Browse documentary movie and series in New Zealand
Dive into the world of documentary movie and series in New Zealand. From timeless classics to trending hits, explore an exciting collection of titles that define the documentary genre.
Explore critically acclaimed blockbusters, hidden gems, and trending new releases that showcase the diversity and creativity of documentary storytelling. Use our filters to find top-rated titles, recent hits, or beloved classics tailored to your taste.
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Movie
Olympic Champion, Kiwi Icon, Tongan Leader, Orphan, Mother...winning was just part of the journey.
Dame Valerie Adams: More Than Gold (2022 )
Movie
The Angels came hurtling out of Adelaide in the 1970s with the searing guitar sound of the Brewster brothers and Doc Neeson, a frontman who was beyond intense. Their songs remain etched in the DNA of this city: Am I Ever Goin’ to See Your Face Again, Take a Long Line, No Secrets. They worked their way up, developing an unmistakably unique musical style. By 1978 they were a behemoth of the local rock scene and on the path to international success… until they just missed their chance. Yet they still revolutionised the Aussie music scene transforming it from pretty pop to gritty guitar rock featuring ferocious and theatrical live shows. Adelaide director Maddie Parry (Hannah Gadsby: Nanette) has made a surprisingly intimate documentary, with band members’ home videos and never-before-seen photos, exploring the internal tensions that strained relationships to breaking point, even while producing incandescent rock’n’roll. - AFF
The Angels: Kickin' Down The Door (2022 )
Movie
The attempted ‘modernisation’ of Melbourne in the 1950s destroyed much of the city, including its elegant cinemas and picture palaces. Now, a new Melbourne-made documentary brings them back to life.
The Lost City of Melbourne (2022 )
Movie
With unprecedented access, filmmakers Noel Smyth and Fergus Grady lift the lid on the secretive Gloriavale Christian Community following a family of survivors searching for justice.
Gloriavale (2022 )
Movie
In the majestic tropical island of Palawan, three environmental crusaders confront murder, betrayal and political corruption in this thrilling documentary about land defenders battling to save and preserve paradise in the Philippines.
Delikado (2022 )
Movie
Our premise is that work has become an act of self-sabotage. Empty corporate jargon, ever-changing management fashions and self-serving bureaucracy masquerading as efficiency hijacked the purpose of work. Creative documentary The Happy Worker will show how we got to this point and the very human behavior that led us here. We want to show how this unhealthy system is maintained and what keeps us from calling bullshit.
The Happy Worker - Or How Work Was Sabotaged (2022 )
Movie
A feature documentary about opera singer Tiriki Onus who finds a 70-year-old silent film believed to be made by his grandfather, Aboriginal leader and filmmaker Bill Onus. As Tiriki travels across the continent and pieces together clues to the film’s origins, he discovers more about Bill, his fight for Aboriginal rights and the price he paid for speaking out.
Ablaze (2022 )
Movie
Queen Elizabeth II. Reigning monarch for over six decades, and the cornerstone of modern British history. Ascending to the throne after the untimely death of her beloved father, King George VI, she has seen the world change drastically, and faced a number of great challenges, both publicly and privately. Her inscrutable commitment to duty, above all else, has defined her lifetime of service to the throne. Take a look back at the incredible and incomparable life of Queen Elizabeth II.
Queen Elizabeth II: Above All Else (2022 )
Movie
The Industrial Age left us with refuse too vast to bury and impossible to ignore. Earth's resources are finite, yet after serving their short-lived purpose, our cars, appliances and electronics takes centuries to decay. These rusting skeletal remains, especially machines that shaped the landscape and our ability to move within it, are valued objects for those willing to reclaim them. A South Dakota farmer transforms oxidized agricultural machinery into beautiful sculptures that reflect the natural world, while across the ocean, British phone booths are painstakingly restored to their former glory. Whether it be living in abandoned aircraft husks on Bangkok's outskirts or transforming freighter ships into architectural wonders, the human capacity to revitalize obsolete artifacts is inspiring.
Scrap (2022 )
TV Show
An intriguing history of Yugoslav nuclear program that proposed to build an atomic bomb and 16 nuclear facilities on Yugoslav soil. Only one project came to fruition, the nuclear power plant in Krsko, Slovenia.
