Christchurch - on screen and in song

Screening as three two-hour telefeatures, the drama series Hope And Wire from acclaimed filmmaker Gaylene Preston is currently on TV3.

The production received more than $5million from the Platinum Fund which supports quality programmes with something important to say about New Zealand.

Creating a drama from the very real-life happenings in post-quake Christchurch was a task that was embraced by one of our best and most sensitive story-tellers.

Gaylene Preston talks about the challenges of translating real events into a story all New Zealanders can relate to, and why it was important to tell this story as a drama.

Its natural to turn on the radio when disaster strikes - for information and for comfort. But what do you do when the radio station building is badly damaged and the station has been knocked off air? If you are one of the clever folks at RDU, Canterbury's 33-year old student radio station, you use ingenuity to get back on air as quick as you can. Who needs a studio and all that fancy equipment?

Station Manager James Meharry talks about how RDU bounced back, and the new opportunities that arose for RDU as a result of the quakes. They've been able to take their station to the people and promise to "bring some light to the post-quake darkness."

Documentaries are the modern story-tellers' way of recording history - they have given Christchurch a voice nationally and internationally.

NZ On Air has invested in a number of documentary series and one-offs that have increased understanding of what Christchurch residents are going through and the challenges ahead. These documentaries also provide an important audio-visual record for future generations.

As at the end of June 2014, NZ On Air had provided $2.5million in funding to documentary and factual programmes about Christchurch.

The Day That Changed My Life

The most recent documentary to air, on the fourth anniversary of the February 2011 quake, The Day That Changed My Life is a compelling piece of raw, heart-breaking television. It shares the stories of survivors interviewed in the immediate aftermath of earthquake.

You can watch it at TVNZ On Demand.

A Shocking Reminder

A Shocking Reminder follows 10 Christchurch residents as they talk candidly of their struggles in one of the worst natural disasters in New Zealand's history.

The documentary screened as two one-hour episodes on Prime and received $315,562 of funding from NZ On Air.

The compelling stories of survival are supported by CCTV earthquake footage, and animations showing scientific explanations of how and why the ground moves.

https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/a-shocking-reminder-part-one-2012

Aftermath

Christchurch-based Paua Productions also produced Aftermath, a series of five stand-alone documentaries examining aspects of the city’s past, present and future in the light of the quakes.

Individual episodes focused on the significance of heritage, the social impact, the science of seismicity, the business and financial repercussions, and the scope and challenges of such an ambitious rebuild.

The fifth episode explored the mammoth rebuild that the city requires. How do you build a city that preserves as much of the past as it can, yet looks to the future, and creates a safe and liveable home.

This excerpt features cardboard models and state of the art visualisations as it examines the development of the blueprint for a framework to create a smaller central city anchored by the Avon River.

https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/aftermath-triumph-of-the-city-episode-five-2013

Paua Productions also created a three-episode series called A Grand Plan, for Prime. The series was to be a fly-on-the-wall observation of the transformation of a dilapidated Christchurch heritage hotel into a 21st century gastropub. However Plan A switches to Plan B when the hotel, which survived the September quake, succumbs to the February shock.

Five Days In The Red Zone

This one-hour programme gave viewers a unique insight to the world an out of town Police team found when they entered the red zone - the flattened Christchurch CBD.

Like many other emergency services personnel from around the country, in the days following the February quake the Police Rural Drink Drive Team from Alexandra responded to a call for help. These rural officers hoped they would be saving lives and rescuing people but what they discovered was an eerie place full of strangeness, sadness, bizarre moments and the challenge of dealing with the dead, not the living.

Camerawoman Pip Walls went along to capture what they encountered.
Five Days in the Red Zone was co-produced by Cass Avery and Samantha Blackley, and screened on TV One in May, 2011.

https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/five-days-in-the-red-zone-2011

Christchurch From The Streets

NZ On Air does not generally fund documentary series for regional television. Christchurch From The Streets is a very special and important exception.

This challenging documentary series originally screened on CTV, and was re-edited into a six part series for TV One. Acclaimed Christchurch filmmaker Gerard Smyth (Frank Film) set out to give the people of Christchurch a place to share their pain, their hope and their triumphs as the city entered recovery mode. What he produced was powerful television – made by and for the people.

A second series of Christchurch From The Streets has been funded in 2014.

Its very, very good...I think its going to make an extraordinary document for the future. When this kind of thing happens again somewhere else I think people will turn to the work Gerard Smyth is doing and learn from it.
— LARA STRONGMAN – TV REVIEWER RADIO NZ NATIONAL

Christchurch has always had a strong local music scene. But can there be a music scene without recording studios, rehearsal venues, and live performance venues? Among the many buildings badly damaged and destroyed were the city's music studios and popular gig venues.

Entertaining and inspiring people through music, giving them a reason to smile, dance and relax together has been the role Christchurch's music community has played.

Marc Royal, former Music Manager of CHART (The Christchurch Music Industry Trust) explains how the music community has pulled together and found ways to keep the music alive.