History on Screen: Stories Worth Remembering
Beamafilm
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10/09/2026
September is a wonderful time to explore history on screen. From History Week in NSW and Auckland Heritage Festival to Remembrance Day ahead, this is a season for discovering the stories that connect us to the past.
New South Wales History Week brings communities together around this year’s theme, Keeping Stories, until 13 September. Then across the Tasman, Auckland Heritage Festival begins on 26 September, celebrating the people, places, cultures and traditions that have shaped Tāmaki Makaurau. This year's festival explores heritage through food, culture and community - a reminder that history can be found in everyday life as much as in momentous events.
Different events, different places - but both share an idea that sits at the heart of great filmmaking: stories help us remember.
Keeping stories alive
History isn't only found in textbooks and archives. It lives in people's memories, in families and communities, in landscapes and traditions - and in the stories passed from one generation to another. Film can preserve those stories.
Documentaries can capture first-hand accounts before they disappear. Historical films can transport us into another time and place. First Nations and Indigenous storytelling can preserve perspectives too often excluded from conventional histories. And personal stories can illuminate the impact of much larger events - migration, conflict, political change and transformations in society.
September presents an opportunity to seek out stories that help us better understand where we've come from.
From local history to shared history
Across Australia and New Zealand, our histories are deeply interconnected: through First Nations and Māori cultures, migration, the Pacific, social and political change, and experiences of war.
And as we move through spring, another important date comes into view. On 11 November, communities across Australia, New Zealand and around the world will mark Remembrance Day, commemorating those who served and died in war and conflict.
In the weeks leading up to it, Beamafilm will be highlighting films that explore war from many different perspectives - not simply battles and military history, but the human stories behind them. Stories of service and sacrifice. Of families and communities transformed by conflict. Of courage and survival. And of the lasting consequences of war long after the fighting ends.
These films offer an opportunity not only to remember historical events, but to understand the people who experienced them.
Explore history on Beamafilm
To celebrate this season of history and heritage, we're bringing together films and documentaries that uncover stories from Australia, New Zealand and around the world.
Discover First Nations and Indigenous histories, biographies, social and cultural history, migration, wartime experiences, remarkable lives and stories of people and places that might otherwise be forgotten.
Because keeping history alive isn't simply about looking backwards.
It's about preserving stories, sharing them with new generations - and understanding how the past continues to shape the world we live in today.
Explore History & Heritage on Beamafilm.
Available to watch for free through participating libraries.
Watch for FREE with a participating library card or on a 30-day trial. Also, you can rent a film for 72 hours.
Nancy Wake: the daring allied spy who became the Gestapo’s most wanted woman in WWII, she was codenamed ‘The White Mouse’ for her elusiveness. This is her story.
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What life was like growing up in Auckland during the 1950s and 1960s?
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An Oscar-winning classic about injustice and the horror of war.
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An exploration into fashion and street photography from the 1960s and 1990s.
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The life of an Irish immigrant family in Australia in the second half of the 19th century.
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A biopic on the extraordinary life of William Rhodes-Moorhouse, a daredevil pilot of Māori descent who was the first airman ever to be awarded the Victoria Cross, the most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the...
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An Englishwoman and an Australian prisoner of war meet in Malaya, then reunite after World War II.
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Inspired by actual events, MURU is the story of a local Police Sergeant 'Taffy' Tawharau (Cliff Curtis), who must choose between his badge and his people, when the Government launches an armed raid through his Ruatoki...
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4-part biopic about classic Australian author A.B. Facey (1894-1982). Born into a large impoverished family, uneducated and illiterate, he'd fended for himself since he was 8 and was later sent to Gallipoli as a WWI recruit.
Biopic about Whina Cooper, an activist who worked tirelessly to improve the lives of fellow Māori women.
The first ascent of Everest.
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A documentary heritage series that draws on treasures from the Auckland Council Libraries Heritage Collections.
