Heritage

Wildbore’s World 2022

Wildbore’s World is the result of a four day animation workshop held at Square Edge Community Arts in Palmerston North. Britta Pollmuller and Martin Sercombe taught 2D animation techniques to 20 children and two adults. Together they explored the life and work of Charles Wildbore, the English settler. Wildbore moved to the Palmerston area in 1874 and went on to take thousands of photographs of life in and around the Pohangina Valley. The animation tells his life story in seven short scenes.

Looking Back, Moving Forwards 2022

Titirangi Primary School reached its 150th anniversary in 2022. It has celebrated this milestone by creating this student and community led multimedia film, exploring the history of the school and local community. Stories are recounted through reminiscence, poetry, animation and archive photography.

The film begins in 1850 in the attic of the Bishop family, where local children paid 3d a week for their lessons. Other key moments include the fund raising all-night dances in the 1870s, and the school fire of 1930. By the 1960s the school had expanded to a roll of over 400 pupils and had its own swimming pool and dental clinic. The film also covers the Second World War Years and more recent history, ending with some poetic speculations about what the next 150 years will bring.

Waitakere Central Library tracked down a collection of short films made by the students in the 1970s which add to the rich history.

Stories from the Valley 2021

Stories from the Valley is a rich and fascinating history of Oratia School and its surrounding community, told through documentary and animation. It was created through the Creatives in Schools scheme, run by the Ministry of Education. The scheme invites creatives to share their skills with school children in the production of murals, sculptures, theatre or media productions and much more.

Seventy children worked alongside film makers Martin Sercombe, Britta Pollmuller and Robin Kewell for three months, learning media skills. They began by collecting reminiscences from local artists, orchardists, historians and wine makers. The funniest stories were then shared with teams of young animators, who brought them to life through short, hand drawn, cut out animations.

The world premiere was held at the school on 25th May and was received with much laughter and applause. Associate Principal, Thomas Bigge described the project as ‘an outstanding piece of work. I was thoroughly entertained and informed. I think all of the students involved did an excellent job.’

The Carvers of the Park Hyatt 2020

Master carvers, Wikuki Kingi, Lyonel Grant and Lawrence Makoare discuss the stories and traditions which inspired their work for the Park Hyatt Hotel on the Waterfront in Auckland.

Introduced by Sir Bob Harvey, camera: Robin Kewell, editing: Martin Sercombe

Tales of Te Whau 2018

Tales of Te Whau is a sequence of short animated stories inspired by the history of the Whau district of West Auckland. It begins with stories of the Māori and ends with three tales relating to the early European settlers who built their livelihoods in and around New Lynn. The work was made by 24 young people from the area, aged 5 – 11, who designed the characters and backgrounds, then used 2D stop motion techniques to tell the tales.

Funded by Arts Whau.

Cawston Remembers 2014

This series of short films takes a very personal view of how life has changed in the village of Cawston, Norfolk, UK within living memory. The project was managed by Media Projects East, in partnership with the Cawston Heritage Society and local author Neil Storey. It was funded through a Heritage Lottery Sharing Heritage grant.

Visit the web site here.

Martham Stories 2013

Martham Stories is a series of short films exploring the history of the Broadland village of Martham, in Norfolk, UK. It was made with a Heritage Lottery Fund All Our Stories grant.

Visit the Martham Stories website to find out more.

Further heritage projects can be seen on the Media Projects web site.