The Gangs Part One on Inside New Zealand

This is the documentary many New Zealanders will be shocked to see. Gang members are not just the patch wearing, tattoo covered people you cross the road to avoid. They are a big part of society, and are far more involved in the activities surrounding your day-to-day life than you might think.

Inside New Zealand: The Gangs is a two-part look inside the gang culture and their place in our society, beginning Thursday, June 19th at 9:30pm on TV3. Journalist Pam Corkery spent 18 months of her life getting in amongst New Zealand’s biggest and most feared gangs, and her unprecedented access is brought to you in this eye-opening documentary.

The Gangs – Part One goes behind the headlines and introduces the actual gang leaders – men who have never agreed to be on television before. Prepare yourself to be face to face with the real men in charge of some of the country’s most notorious gangs; gangs that affect your everyday life without you even knowing it.

“We wanted to reveal the actual level of New Zealand’s gang problem – to speak to leaders who could impart unprecedented insight into the culture of the gang world,” says producer/ director Laurie Clarke.

From minor crimes to gang infiltration into government departments, this first episode will also explore the unbelievable range of gang activities throughout New Zealand. “It’s nothing less than astonishing,” says Clarke.

We will meet non-criminal citizens who use the gangs to do legitimate work (backed by the not-so-legitimate inferences of their fear factor), and criminals who pay the gangs “taxes” so that they can work within the jealously guarded gang territories.

We will also meet prospective members, whose life ambitions are to become fully patched gang members, and explore the psyche behind gang violence. Is it always when used only when necessary, or is it sometimes just a brutal form of fun?

Plus, we go deep inside the only maximum security wing at Auckland Prison, better known as Paremoremo, to see what kind of criminal activity takes place, business-as-usual, inside its walls, and to find out how successful inmates can be in corrupting prison staff.

“Another revelation is the range of gang infiltration into the prison service,” says Clarke. “People just don’t realise the extent of the gang networks.”

Sometimes terrifying, Corkery and her camera crew find themselves in tricky situations during this documentary. From gangsters making threats and throwing things at them under a darkened bridge in the middle of the night, to drug dealers wielding handguns during meetings, some of the circumstances under which these interviews took place are nothing short of life-threatening.

Prepare to be enlightened as the first part of the powerful and shocking documentary Inside New Zealand: The Gangs screens on Thursday, June 19th at 9:30pm on TV3.

The Wahine Disaster documentary wins Best in Festival Award

Peter Morris, Chairman BAFTA / LA presents Sharon Barbour, Producer with the award
THE WAHINE DISASTER which screened earlier this year on Maori TV has taken out the coveted top prize – “Best in Festival” at the Swansea Life International Film Festival in Wales on Saturday – the largest film festival in the UK. 236 films were screened – The Wahine Disaster was voted by judges to be the best.

The Wahine Disaster is an extraordinary documentary in which many of the survivors and rescuers speak for the first time.

On that day in April, 1968 – the country’s newest inter-island ferry Wahine set sail on her overnight journey from Lyttleton. She was also setting sail into the heart of the most violent storm in New Zealand’s history. Over 730 people were on board.

The hour long documentary, made by Storm UK Productions, follows passengers as they boarded the ferry on that “beautiful calm night” – right through to the end of the journey. One that would change all their lives.

New Zealand Born Million Dollar Con Man featured in docu-drama

Eric Thompson stars as Derek Turner in The Million Dollar Con Man
“I’ve come from basically the … [bottom end] of the world, New Zealand … there’s only one-way for me to go, that’s up” – Derek Turner.

Through an improbably simple scam involving a phoney hedge fund and the gift of the gab, New Zealand’s biggest conman Derek Turner (Erik Thomson – All Saints, The Alice) took the life savings of scores of people and lived a life of luxury around the world. On Thursday, June 5th at 8:30pm on TV3, his story is told in the docu-drama The Million Dollar Con Man.

Turner’s outlandish career began by overthrowing a company he wasn’t even an investor in and stretched to pitching to rebuild the World Trade Centre. His undoing came in February 2006 when he was convicted in a New York court of defrauding over 60 investors of $90 million. Now, as he sits back in his cell in the Nassau County Correctional Centre, still following the financial markets from a transistor radio, still claiming he will return to trading, Derek Turner can at least lay claim to one title – he is undoubtedly the “King of Con” from down under.