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For the love of her new husband, Jeannie abandons a high society city life to trek into the vast, wild heart of Australia & face the enduring hardships of outback life & the battles against sexist & racial prejudices.
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Nancy Wake tells the true story of Australasia's greatest war heroine - the woman the Gestapo dubbed the 'White Mouse'.
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Stringybark re-enacts the true story of a party of mounted police in colonial Victoria tasked with the arrest and apprehension of the notorious Ned Kelly.
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Follow the untold story of Australia’s Bridle Track as After the Rush uncovers the resilience, trades, and ingenuity of the pioneers, convicts, and gold seekers who transformed untamed wilderness into thriving settlements,...
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In 1966, in a Vietnamese rubber plantation, 108 young and inexperienced Australian and New Zealand soldiers are fighting for their lives against 2500 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong soldiers.
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When Aboriginal stockman Sam kills white station owner Harry March in self-defence, Sam and his wife Lizzie go on the run.
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A fearless racing driver, a visionary and brilliant engineer, Bruce McLaren was a humble New Zealander who became a Formula One superstar. He also created an enduring legacy – the McLaren motor racing brand.
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This Australian crime drama chronicles the life of notorious, keen witted, acid tongued 1920s Melbourne gangster Squizzy Taylor.
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The journey of fictional WA outback kid Jim Collins and his battalion on the Western Front.
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Whetū Mārama: Bright Star is the story of Sir Hekenukumai Ngaiwi Puhipi, aka Hek Busby, and his significance for Māori in rekindling their wayfinding DNA and for all New Zealanders in reclaiming our place as traditional star...
A laconic swagman is forced to care for his young daughter. Neither he nor his daughter are ready for each other. But in the beginning he’s all she’s got, and at the end, she’s all he’s got.
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An exploration into the relationship and the context of early Auckland as shared in letters exchanged between significant Māori Rangatira [chiefs] in 1863.
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Follow a rural postman along the Birdsville Track in the 50s.
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Filmmaker Maya Newell follows a 10-year-old Aboriginal boy and his family as they strive to give him the best education possible.
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In 1916, the 1st Australian Tunnelling Company is tunneling beneath German fortifications and bunkers to detonate massive explosive charges.
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A request from Holland's National Museum of Ethnology to acquire a Māori war canoe (waka taua) as a permanent exhibit resulted in master builder Hector Busby being commissioned to craft one.
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Step back in time to Australia’s bustling gold rush era to uncover the triumphs, tragedies, and lasting legacies of the people who chased gold, transforming the land and shaping a nation’s future.
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In turn-of-the-century Australia, two criminals ingratiate themselves with a rancher in order to swindle him. However, the two partners become rivals for the affection of the rancher's beautiful daughter.
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NZ All Black Jonah Lomu is without a doubt the most famous rugby player of all time. His outstanding physique, his power, his speed, and determination helped revolutionise the game around the world.
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In 1966, in a Vietnamese rubber plantation, 108 young and inexperienced Australian and New Zealand soldiers are fighting for their lives against 2500 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong soldiers.
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This touching documentary follows Wellington City Councillor Stephanie Cook and her quest to adopt two girls aged nine and four, from Siberia.
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On Australia Day 1988, the thoughts and attitudes of ordinary Aussies are revealed.
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Hongi -a Maori chieftain’s teenage son - must avenge his father's murder in order to bring peace and honour to the souls of his loved ones after his tribe is slaughtered through an act of treachery.
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An exploration into the provenance of a significant historical document, Hohou - The Peace Covenant, and its discovery amongst the papers of the Old Colonists Museum Collection.
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The true story of the first Aboriginal filmmaker William 'Bill' Onus.
An exploration into a family history research index to help identify matrilineal lines often lost in early colonial settler records.
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Surfing, surf films, and an oceanic lifestyle from days gone by. You Should Have Been Here Yesterday tells the story of a coastal community at a time when the waves offered more than sport - they provided a new way of life.
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In WWI, a local telegram man becomes the bearer of bad news for his community.
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