 1769. But only one - Joseph Banks - got all the press coverage. Justin Gregory asks who was the other botanist?
- Spanish Civil War
- Seventy years after the outbreak of war on the 18th July 1936, Radio New Zealand marked the anniversary with the experiences of two Kiwis who helped resist the onslaught of General Franco’s fascists against the government of Spain.
- Specola Vaticana
- Astronomer, meteoriticist and Jesuit Brother Guy Consalmagno gives students from Timaru High School a tour of Specola Vaticana, one of the oldest observatories in the world.
- Tales of New Zealand Chinese History
- Much is known about early Chinese settlement from the first influx of Chinese gold-miners in the mid 1800s, to the anti-Chinese immigration policy that evolved soon after. But some stories have rarely been told.
- The Ballad of Bantam Billy
- Bill Perkins' workmates in a Lancashire coal mine gave him the name 'Bantam Billy'. He was physically small and a fighter - a fighter for socialism which he saw as the only way of alleviating the harsh living and working conditions of the working classes in the 1900s.
- The Best Medicine
- In this New Zealand society feature Amelia Nurse takes a look at humour.
- The Blerta Years
- BLERTA was formed 35 years ago and included some of the country's most talented musicians, actors, filmmakers, lighting technicians and their families. This documentary charts their history as they led a revolutionary charge in culturally challenged New Zealand.
- The Golden Tide
- This five part documentary series takes a fresh, contemporary look at the changing nature of the Chinese community in New Zealand.
- The Republic of Whangamomona
- Justin Gregory takes the Forgotten World Highway to stay at an historic hotel, rediscover a lost civilisation, talk about the past, present and future and join the locals for a drink or two as they celebrate all things Taranaki.
- The Returning
- A tribute to New Zealand poets Alistair Te Ariki Campbell and Meg Campbell.
- The Trouble Begins at Eight
- A four-part documentary series on American author Mark Twain’s 1895 lecture tour of New Zealand.
- Victoria - The Evolution of a Great Pop Song
- Justin Gregory traces the evolution of a great pop song and a classic New Zealand music video.
- Watching the whales in Vava'u, Tonga
- Justin Gregory visits Tonga for an ocean field trip with scientist Kirsty Russell from the South Pacific Whale Research Consortium.
- Wobblies Down Under
- Jared Davidson uncovers the story of the Industrial Workers of the World and their repression in NZ during the early 1900s and World War I