Documentary and factual programmes galore for 2014

Media Release

17 December

It’s a bumper crop! Documentary and factual programmes galore for 2014

NZ On Air has invested $4.8m in high quality local documentary and factual programmes in its latest funding decisions, including three one-off documentaries for prime-time. Topics covered range from art, science and architecture, to history and health.

“We had an incredible batch of stand-out local documentary proposals this round. There is no shortage of strong, well-researched ideas for documentaries,” said NZ On Air Chief Executive Jane Wrightson.

Three one-off documentaries on significant events for New Zealanders have been supported. Diamonds In The Rough, on TV One, will tell the stories of the women who lost their loved ones in the Pike River mine.

In The Day That Changed My Life, also for TV One, audiences will experience raw, heart-felt original interviews captured in the immediate aftermath of the February 2011 Canterbury earthquake.

The third of the one-off documentaries is an international co-production. It follows an expedition to recover the body of a mountaineer lost on Mt Everest in the 1996 ill-fated attempt on the summit, in which New Zealanders Rob Hall and Andy Harris also perished. Back From The Death Zone will screen on Prime.

Making science accessible to a broad audience, Nigel Latta is off to Antarctica where he has access to the unique research carried out there. The result will be Cold Science, two one-hour documentaries for TV One.

A new six part documentary series, Inconceivable will provide an insight to the journeys of 10 New Zealand couples battling to overcome infertility. A new 10-part series asks Who Am I?  as New Zealanders retrace their ancestry and find their cultural roots.

The Platinum Fund-supported Descent From Disaster will be back on TV One for a second season, bringing more in-depth re-creations of some of New Zealand’s most important historical events.

TV3 will put a spotlight on local architecture with a new home-made series of the internationally popularGrand Designs.

Meanwhile Māori Television will have the third in a longitudinal documentary series that has been following its subjects since birth. The new Pakipūmeka Aotearoa documentary Whanau 2014 catches up with them as they turn 14.

“Our research unfailingly tells us documentaries are important to local viewers, and that’s why we put so much money and effort into supporting them. It truly is about putting New Zealand on air,” said Ms Wrightson.

Funding Details

• Descent From Disaster 2, 6 x 1hr, Screentime New Zealand, TV One $1,170,000

• Who Am I? , 10 x 1hr, Eyeworks New Zealand, TV3 $949,607

• Inconceivable, 6 x 1hr, Screentime New Zealand, TVOne $621,190

• Grand Designs NZ, 10 x 1hr, Imagination Television, TV3 $ 550,000

• Shearing Gang 3,  10 x 0.5hr, Great Southern Television, Prime $404,834

• Cold Science, 2x 1hr, Razor Films, TV One $223,716

• Diamonds In The Rough, 1 x 1hr, Greenstone TV, TV One $ 229,968

• Behind The Brush 2, 7 x 0.5hr, Awa Films, Māori Television $175,000

• The Day That Changed My Life, 1 x 1hr, Robbers Dog, TV One $174,927

• Whanau 2014, 1 x 1hr, Tumanako Productions, Maori Television $124,981

• Back From The Death Zone, 1 x 1hr, Paua Productions, Prime

ENDS

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