KEY POINTS:
Michael Joseph Savage's present day lookalike will help front a screening of historic footage in Wellington tonight, featuring new material of the first Labour Prime Minister.
Deputy Prime Minister Michael Cullen will speak at a New Zealand Film Archive event that showcases the use of film for political propaganda during the term of the first Labour Government.
Dr Cullen has long been an admirer of Savage and a spokesman said he would pay tribute to "Savage's place in New Zealand history as one of the pivotal figures of the last century, in terms of the creation of the welfare state and leading the country out of the Depression".
The 50-minute footage includes restored Australian newsreels after Savage took power in 1935 and private footage never seen by the public before - including a silent home video of Savage relaxing with the NZ cricket team on a UK-bound ship in 1937.
"It's personal records from the Vivian family - Gifford Vivian was one of the players in the team," said Archive chief executive Frank Stark.
"We didn't really think of them being anything other than cricket-related but now we've discovered this footage with the Prime Minister on board."
Other footage from the same era includes a 1936 speech from Savage when he first came to power, his popular funeral parades through Auckland and Wellington in 1940, and the torching of the social security building in 1939 by those opposing the welfare state.
"We have home movies of the fire and of the rebuilding, which was apparently done in record time, including various Cabinet ministers pitching in with wheelbarrows to get it rebuilt," Mr Stark said. "It was one of those great unsolved mysteries of politically violent acts."
The footage also includes National Party films from the 1940s, including excerpts from a "red scare" film, warning of the communist menace.
The footage screens at the archive from 6pm.
Michael Joseph Savage
* Born 1872, Victoria, Australia.
* Died 1940, New Zealand, aged 68.
* Labour Party PM from December 1935 to March 1940.
