Tracking Shots
Close Ups on NZ Film History
The Birth of New Zealand (1922)
“8,000 feet of Sheer Wonder and Amazement.” So ran the breathless promise for the 1922 historical epic The Birth of New Zealand.
Only fragments of the film survive, but turning points of New Zealand's colonial history were re-enacted for the cameras: Captain Cook's arrival, the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, the gold rush, Maori resistance to land alienation.
The large local cast and crew (including Ted Coubray as assistant cameraman, stills photographer and occasional extra) were directed by Australian Harrington Reynolds.
Publicity of the day declared the film to have “wonderful graphic revelations, depicting with remarkable fidelity the enterprise, fortitude, and heroism of the early settlers of New Zealand”.
Praised for its educational merit and accuracy, The Birth of New Zealand soon lapsed into obscurity.
The only known surviving fragments were discovered in 1981.
- The Birth of New Zealand [excerpts] (1,400kb)
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