Born and raised in Taranaki, Turner first got into trouble after moving from Auckland to Sydney, where in 2000 the Australian Securities and Investments Commission found him guilty of trading without a licence, shut down his operation and ordered him to repay his investors.

Instead, Turner took their money and set up home in the tax haven of the Bahamas where he started up a new hedge fund, Turning International, which collected millions from investors in New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, the UK and the US.

However, the good times would not last forever. Turner’s downfall eventually came from the most unlikely of people, an ex-con turned preacher by the name of Barry Minkow (played by Mark Fergusson).

The Million Dollar Con Man is interspersed with interviews from the people intimately involved in the case, from victims who lost millions, to FBI Agents, and even Turner’s un-doer, Minkow himself.

The Million Dollar Con Man is a truly remarkable story of one man’s determination to live a life beyond his means, filled with luxury and prestige. Derek Turner’s story is told on Thursday, June 5th at 8:30pm on 3.

Hollywood Lives Documentary Series on Prime

Hollywood: the town is a metaphor for ambition, success and glamour. Nowhere in the world do people put so much effort into creating glamorous perfection as they do in this City of Dreams. And nowhere in the world is the pursuit of fame such an integral part of a city’s fabric.

Hollywood Lives tests the temperature of Hollywood in 2007. It goes behind the scenes to offer an insider’s view of the professional and personal costs of reaching for fame. For the celebrities who make it, the price may be worth paying for: money, power, success and sex. But for those who fall by the wayside, the impact of drastic measures such as state-of-the-art surgery – or simply a high-octane lifestyle – is heavy. But crucially this series doesn’t just look at contemporary Hollywood.
It also tells a mini history of Tinseltown’s last 15 years. By catching up with some of the characters from the past, Hollywood Lives discovers if they have survived the shifting sands of this fame-obsessed city. In doing so it personifies the light and shade that inevitably exits within Hollywood. This week’s episode focuses on the cult of the Hollywood wannabe, in the town where ‘fame is an epidemic’ and people will ’sell their souls’.

Hollywood Lives updates the story of a wannabe first featured in the early 1990s who had just ’stepped off the bus’ from the Mid West. Anna Nicole Smith was yet another Playmate of the Year with Hollywood ambitions and the programme looks at how her life turned into a real life Tinsel Town soap opera. Ultimately, the Hollywood vultures swooped on this naïve, but very wealthy newcomer. Her best friend explains how she was controlled and manipulated by those who surrounded her and the programme shows how now, even in death, Anna Nicole is being sold and exploited. Also, the show follows the latest young British hopeful trying to break Hollywood and reveal the ways the unscrupulous prey and exploit the fresh faces – and bodies – as they try and seek fame and fortune in La La Land.

Thursday, 29th May at 10pm on Prime TV

NZ Army recruits feature in new reality TV show

Ngati Tumatauenga means the “Tribe of the God of War”.

Ngati Tumatauenga is also the name of a new TV Show playing Mondays on Maori Television follows recruits through their Basic Training programme in their efforts to join the NZ Army.

For more information on the show visit the Ngati Tumatauenga website.

Plays Maori TV Mondays at 9:00pm

NZ Crime Drama about David Dougherty for TVNZ Sunday Theatre

One of New Zealand’s most disturbing real-life crime stories is to be transformed into a Drama for TV ONE’s Sunday Theatre slot.

“Until Proven Innocent”, the story of David Dougherty and the three strangers who fought to get him a pardon for a crime he didn’t commit, is to be made into a feature length film by Lippy Pictures Ltd with a New Zealand on Air grant of $1.35 million.

David Dougherty was found guilty and jailed in 1992 for the abduction, sexual violation and rape of an 11 year old girl.

Three people who had never met him became convinced of his innocence – journalist Donna Chisholm, lawyer Murray Gibson, and scientist Arie Geursen – and began a crusade to overturn his conviction.

The drama will recount their four year battle, through two trials, two high court appeals and a petition to the Governor General, to get him pardoned.

Their efforts were vindicated in 2002 when another man, Nicholas Reekie, was convicted of the crime.

The David Dougherty case is sometimes referred to as ‘the other Arthur Alan Thomas’ because in many ways it mirrors that earlier wrongful conviction.