The One and Only (2022 )
L'Incroyable Périple de Magellan (2022 )
TV Show
The Soviet Union was officially formed in 1922, a country, a political experiment, an ideal, a great scar across history. Officially known as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the USSR was a one-party state, governed, controlled, and tormented by a single party rule. That of the Communist Party. Complicated, contradictory figureheads would come and go, men who held this impossible country it seemed by sheer will. Stalin the despot-hero whose cruelty knew few bounds who united a nation to defeat Hitler. Khrushchev the crafty libertarian, who preached reform yet allowed an arms race to escalate. Brezhnev, that unreadable member to the old guard, sending history backwards. And of course Gorbachev, who brought vast change, modernisation, and détente, yet saw the Soviet Union collapse under his rule – the untenable nation. The 20th century was shaped by its convulsions, its purges, its wars, and its leaders.
The Soviet Union: 100th Anniversary 1922 (2022 )
TV Show
Follows the lives of seven Indigenous students as they leave home to spend a year boarding at one of the oldest and most elite boarding schools in the country, Geelong Grammar. Wrestling with their conflicting identities as students move between boarding life and home life, it creates a historic record of one of Australia's key Indigenous education pathways and a complex portrait of what it is to be an Indigenous child in Australia today.
Off Country (2022 )
Art Crimes (2022 )
Movie
World history meets local history on the street corner of Sperlingsberg in Oberdorla, Thuringia. In 1945, an American soldier was shot here. A photo of him became famous and, decades later, is circulating on the internet. Director Christa Pfafferott places this picture at the beginning of her research.
The Corner (2022 )
Movie
The Truth Illusion investigates one of the most profound questions that philosophers through the ages have tried to address. From Plato to Immanuel Kant to Gilles Deleuze, thinkers have asked: what can we prove to be the truth? The investigation examines these questions in the context of the United States today. Is it possible, in such a deeply divided society, for people to view different ‘realities’? The documentary by Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit features commentary from philosophers, psychologists, social scientists and political commentators who discuss how the U.S. is now riven by radically differing views on what is real, and what is not. ‘The Truth Illusion’ looks at how those deepening divisions began, and how they have eroded faith in authority – spawning conspiracy theories and creating ‘alternative realities’.
The Truth Illusion (2022 )
Movie
Olivia Martin McGuire (China Love) parallels a grandfather’s journey to safety during the Cultural Revolution with his granddaughter’s fight for freedom in Hong Kong today. Interweaving unflinching testimony of the elder’s exodus from the Chinese mainland, exquisitely animated recreations of the perilous escape to Hong Kong through land and sea, and vivid, evocative archival footage of both mid-20th-century China and the Hong Kong protests today, Freedom Swimmer emerges as a gripping and timely account of the struggle for survival across generations.
Freedom Swimmer (2022 )
Vira-Lata (2022 )
Movie
Celebrates 60 years of the Bond film franchise. The concert is curated by the legendary Bond composer David Arnold and will feature special guest artists all putting their own interpretation on classic theme songs, backed by the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra. The date marks the anniversary of the premiere of the first 007 film, Dr. No.
The Sound of 007: Live from the Royal Albert Hall (2022 )
Movie
Crump's mission to raise the value of Black life as the civil lawyer for the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Black farmers and banking while Black victims, Crump challenges America to come to terms with what it owes his clients.
Civil: Ben Crump (2022 )
Movie
Maya Mcmanus Ronen's debut film focuses on exploring life in the kibbutz of Neot Smadar. This kibbutz was reestablished by a group of like-minded individuals who left Jerusalem and decided to build a cooperative and horizontally structured community. Every couple of years, a significant event takes place here — residents swap houses with each other. What's unique is that no one knows in advance which house they will receive. Maya Ronen's film is an attempt to peer into the unconventional life of this community, understand the rules it lives by, and delve into the intricacies of the regular ritual of house swapping.
Moving On (2022 )
Movie
A behind-the-scenes look at the production of Rob Zombie's The Munsters (2022). Included as a special feature on the blu-ray.
The Munsters: Return to Mockingbird Lane (2022 )
Movie
November 1st 2007 was ‘All Saints’ Day’, a public holiday in Italy. International student Meredith Kercher’s Italian flatmates were out of town visiting family and fellow student, American Amanda Knox was at her boyfriend’s, Raffaele Sollecito, house. That evening, Meredith went over to see three British friends. That was the last time Meredith was seen alive. This documentary looks at these events.
