Nga Taonga Sound and Vision

Nga Taonga Sound & Vision is New Zealand’s film, television and audio archive. Jonathan Dennis founded the archive as an independent charitable trust in 1981, initially named the New Zealand Film Archive. Dennis held a commitment to biculturalism and kaitiakitanga (guardianship) is at the heart of the organisation’s archival practice.

Between 2012 and 2014, The New Zealand Film Archive amalgamated with the Radio New Zealand Sound Archive and Television New Zealand Archive to form Nga Taonga. The collection now holds over 750,000 film and television clips, audio recording, documentation and ephemera. 6,500 of these items are available to view in full online.

Until 2019, the public could visit Nga Taonga’s main office on the corner of Taranaki and Ghuznee street in Wellington. The premises included a viewing library, digital catalogue access, a café and movie theatre. The theatre often screened films from the catalogue and hosted festivals and touring films. Due to earthquake risk, Nga Taonga relocated to the National Library building on Molesworth street in 2019. You can still access the physical collection at the National library reading room, by emailing staff or talking to them at on-site help desk.