Documentary

Oscar-winning war chronicler Mstyslav Chernov embeds with a Ukrainian unit in their last-ditch effort to reclaim a village, in a nerve-shredding reckoning with the Russian invasion’s relentless toll.

A documentary tribute to one of the nation’s best loved songwriters, charting Don McGlashan’s storied career from arty punk upstart to one of the strongest voices in the national identity of Aotearoa.

A diverse ensemble of creatives including Stephen King, Takashi Miike and Karyn Kusama illuminate the enduring cultural legacy of Tobe Hooper’s low-budget 1974 slasher The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

A portrait of one of Aotearoa’s greatest living artists by one of our greatest documentary filmmakers. You should expect something special, and that’s what you get.

Punk renegade Shayne Carter (Straitjacket Fits, Dimmer) takes us on an iconoclastic tour through a career of highs and lows from suburban Dunedin to the heights of international fame and back again.

This thought-provoking documentary follows a “mistress dispeller” – a professional specialist in ending infidelity – and intimately interrogates marriage, loneliness and labour in contemporary China.

For over 40 years, the iconic John Clarke tickled the funny bones of Australian and New Zealand audiences. Now, in this intimately produced documentary, hear his story in his own words.

This immersive portrait of the time John and Yoko spent living in Greenwich Village is a vivid time capsule of America in the early 70s. A time of extreme political polarisation which may seem uncannily familiar.

Raoul Peck, the acclaimed documentary chronicler of power in America, looks to George Orwell’s writing of 1984 as a prescient guide to our modern era of Trumpian rule and reality manipulation.

The uncharted highs and crashing lows of Jacinda Ardern’s time at the helm of Aotearoa get their due in an intimate-access international documentary about state power and human vulnerability.

Unprecedented insight into the curation of the Toi Tū Toi Ora: Contemporary Māori Art exhibition reveals the struggle for Māori artistic sovereignty within the structures of Aotearoa New Zealand’s cultural institutions.

Seven women reflect on the emotional cataclysm of World War II in Dame Gaylene Preston’s landmark contribution to the collective memory of Aotearoa, which has lost none of its raw power on its 30th anniversary.