Operation 8

Quest for the Ring

By exploring the relationship between the watched and the watching, our film uncovers the trauma and hope engendered by the Chinese all-surveilling state and lends a voice to those that stand in resilient defiance of such blatant abuse of power.

The larger-than-life story of Kim Dotcom, the 'most wanted man online', is extraordinary enough, but the battle between Dotcom and the US Government and entertainment industry—being fought in New Zealand—is one that goes to the heart of ownership, privacy and piracy in the digital age.

COINTELPRO 101 exposes illegal surveillance, disruption, and outright murder committed by the US government in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. “COINTELPRO” refers to the official FBI COunter INTELigence PROgram carried out to surveil, imprison, and eliminate leaders of social justice movements and to disrupt, divide, and destroy the movements as well. Many of the government's crimes are still unknown. Through interviews with activists who experienced these abuses first-hand, with rare historical footage, the film provides an educational introduction to a period of intense repression and draws relevant lessons for the present and future.

France makes the most desired, revered and expensive wines in the world. They’ve had centuries to hone their craft. If you make fine wine, France is the benchmark. Or are they? One country famous for punching above its weight is taking on the aristocracy. This is a story featuring the World's most renowned winemakers, critics, writers and fine wine merchants. Travelling from the Old World to the New World we explore the history, culture and tension in the changing world of fine wine, answering that one question - has New Zealand earned a seat at the table?

A look at the April 15, 1989 tragedy at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, England, where a stampede in the stadium's standing-room-only areas killed 96 people and injured 766. The film also examines the ongoing efforts of victims' families to seek truth and justice, as well as tangible effects on English football, including stadium upgrades and the emergence of the English Premier League.

The two NZ survivors of the deadly White Island eruption tell their remarkable story of survival.

On 28 November 1979, an Air New Zealand jet with 257 passengers went missing during a sightseeing tour over Antarctica. Within hours 11 ordinary police officers were called to duty to face the formidable Mount Erebus. As the police recovered the victims, an investigation team tried to uncover the mystery of how a jet could fly into a mountain in broad daylight. Did the airline have a secret it wanted to bury? This film tells the story of four New Zealand police officers who went to Antarctica as part of the police operation to recover the victims of the crash. Set in the beautiful yet hostile environment of Antarctica, this is the emotional and compelling true story of an extraordinary police operation.

In 1966 a group of determined young men defied the New Zealand government and launched a pirate radio station aboard a ship in the Hauraki Gulf.

Stories of Waitara combines oral histories, state of the art animations and powerful dramatic re-enactments to bring to life the narratives of Te Ātiawa in their epic battle against the military might of the British Empire. Created and presented by award-winning journalist Mihingarangi Forbes NZ Wars: Stories of Waitara documents the epic battle for control over the fertile lands of Taranaki. Shared through the eyes of Te Atiawa descendants including Dr Ruakere Hond with insights from acclaimed historian Dr Vincent O'Malley this digital documentary project focuses on the beginning of the Taranaki wars which started in Waitara and raged across the region for over two decades. The Taranaki pa site of Pukerangiora holds a significant place in New Zealand's military history as a lasting symbol of Maori resistance and resilience. Pukerangiora is now the backdrop for the latest installment of RNZ's award-winning docu-series on the bloody birth of modern New Zealand.

A documentary about the threat posed to New Zealand's Kaipara Harbour by rapacious commercial fishing and development.

A documentary team in small town New Zealand investigate claims by scared locals that their kids have turned into devil worshipers, only to find out the truth has been grossly overstated.

Told through the eyes of an Australian news reporter, Eammon Ashton-Atkinson, who moved to the UK to escape depression, the documentary, follows 3 characters on their journey to overcome their struggles as the club competes against 60 other gay clubs in the Bingham Cup in Amsterdam – the World Cup of gay rugby.

This impressive doco disperses the fog of shame and sensationalism to shed light on the tragedy that made international headlines in 2007 when a young Wainuiomata woman died during a mākutu lifting.

This film is an intimate portrayal of pioneering filmmaker Merata Mita told through the eyes of her children. Using hours of archive footage, some never before seen, her youngest child and director Hepi Mita discovers the filmmaker he never knew and shares the mother he lost, with the world.

A close examination of the Whakaari / White Island volcanic eruption of 2019 in which 22 lives were lost, the film viscerally recounts a day when ordinary people were called upon to do extraordinary things, placing this tragic event within the larger context of nature, resilience, and the power of our shared humanity.

INTO THE CIRCLE ( German: IM INNEREN KREIS) highlights the diverse psychological and political consequences of covert police operations. The undercover police officer, Iris P., investigated the Hamburg left scene as "Iris Schneider" for nearly six years. She had close friendships, and she had several years of intimate relations with people, who at the same she spied upon. After Iris P. was publicly unmasked in 2014, two more clandestine investigators were revealed as well. However, public surveillance can also affect people who would have considered it impossible. This is illustrated by the case of the police officer Simon B., who enrolled in the University of Heidelberg, to spy out peaceful left-wing students.

This is a film about the response by a community to New Zealand’s largest environmental disaster, seen through the eyes of that community. The film captures the shock, anger and grief driven into the heart of the local community, but also the humour, purpose and overwhelming positivity when people join together with a common goal.

Seeing is to painting what listening is to politics. Survival as an artist demands both. Paint Until Dawn is a documentary on art in the life of James Gahagan (1927-1999), who painted all night to push the limits of vision. His life and thought reveal a correlation between art and activism through an interesting angle: the creative process itself.

A narrator recounts a story about his missing friend, the downfall of a sheep shearing gang and sightings of a hairy beast in 1980s rural New Zealand.