Browse documentary series in New Zealand
Dive into the world of documentary 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.
With Popcorn Time, uncover your next favorite series and enjoy the best of documentary entertainment. Start browsing now and bring documentary into your watchlist today!
TV Show
The story of the Second World War through the personal accounts of a handful of men and women from four American towns. The war touched the lives of every family on every street in every town in America and demonstrated that in extraordinary times, there are no ordinary lives.
The War (2008 )
TV Show
Extreme Fishing with Robson Green is a factual entertainment show broadcast on Channel 5. The show sees actor and fishing enthusiast Robson Green travel around the world in search of the greatest fishing destinations. There have been five series to date. A spin-off series entitled Robson's Extreme Fishing Challenge began airing on 9 April 2012.
Extreme Fishing With Robson Green (2008 )
TV Show
Jaguar Adventure is a series that follows Nigel Marven to the Pantanal, the world's biggest wetland and home to the planet's largest population of jaguars. Can Nigel realise his childhood dream of coming eyeball to eyeball with a jaguar in the wild?
Jaguar Adventure With Nigel Marven (2008 )
TV Show
A 10-part series filmed aboard the USS Nimitz, is a character-driven immersion in the high- stakes world of a nuclear aircraft carrier. The episodes follow a core group of characters as they navigate their jobs, families, faith, patriotism, love, the rites of passage and the war on terror.
Carrier (2008 )
Lady Killers With Martina Cole (2008 )
TV Show
First Australians is an Australian historical documentary series produced by Blackfella Films over the course of six years, and first aired in October 2008. The documentary is part of a greater project that further consists of a hard-cover book, a community outreach program and a substantial website featuring over 200 mini-documentaries. The series chronicles the history of contemporary Australia, from the perspective of its first people, or Aborigines. The series is essentially a synthesis of well documented historical information. It relies heavily on archival documents and interpretations from historians and members of both the Indigenous and European community and leaders. The story begins in 1788 in Sydney, with the arrival of the First Fleet and ends in 1993 with Koiki Mabo's legal challenge to the foundation of Australia. The series comprises seven episodes in which it explores what unfolded when the oldest living culture in the world was confronted by the British Empire. It explores the lives of particular individuals and uses their stories as a vehicle to explain the larger situations of the time. It explains violent aspects of European settlement of Australia, such as killings, battles, wars, as well as acts of friendship and decency between the early European settlers and Indigenous Australians. Indigenous Australian history has until recently been clouded by the "great Australian silence" where ignorance of the real history of Australia can be seen as a way for non-Indigenous to hide shame for their own history. In this respect it has been controversial in that many of these stories have not been portrayed on Australian television before and the Indigenous Australian perspective of European settlement is confrontational for many.
First Australians (2008 )
TV Show
Dodging landslides in Tajikistan. Crossing bridges that could collapse at any moment in Madagascar. Battling mountain monkeys in Guyana. Journeying on icy, mountainous roads in Ladkh. Every day, children, migrants and workers undertake incredible journeys. In this action packed series, we tell their stories.
Deadliest Journeys (2008 )
TV Show
Through unprecedented access we showcase the spectacle that is Wild Russia. From east to west, via mountains, volcanoes, deserts, lakes and Arctic ice, this breathtaking six-part series uses stunning cinematography to chart the dazzling natural wonders of this vast country.
Wild Russia (2008 )
TV Show
Urban Legends is a 30 minute 2007 television documentary-style series hosted by Michael Allcock. David Hewlett became the new host in 2011. In each episode, three urban legends are dramatized and presented to the television audience; the audience is then to speculate which one or two of the three is true. Each legend has witnesses to tell the story. For the one or two fake legends, the witnesses are actors, while the true legend uses real people affected by the story. Included in each episode are two quick quiz-like stories, called mini-myths, which air before the commercial breaks. Each will begin with the number of the mini myth and its name, followed by the story. After the commercial, the answer to the mini-myth is announced and the rest of the programming continues as it previously had. The show originally aired on the Biography Channel in the U.S., History Television in Canada and FX in the United Kingdom where it was hosted by Mark Dolan. It has also aired in Argentina, New Zealand, Sweden, Norway, Australia, Finland, Estonia, The Netherlands, Russia, Hungary and Denmark. The series briefly returned to the Syfy network as an "Original Series" with new episodes starting on Monday April 18, 2011, then moved to the regular time, Fridays at 10. The new episodes followed exactly the same format as the original but were narrated by Stargate's David Hewlett. The show now airs occasionally as reruns and mini-marathons on both SyFy and Chiller.
