Equator – power of the sun, challenge of the cold (Documentary)
The Equator is not only the line that divides the Earth in two, it is also the climatic and evolutionary power house of the world. Species that live here must adapt to an environment where extremes of temperature are a daily occurrence. We travel from the Rift Valley in Africa, to the peaks of the Andes to discover how these plants and animals have adapted.
McLeod’s daughters (series 1) TV
Drover's Run is a large cattle ranch 180km from the nearest town. It has been in the McLeod family for generations and now inherited by daughters Claire and Tessa.
Cyrano de Bergerac Film
In 17th-century Paris, a long-nosed poet and swordsman helps his handsome friend win the girl he himself loves.
Pelle the conqueror Film
A young boy and his father leave Sweden to start a new life in Denmark, where they are forced to live and work on a brutal farm.
The city of lost children Film
A gutsy little girl and a sentimental strongman join hearts and hands to save a small boy's dreams from a madman's master plan.
The tree of wooden clogs Film
A sprawling saga of peasant life in the late nineteenth century Italy. Set over four seasons, this is the story of three communal farming families struggling to survive in the face of poverty.
Pierrepoint Film
Albert Pierrepoint joins the family business. Living a split life as a master hangman, loyal husband and grocery delivery man, Albert became the most feared executioner in Britain, famed for his craftsmanship in hanging over 450 people. Once praised and demonized for his role in the Nazi war trials, he must ultimately face a fate he couldn't have imagined.
The ascent of man Documentary
Renowned TV series from the era of epic-length documentaries, this analyses the progress of mankind through scientific and technological achievement.
Writer Jacob Bronowski gives a uniquely eloquent appraisal of developments in mathematics, art, physics, chemistry, and medicine through the ages, revelling in the telling details of geniuses who have gotten us to where we are today. Comparable in some ways with Kenneth Clarke's “Civilisation”, and while equally poetic is far looser and anecodotal in nature.
The frighteners Film
A big-budget Hollywood hootenanny made in Miramar and starring Lyttleton harbour, this is a must-see for any self-respecting patriot let alone movie-buff. More a fantasy-comedy than horror pic, it's a ghost-train ride packed with quirky flourishes and comic invention.
Cast: Michael J. Fox, Trini Alvarado, Peter Dobson, Dee Wallace Stone, Jeffrey Combs, John Astin, Jake Busey
49 up Documentary
The seventh part of the extraordinary television documentary series that documents the attitudes, personalities and lives of 14 Britons of different backgrounds at seven year intervals.
By the early 21st century, many of the original participants had dropped out. Others had begun to critique the negative impact of the show on their own perception of their lives, questioning the value of continuing, thus taking the series into self-relective new territory. Funny, inspiring and heartbreaking - this captures the course of life in all its twists and turns of both good and bad fortune. Director: Michael Apted
Our people, our century Documentary
Major, award-winning series tells the story of New Zealand and its people throughout the 20th century. Six episodes across three discs.
Amazing journey: the story of The Who Music
An ‘authorized and definitive’ anthology of The Who, this covers all the bases in the band’s legend-making, four-decade music career, recapturing the energy and electricity of their stadia-filling live performance.
Includes the feature-length documentary profile AMAZING JOURNEY, rare historical interviews and footage, a long-lost Railway Hotel performance from 1964, and more.
Directed by Murray Lerner, Paul Crowder
The trial Film
Welles makes a visual and intellectual feast of Kafka's novel about a man accused of crimes that remain unexplained. Anthony Perkins is suitably twitchy as things go from suspicious to surreal.
U2 18 videos Music
A compilation of selected music videos (actually 19 in total in the main programme) from Irish rockers U2, dating from 1982 through to their 2006 collaboration with Green Day. This DVD also includes various extras, including alternative versions, live clips and 'making of' featurettes.
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Auf wiedersehen pet TV
With unemployment high and work prospects low, seven men from England head for Ds̈seldorf in search of work. Three from Newcastle and one each from London, Liverpool, Bristol and Wolverhempton. Seven very different men who meet in unglamourous sorroundings of a German building site, find that they are not so different after all.
