Weekend Rewind: New Zealand's best spy-related documentaries

Kim Dotcom. Photo / NZOS

Opinion

Today in 1976, the Wanganui Computer Centre Act was passed, leading to the establishment of New Zealand's first centralised electronic database (and focusing attention on the state's ability to gather information on its citizens).

Developments in computing eventually led to the 1995 closure of the centre, though stories of Government-based surveillance continue to remain in the headlines, and on screen.

On November 18, 1982, 22-year old anarchist Neil Roberts was protesting outside the Wanganui Computer Centre when he detonated a bag of gelignite, killing himself instantly. In the short film The Maintenance of Silence, director William Keddell explores what is arguably our most famous case of homegrown political terrorism, examining Roberts' motivation and events leading up to the explosion.

Watch The Maintenance of Silence here:

Made in conjunction with Nicky Hager's controversial 2006 book, documentary The Hollow Men follows MP, then party leader, Don Brash through the 2005 election.

Hager based The Hollow Men on a range of internal documents and emails he claimed were leaked to him by National Party insiders. Initially prevented from being published, The Hollow Men was released the day Brash announced his resignation as National's leader.

Watch The Hollow Men here:

Hager also makes an appearance in this 1999 episode of Havoc and Newsboy's Sell-Out Tour, joining the pair to talk SIS surveillance (and silver protective curtains). Later, the intrepid duo follow Hager's leads to "the most secret place in New Zealand": the Waihopai intelligence base near Blenheim.

Watch Havoc and Newsboy's Sell-Out Tour - I Spy here:

The Five Eyes (FVEY) network was set up after World War ll to monitor and share intelligence between the United States, Canada, Britain, Australia and New Zealand. Made in 2016, interactive documentary I Spy (with My Five Eyes), aims to inform viewers about just what their local intelligence agencies are up to. Narrated by Lucy Lawless, it features interviews with Hager and former NSA and CIA director Michael Hayden.

See an excerpt from I Spy (with My Five Eyes) here:

July this year saw confirmation of unlawful interception of Kim Dotcom's communications - part of a Government Communications Security Bureau surveillance operation carried out in support of the 2012 police raid on his Coatesville mansion. Kim Dotcom: Caught in the Web, follows the German-born internet mogul from his teenage hacker years to becoming "the most wanted man online".

Watch the trailer for Kim Dotcom: Caught in the Web here:

You can see more spy content at NZ On Screen.