Urban Legends (2007 )
TV Show
The story of the discovery that everything is made from atoms, one of the greatest scientific breakthroughs in history, and the brilliant minds behind it.
Atom (2007 )
TV Show
Monkey Life was created in 2006 and has continuously documented the work of Dr. Alison Cronin, MBE and her team at Monkey World; Ape Rescue Centre. Filmed at Monkey World in Dorset, Monkey Life follows the rescue and rehabilitation of abused and neglected primates. Many have mental as well as physical problems so the Primate Care Staff treat their individual needs until they can be reintegrated with primates of their own kind. The primates at the park range from apes, who were taken from the wild as babies and used as photographers props on Spanish beaches to monkeys, many of which were rescued from the UK pet trade. With unparalleled access Monkey World's dedicated team are filmed dealing with medical emergencies, primate moves, births and sometimes heart-breaking decisions. We follow Dr. Alison Cronin, MBE around the globe as she continues the park's mission to rescue abused primates. Monkey Life documents the daily life and drama of the world’s largest primate rescue centre.
Monkey Life (2007 )
TV Show
Three years after Long Way Round, Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman set off on a 15,000-mile journey from the northernmost tip of Scotland to the southernmost tip of South Africa, mixing their love of motorcycles with the lure of far-flung roads.
Long Way Down (2007 )
TV Show
Documentary series that charts the history of France's capital and its emergence as the world's most stylish and romantic city.
Paris (2007 )
Captain Cook: Obsession and Discovery (2007 )
Constructing Australia (2007 )
TV Show
Good Game is a program dedicated to video gaming. Each week it is jam-packed with the latest gaming news and events, top gaming tips, reviews and interviews with game developers and the people behind the scenes.
Good Game (2006 )
TV Show
A four-part history of the Inquisition, a 500-year campaign against heretics by the Roman Catholic Church initiated by Pope Gregory IX. The series benefits from the 1998 release of secret Vatican files.
Secret Files of the Inquisition (2006 )
TV Show
Ross Kemp on Gangs is a BAFTA award-winning documentary series that was broadcast on Sky1 from 16 October 2006 to 22 September 2008. On 20 May 2007 the series won a BAFTA award for best factual series. The show is hosted by actor Ross Kemp, best known for his role of Grant Mitchell in the show EastEnders where Kemp's character was involved in several storylines involving gangs. On the show Kemp travels around the world talking to gang members, locals who have been affected by gang violence, and the authorities who are attempting to combat the problem. In each episode he attempts to establish contacts within the gangs who can arrange interviews with the gangs' leaders.
Ross Kemp on Gangs (2006 )
TV Show
Final 24 is a Canadian documentary series which airs on the Discovery Channel and Global Television Network. The series explores the last 24 hours of the life of a person, usually a celebrity. The series is narrated by Canadian voice artist Dave McRae and Danny Wallace in the UK.
Final 24 (2006 )
TV Show
Five families struggle with the ups and downs of cancer treatment over the course of six years.
A Lion in the House (2006 )
TV Show
Mega Disasters is an American documentary television series that originally aired from May 23, 2006 to July 2008 on The History Channel. Produced by Creative Differences, the program explores potential catastrophic threats to individual cities, countries, and the entire globe. The two "mega-disasters" of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and Hurricane Katrina in 2005 inspired the series and provided a reference point for many of the episodes. Excepting only two shows devoted to man-made disasters, the threats explored can be divided into three general categories: meteorological, geological, and cosmic hazards.
Mega Disasters (2006 )
TV Show
Some of the most notorious murderers in recent history are examined. Using dramatic reconstruction and expert testimony, this is a forensic account of the perpetrators and the detectives in the crimes that shook the world.
Crimes That Shook the World (2006 )
TV Show
e² design is an ongoing PBS series about the pioneers and innovators in the field of sustainable architecture, and how their work is producing solutions to pressing environmental and social challenges. Now entering its third season, the series features compelling stories from around the globe: Beijing to Nova Scotia, Ladakh to New York. Each episode examines the built environment's effects — both ecological, and social — and the design innovations that can reduce buildings' contribution to climate change. e² design is narrated by Brad Pitt.
e² design (2006 )
Khawater (2005 )
TV Show
The F Word is a British food magazine and cookery programme featuring chef Gordon Ramsay. The programme covers a wide range of topics, from recipes to food preparation and celebrity food fads. The programme is made by Optomen Television and aired weekly on Channel 4. The theme tune for the series is "The F-Word" from the Babybird album Bugged.
