Home movie making was huge in The 1960s. But while most people filmed domestic scenes, in Porirua Hilda Brodie Smith was writing, directing and starring in mini dramas and filming documentaries.
Hilda Brodie Smith Photo: supplied
Hilda was a member of one of the many amateur cinema clubs that sprung up, and her work was so distinctive and professional that she regularly won prizes. In the 1990s she deposited about half of her 30 films with Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision. This year these fragile and grainy old films have been fully restored using the latest digital technology.
Lynn Freeman talks to Hilda - now 92 and living on the Kapiti Coast - and to Ngā Taonga's digital conservator Richard Falkner.