The Murder Of Meredith (2022 )
Movie
Pigeon masters from across the globe compete in the highest-stakes bird races on the planet. Fame, fortune and livelihoods rest on the wings of these feathered athletes in this hilarious and charming story.
Million Dollar Pigeons (2022 )
Movie
When the Cows Come Home introduces audiences to Tilly and Maggie, a pair of cows that musician, journalist, artist and cow whisperer, Andrew Johnstone has befriended and subsequently saved from slaughter. The garrulous herdsman is enthusiastic to expound his views on animal husbandry, bovine communication and the vagaries of life in general, before the film walks us back through the events that have shaped the singular farmer-philosopher. From personal family tragedy to warring with Catholic school authorities, innovating in Hamilton’s nascent music scene to creating guerrilla art installations; Johnstone’s life has had a truly idiosyncratic trajectory. Mental health issues may have seen him retreat to life on the farm, but the film makes clear its subject’s restless inquisitiveness is far from being put out to pasture.
When the Cows Come Home (2022 )
TV Show
The stories of homesteads through the eyes of the people that occupy them, exploring the culturally significant role they've played in maintaining Māori ties to their ancestral land.
Homesteads (2022 )
TV Show
The extraordinary development of modern techniques and equipment has heralded an inspiring new era in historical research. Now, with exclusive access to a team of experts and historians in Norway who are making astonishing new discoveries, this enlightening and entertaining two-part documentary challenges much of what we think we know about the great Nordic ‘warrior race', the Vikings.
Vikings: The True Story (2022 )
TV Show
Actor and author Ross Kemp dives into the deep ocean to uncover long lost stories and mysteries in this new Sky series, `Ross Kemp: Shipwreck Treasure'. Accompanying him for the dives of a lifetime is expert diver Emily Turton, and together they will go on many expeditions to some of the most famous shipwrecks around the UK. They hope to find answers to long-standing questions, hidden secrets, and any potential treasures that could be lost on the sea floor. Through these wrecks, Britain's complex history will become a little more clear.
Ross Kemp: Shipwreck Treasure Hunter (2022 )
TV Show
World's Deadliest is a clip show in Amazon Prime that covers a wide range of topics from holidays to phobias. The dramatic clips showcase everything from demolitions gone wrong to a bus driver suffering a stroke mid-journey.
World's Deadliest (India) (2022 )
Movie
Edda has been overcome by solastalgia: anguish over the destruction of our planet. Seeking refuge on the North Frisian island of Pellworm, she meets Sophie, a young farmer who is suing the German government for her right to a future, in this artistic, veracious immersion in the lives of the Fridays for Future generation.
Solastalgia (2022 )
Movie
Richard Crawley’s passion for cinema was so ardent that he recorded his young family’s every moment and milestone on video. To pay the bills, he channelled this love for the lens into music photography, snapping such acts as the Rolling Stones, Tina Turner and the Jackson Five. But then tragedy struck and snuffed out Richard’s creative and parental fire. Now, his adult son James attempts to understand Richard’s inner turmoil after discovering 30 hours of confessional footage, in the process making sense of the 70-year-old’s newfound zest for life.
Volcano Man (2022 )
Movie
For decades, Egyptologists have been searching for a priceless treasure that could revolutionize our knowledge of the Pharaonic dynasties: Cleopatra’s tomb. A treasure that has not yet been found. However, the recent discovery of an incredible relic could lead to it. A renowned American collector might hold the key to the mysterious tomb. He recently discovered a perfectly preserved mummified hand, brought back from Egypt in the 18th century. If the accompanying text is to be believed, it is that of Cleopatra VII, the last Queen Pharaoh of this vanished civilization. Could it be true? A thrilling investigation begins to solve a 2,000-year-old enigma. With the help of international experts, we retrace the path of a unique relic from archaeological excavation sites to laboratories, right up to the DNA investigation which - exclusively for this film - will enable us to uncover this strange mystery, and to understand the immutable myth built around Cleopatra.
Cleopatra - The Mystery of the Mummified Hand (2022 )