The F Word (2005 )
TV Show
The show features accounts of individuals and groups caught in dangerous scenarios, presented both through interviews and dramatic reenactments. The main focus is how the survivors survived and the decisions they made that kept them alive.
I Shouldn't Be Alive (2005 )
TV Show
Meerkat Manor is a British television programme produced by Oxford Scientific Films for Animal Planet International that premiered in September 2005 and ran for four series until its cancellation in August 2008. Blending more traditional animal documentary style footage with dramatic narration, the series told the story of the Whiskers, one of more than a dozen families of meerkats in the Kalahari Desert being studied as part of the Kalahari Meerkat Project, a long-term field study into the ecological causes and evolutionary consequences of the cooperative nature of meerkats. The original programme was narrated by Bill Nighy, with the narration redubbed by Mike Goldman for the Australian airings and Sean Astin for the American broadcasts. The fourth series, subtitled The Next Generation, saw Stockard Channing replacing Astin as the narrator in the American dubbing. Meerkat Manor premiered in the United Kingdom on 12 September 2005, and the first 13-episode series concluded on 24 October 2005. With the success of the programme in the United Kingdom, Animal Planet started broadcasting it on its national channels in Australia, Canada, and the US. It has since been rebroadcast in more than 160 other countries. The fourth, and final, series aired initially in the United States from 6 June 2008 to 22 August 2008; it aired in the United Kingdom in April 2009. In August 2009, it was reported that the programme had been cancelled.
Meerkat Manor (2005 )
TV Show
Tutored by Aristotle, helpless witness to his father's assassination, and a brilliant, pioneering tactician, Alexander the Great had conquered the known world--and sealed his legacy as one of history's most remarkable rulers--by the age of 25. In the year 334 B.C., 20-year-old King Alexander of Macedonia decided to bring the farthest reaches of the world under one domain. Over the next 12 years, he led a grand army across more than 20,000 miles and eventually brought all of Asia under his control, only to perish from battle wounds at the age of 32. Incorporating dramatic onsite reenactments with high-end computer graphics and the expertise of renowned scholars, THE TRUE STORY OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT is a special presentation from THE HISTORY CHANNEL®, examining the life and career of this military genius, impassioned lover, and fearless leader.
The True Story of Alexander the Great (2005 )
TV Show
TransGeneration is an eight episode documentary series depicting the lives of four transgender college students during the 2004/2005 school year as they attempt to balance college, their social lives, and their struggle "to merge their internal and external selves" while gender transitioning.
TransGeneration (2005 )
TV Show
This compelling series investigates the motives and m.o. of female murderers. While males are often driven by anger, impulse and destruction, women usually have more complex, long-term reasons to kill.
Deadly Women (2005 )
TV Show
In 2004 Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman embarked on an epic challenge to bike 20,000-miles across 12 countries and 19 time zones in just 115 days. Watch as two friends ride around the world together and, against all the odds, realize their dream.
Long Way Round (2004 )
TV Show
Dr. G: Medical Examiner is a reality television series shown on TLC and Discovery Fit & Health. Dr. G, or Dr. Jan Garavaglia, is the Chief Medical Examiner with Florida's District Nine Medical Examiner's office in Orlando, Florida. This series features Dr. G working on unexplained deaths in the Orlando area, as well as similar deaths from her last position as a Medical Examiner in Bexar County, Texas. The shows feature dramatic re-enactments of the events leading up to the person's death as well as the autopsies. Also interviews of Dr. G, family members, and other people connected to the deaths are shown. The unexplained death cases that Dr. G works on can come from a variety of factors, such as undiagnosed medical conditions, accidents, or foul play. In one instance, a woman who attempted suicide died a few days after her attempt. Dr. G found that her death was actually due to another condition and was not by her own hand. Another instance dealt with human bones that had been found alongside some railroad tracks. Through an autopsy and investigative work it was discovered that the remains were those of a missing girl who had been killed by her mother. The series is produced by NY-based Atlas Media Corporation. Executive Producer is Bruce David Klein.
Dr. G: Medical Examiner (2004 )
