Aotearoa has always had a soft spot for the silver screen. Moving pictures were first screened here in 1896 to a curious and captivated audience and we’ve loved watching them, and making them, ever since.

Now for the first time the full story of this country’s history with film is recorded in a book that all New Zealanders would like to get their hands on.

New Zealand Film: An Illustrated History, edited by Diane Pivac, Frank Stark and Lawrence McDonald and published by Te Papa Press, goes on sale from July 1 in all good bookstores.

It is published in association  with the New Zealand Film Archive Ngā Kaitiaki O Ngā Taonga Whitiāhua, which marks its 30th anniversary this year.

New Zealand’s love affair with movies and movie making is brought into sharp focus by New Zealand Film: An Illustrated History.

It sets a course through New Zealand’s history in film, starting when Professors Hausmann and Gow introduced “Edison's latest marvel, the Kinematograph” as part of a vaudeville programme of short films; through the hokey-pokey era of gritty kiwiana classics like Goodbye Pork Pie and Smash Palace; and into the flash modern era when Wellington has become synonymous with cutting edge digital cinema technology.

Featuring many previously unseen images and unheard anecdotes, the book chronicles the journey through 11 chapters, featuring 25 essays penned by some of our most respected writers, film makers, industry insiders and fans, including a foreword by one of the biggest fans of New Zealand cinema, Sir Ian McKellen.

It is a comprehensive celebration of more than a century’s worth of local film ranging from the first cinema screenings and magic lantern shows of the 19th century through the determined development of an industry infrastructure and the establishment of the Film Societies and Film Festivals in the mid-20th century, to the many ingenious technical innovations and the post-Jackson effect professionalism of the present day.

New Zealand Film: An Illustrated History comes with a DVD of some of the most noteworthy films in our history. It is being launched at events in Auckland and Wellington in early July and  is available from bookstores nationwide or online at www.tepapastore.co.nz.