It’s hard to compare Dunedin to Hollywood.
However, for four decades, the small, academic city in New Zealand’s deep south was home to a powerhouse of global documentary filmmaking.
Born in Dunedin’s TVNZ studios in the 1970s, Natural History New Zealand – known globally as NHNZ – developed from a government-run unit to an Emmy Award-winning international producer, reflecting not only the growth of an industry, but the evolution of New Zealand’s place in global media and the emergence of a strong conservation movement.
One of the unit’s earliest series followed the critically endangered Chatham Island black robin out of extinction. There were only seven birds left.