“Until Proven Innocent” is written and produced by Donna Malane and Paula Boock, who worked together as producer and writer respectively of the highly-rated New Zealand dramas “Insiders Guide to Happiness” and “Insiders Guide to Love”.

The drama is expected to go to air on Sunday Theatre in the first half of 2009.

Wahine Disaster Remembered on TV

The 1968 sinking of the inter island ferry Wahine was considered to be one of the worst maritime disasters in New Zealand’s history. Radio and television captured the drama as it happened within a short distance from the shore of the eastern suburbs of Wellington. Had the ship broken up immediately – all 734 lives would have been lost. The fact that only 52 died is a miracle.

Maori Television premieres THE WAHINE DISASTER, an extraordinary documentary on Wednesday April 9 at 8.30 PM, forty years to the day the Wahine set sail.

Many of the survivors and rescuers speak for the first time

On that day in April, 1968 – the country’s newest inter-island ferry Wahine set sail on her overnight journey from Lyttleton. She was also setting sail into the heart of the most violent storm in New Zealand’s history. Over 730 people were on board.

The hour long documentary, made by Storm UK Productions, follows passengers as they boarded the ferry on that “beautiful calm night” – right through to the end of the journey. One that would change all their lives.

In this extraordinary tale, the survivors and rescuers share their harrowing stories.
David – a six-year-old boy had no idea the ship was sinking until it lurched and he was thrown into the rails – broke his ankle and fell overboard. The heavy seas stripped him of both his life jacket and clothes. Naked, he recalls clinging to a piece of wood for hours. “ Older people tried to hang on to the side – but I was too young to help them, they let go and went under”. David was found hours later unconscious – washed up among the rocks.

Diane and her husband Ken tell of their horror as someone from the deck threw them a baby – as their lifeboat drifted from Wahine. The baby went straight into the water – its shawl unravelling and they never saw it resurface.

Eyewitnesses to the “the blackest day in Wellington’s history” tell their story too. Stuart opened his curtains “to see this huge passenger liner coming straight towards my house”. He was the first to call the police.

Every New Zealander should watch THE WAHINE DISASTER – to learn what it is to have the courage to survive, the courage to risk your own lives to save others. They will also learn of the extent of the personal tragedy suffered by so many that day.

Producer/director Sharon Barbour says the story of the Wahine has fascinated her since childhood and she has been working on this for many years.

“Quite a few of those survivors haven’t talked about their experience up until now – and their recounting of their own stories has incredible power.”

It is a story which has taken years to research and which has remained largely untold – until now. THE WAHINE DISASTER, only on Maori Television April 9 at 8.30 PM.

New Series of International Documentaries on Maori TV

Maori Television’s International Documentary slot, Pakipumeka o te Ao, screens every Tuesday at 8.30 PM. It features critically-acclaimed and award-winning works from celebrated filmmakers from throughout the world, highlighting unique and contemporary themes with a focus on people and popular culture. Upcoming documentaries include:

CLOTH OF THE GODS – Tuesday March 18 at 8.30 PM: As recently as 150 years ago, when a Fijian chief died, his wives were strangled with a sacred fabric called tapa cloth and it’s still widely used for all ceremonial occasions including birthdays and funerals. This documentary takes the viewer from the harvesting of the mulberry tree to a village near Suva where some of the best designers and printers create the richly patterned fabric. Each pattern and piece of cloth tells a specific story. This is the tale of a unique and ancient artform which resists modernisation and helps Fijians connect with their past.

OUR SMALL WORLD – Tuesday March 25 at 8.30 PM: Life on the tiny atolls of Tokelau, tucked just beneath the equator, is precarious. There is no airstrip, no harbour, not even a safe anchorage. The greatest challenge the Tokelauans face is the same confronted by all Pacific islanders. How to give their children a good education without losing them to the outside world? This programme looks at how a community tries to keep up with the 21st century, without abandoning the traditions that make them who they are.

NEXT WAVE: THE SCIENCE OF TSUNAMIS – Tuesday April 1 at 8.30 PM: Most Pacific Rim countries participate in an advanced tsunami warning system – but when the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami struck, no such system existed for that region. This documentary recounts the events of the disaster and explores the potential for more occurrences like it including scenarios involving vast destruction in the United States. Following a country-by-country breakdown of the 2004 tragedy, it explores how landslides can cause tsunamis of almost unimaginable power, how such a collapse in the Canary Islands could swamp America’s East Coast, and how a truly global tsunami warning system might be established.

