We’re commemorating Anzac Day on our home page this week but also noting with interest NZ On Screen’s beautiful presentation of its Anzac Collection, an overview of 18 film and television titles, stills and two interesting commentary pieces. Many of the titles are fairly recently produced documentaries. The oldest piece is a newsreel showing Māori Battalion solders returning from the Second World War to Wellington Harbour, Maori Battalion Returns (Weekly Review 232) 1946. You can see First World War returning soldiers in a newsreel on australianscreen called Australasian Gazette – Returned Anzacs.

australianscreen’s feature film curator Paul Byrnes is currently working in the audiovisual collection of the Australian War Memorial to select titles to include on the website. By this time next year we’ll be presenting the results of his work in our own Anzac Day presentation.