Documentaries are becoming increasingly popular and recognised for the important role that they play – witness the global success of Nobel Prize winner Al Gore’s An Incovenient Truth. Documenting situations, lives and experiences is one of the great aspects of non-fiction material. Non-fiction give us the ability to inquire further, examine and test theories and dig deeper into the causes and after-effects of historic and actual events.
Your library has strong collections of New Zealand history, photography and official information that help give context and meaning to the past. Documenting and archiving are important functions of your library - diaries, photographs and ephemera (posters, handbills and postcards) created by local people are all part of our collections.
Feline folklore - chasing Canterbury's black beast
Prints of Darkness is a documentary made by Mark Orton and Pip Walls about the mysterious beast of the Canterbury hinterland - a large, black cat. Mark Orton tells of his connection to this home-grown folklore and how he wound up in October’s Investigate Magazine. The film is one of many featured in the DOCNZ International Documentary Film Festival, screening in Christchurch from October 25.
New Zealand documentaries are prominent in the festival. Gaylene Preston's Lovely Rita looks at the life of painter Rita Angus, using letters that she wrote to composer Douglas Lilburn to form a commentary to the film. The Nuclear Comeback, directed by Justin Pemberton examines the worldwide nuclear industry and asks if it is time for New Zealand to embrace the split atom.
The sounds of Canterbury
Getting behind the scenes of an escort agency, visiting the Carmelite Monastery or recording in Fiordland is all in a day's work for Deborah Nation. Producer and presenter for Radio NZ’s Spectrum series, one of New Zealand’s longest running documentaries, she shares how she approaches telling stories through sound.
Resource of the Week – digital poster collection
In July, August and September 1981, New Zealand experienced some of its greatest civil disturbances as the South African rugby team toured the country amid violent protest.
This is our initial online collection of posters, digitised from the libraries' ephemera collection for New Zealand Music Month in May 2007.
It's an annual event that's just around the corner. Next week we look at Guy Fawkes, fireworks, and the New Brighton pier.