THE LORD OF TUMUC HUMAC – Tuesday April 8 at 8.30 PM: Located in the heart of the Amazonian forest, the hilly Tumuc Humac region has restricted access and no-one is supposed to live there. But according to local Indian legends, people used to inhabit these mountains. The area is sacred because it was the home of Kailawa, a powerful warrior and shaman who gave birth to his own tribe: the Wayanas. This amazing scientific adventure takes the viewer to the very heart of one of the most incredible and fascinating Amazonian legends.

THE GIRL WITH X-RAY EYES – Tuesday April 15 at 8.30 PM: Four years ago, Natasha Demkina, a young girl living in Saransk, Russia, began to receive a lot of media attention. It began with an article in Pravda which hailed her as the ‘Girl with X-ray Vision’. Natasha apparently possessed the unusual ability to peer through human flesh and spot diseases and injuries that lurked unseen within people’s bodies. Or, at least, this is what Pravda claimed. It didn’t take long for other media to catch onto the story. Does Natasha really have x-ray eyes?

BLACK SOLDIER BLUES – Tuesday April 22 at 8.30 PM: When America established its Pacific base in Australia, the country’s Prime Minister warmly welcomed the thousands of GIs stationed there – except for the black GIs who were told to stay on their boats. When they were finally allowed to come ashore, they soon discovered their greatest threat was the enemy within. This documentary is a World War Two story with a difference. Told by the American and Australian veterans who were there, it is a tale of unexpected friendships and danger in a land with a government whose policy was to keep Australia ‘white’.

MAID IN AMERICA – Tuesday April 29 at 8.30 PM: They clean other people’s homes and raise other families’ children – often leaving their own families behind. This documentary offers an intimate look into the lives of three Latina immigrants working as nannies in the USA. It’s a rare view into what is becoming an increasingly common scenario and is an insight into the immigrant experience, labour issues and contemporary Latino culture.

WORLD OF AMERICAN INDIAN DANCE – Tuesday May 6 at 8.30 PM: The beauty, artistry, athleticism and competition of Native American dance are illustrated dramatically in this documentary highlighting the many dance styles incorporated into the culture from various Native American tribes and nations. Join actor Peter Coyote as he explores the meanings and origins of American Indian Dance, and learn how it has fortified and sustained the survival of this race. While having a powerful influence on US/Indian relationships, the dance demonstrates the ancient as well as the new struggles between intertribal cultures, progress, tradition, spirituality and commerce.

THIS IS WHERE MY DOG IS BURIED – Tuesday May 13 at 8.30 PM: On the dawn of June 4, 1989, an Israeli patrol on the Lebabon-Israel border was ambushed by a Palestinian squad. By the end of the clash, lasting just 12 minutes, three Palestinians were shot dead along with the Bedouin scout of the Israeli patrol. The Israeli patrol commander Nir Keinan was injured. This is a road movie, describing in a very personal way, the events that led director Nir Keinan to the moment where he had to chose between killing or being killed.

All documentaries carry English subtitles where required. Maori Television’s International Documentary slot, Pakipumeka o te Ao, screens every Tuesday at 8.30 PM.

Unique insight into Matriachs lives and loves

A unique insight into the profound thoughts and contemporary lives of six remarkable kuia – all aged around 90 – is revealed in Maori Television’s groundbreaking new show NGA RIPO premiering on Wednesday November 28 at 8.00 PM.

Tauranga-based Dreamfish Productions travelled to Hastings, Mahia Peninsula, Whangarei, Kaikohe, Rotorua, Wanganui and Matakana Island to observe and document the kuia for NGA RIPO (deep pools) over the course of a year. The six-part, half-hour series takes you inside the homes of these venerable women – their papakainga, their marae, their private photo albums, their natural interaction with whanau and the moments they rarely share with outsiders.

“When statistics tell us that 68 percent of our people die before they reach 65, it was satisfying to find women who so resolutely defied the odds,” explains producer/director Debra Reweti. “Each of them was wonderful – strong and humble, hardworking and funny – and though we can only provide snapshots of their lives, it was an experience our crew will never forget.”