Babylon 5 (series 2) (TV)
Armed with a new commander (Captain John Sheridan) and a fortified sense of purpose Bablyon 5 continues its often perilous but always vital peace mission among the five competing interstellar races that inhabit it, each variously comprised of diplomats, smugglers, terrorists and dreamers.
Upstairs, downstairs Series 1 -3 (TV)
Famous 70s soap opera about the class struggle in a household of servants and gentry around the turn of the 20th century. Set a new standard in smallscreen drama with its much-loved collection of characters.
The wind that shakes the barley Film
Story of two brothers involved in Ireland's struggle for independence and the Irish Civil War.
The sheltering sky Film
Yearning for adventure and an escape from a suffocating, repressive society, Port and his wife Kit embark on a mammoth trek across North Africa, searching for new experiences that could give new sense to their relationship. But the flight to distant regions leads both only deeper into despair.
Wings of desire Film
A romantic fantasy about an angel who wishes he were mortal and is willing to fall from the sky if it means a chance to fall in love. Set in modern day Berlin, the film follows angel Damiel's path from heavenly flight to earthly delight in a manner that's comical, touching and entertaining.
To be and to have Film
Charting the events within a small single-class village school over the course of one academic year, Être et avoir takes a warm look at primary education in the French heartlands.
Paris, Texas Film
An eagle swoops down onto a rock outcrop as a gaunt , sunburnt man wearing a blue suit and a red baseball cap emerges from the desert; he finds a tap but fails to draw water, then enters a bar and grabs a handful of ice before collapsing on the floor in a crumbled heap. Thus the enigmatic opening to Wim Wenders outstanding award winning film. At once a road movie, a voyage of self discovery and an essay on cultural differences, the film has become a landmark in European Cinema history.
Rain Film
Adapted from the acclaimed novel by Kirsty Gunn, this visually crafted evocation of a seaside holiday in the 1970s – bach, suntan lotion, whiskey sours – gathers some serious talent to unfold its melancholy tale of a family disintegrating in the harsh light of the NZ summer.
Cast: Alicia Fulford-Wierzbicki, Sarah Peirse, Marton Csokas, Alistair Browning, Aaron Murphy
The mother Film
An unforgettable British drama about an aging widow, alienated from her ambitious son and neurotic daughter, who confronts the vacuum of her life after her husband dies, and finds passion regained in an unlikely relationship with a much younger tradesman.
Cast: Anne Reid, Daniel Craig, Stephen Mackintosh, Peter Vaughan
O brother where art thou? Film
Stealing a plot from Homer's 'Odyssey', George Clooney, John Turturro and Tim Blake Nelson play fugitives from a chain gang who have 'mythic' encounters with various folk en route to radio stardom in depression-era Mississippi.
Cast: George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson, Holly Hunter, John Goodman, Charles Durning, Michael Badalucco
Buena Vista Social Club Music
A handful of sprightly elderly Cuban musicians assembled in 1996 by guitarist Ry Cooder produced, with their soulful, melodic jazz sound, the biggest selling World-Music album ever.
Documenting the making of their second album, dir. Wim Wenders interviewed the various members, most of them past retirement age (with one energetic guitarist in his 90s!), about finding success at last, and providing a window into the dilapidated yet romantic world of contemporary Cuba.
Director: Wim Wenders
The history of rock ‘n’ roll Music
An epic and comprehensive journey through the history of rock music from the 1950s to the mid-1990s, featuring an unprecendented number of talking heads and musical clips. 10 episodes over 5 discs.
Features: Elvis Presley, John Lennon, Madonna, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Ray Davies, Jimi Hendrix, Tina Turner, Michael Jackson, Prince, Iggy Pop, Sting, David Bowie, Bob Marley, Ozzy Osbourne, Elton John, Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Bono , Joe Strummer, Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend
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