Sadly, three of the kuia – Tiraroa Te Arihi Toma, Witarina Harris and Apikara Rarere – passed away after their stories were completed. “We were given precious gifts when Tiraroa, Witarina and Apikara chose to share their hearts and homes with us,” says Debra. “It is a testament to their aroha and love of our people that they were willing to share so much, quietly knowing they were unwell but in the humble hope that it might offer something of value to others. The strength and grace of each of these women is an inspiration and a legacy to all of us.”

The series premiere on Wednesday November 28 at 8.00 PM profiles Tiraroa (Ngai Te Rangi, Ngati Ranginui) who was born on Matakana Island, a slice of paradise at the entrance to Tauranga Harbour in the Bay of Plenty. Ninety-four years later, she is living on the mainland and pining for her island home – and NGA RIPO follows her as she makes her way back to where she belongs.

In the second episode on Wednesday December 5 at 8.00 PM, life is love for 93-year-old Akinihi Wharerau (Ngapuhi, Tainui). Love of her whanau, love of her late husband, love of her garden, love of others and above everything, love of her God, Jehovah.

Next, on Wednesday December 12 at 8.00 PM, meet Apikara (Rongomaiwahine, Ngapuhi) who was a top rating breakfast DJ for Te Reo Irirangi o Kahungungu when she was 88. She showed her mokopuna how to put down hangi, she planted rongoa gardens on her marae and she danced to Maori showbands.

Then, on Wednesday December 19 at 8.00 PM, a remarkable couple shares their thoughts on whanau, marriage and running a family business. On New Year’s Eve, a long time ago, pretty 20-year-old Hinemotu Paama (Ngai Te Rangi) married her sweetheart, Tukapa Harawira (Ngati Ranginui). They borrowed the suit, the dress, even the money for the marriage licence and holding hands they made a pact that they have kept for almost 70 years.

Celebrate the strength and beauty of these women who have experienced remarkable social change, cultural renaissance and in some cases, severe financial hardship, when NGA RIPO premieres on Maori Television on Wednesday November 28 at 8.00 PM

Mystery of lost waka (canoe) featured in documentary

The mysterious connection between Maori and the inhabitants of remote Polynesian islands thousands of kilometres west of Aoteaora is explored in THE LOST WAKA screening for the first time in Maori Television’s New Zealand Documentary slot, Pakipumeka Aotearoa, on Wednesday October 31 at 8.30 PM.

The hour-long film follows former Maori Language Commissioner, Professor Patu Hohepa, and wife Erena as they travel to Rennell (Mu Ngiki) and Bellona (Mu Nggava) in search of the ‘lost waka’ – the link in the geneology, mythology and lapita design between Maori and the people of these islands.

According to producer Ingrid Leary from Pasifika Pictures, the islanders greet others with hongi, practice noa and tapu, and speak a language so similar to Maori that they can comfortably converse with the indigenous people of New Zealand.

Decades ago, a Danish researcher was the only outsider to study the language and culture and he found that the languages of Rennell and Bellona – although distinct – were both ethnographically just one degree different from Maori.

So exactly what is the relationship of the people of these two islands to the indigenous people of Aotearoa? Do they share a common ancestor? What is their whakapapa and where is the link to New Zealand Maori?

Professor Hohepa first came into contact with the languages of Rennell and Bellona through Samuel Elbert some 40 years ago while teaching in Hawaii and researching the 37 Polynesian languages.

THE LOST WAKA is his search for the link between New Zealand Maori and the two iwi which live in the remote islands off the Solomon Islands. Leary says no-one had made this particular journey before which was a “pioneering experience, academically but also spiritually”.

“The tipuna (ancestors) guide him and the crew throughout the journey to discover significant common ancestors, and to document whakapapa, common history and mythology from the days of the great Pacific migrations.

“For the first time ever, the blood connection is traced. But more significant is the instant, immediate and undisputable aroha (love) and spiritual connection between the Maori crew and the people of these two remote islands.

“This important documentary is a historical landmark. It is a beginning, not an end, and the journey forward for all concerned will mean going back even further to another lost waka from the very distant past.”

THE LOST WAKA screens in Maori Television’s New Zealand Documentary slot, Pakipumeka Aotearoa, on Wednesday October 31 at 8.30 PM.