PATU! restored

Before and after Frame enlargement from PATU! Courtesy of Ngā Taonga Sound Vision and the Mita whānau

Richard Falkner, Kurt Otzen and Gareth Evans credit Leslie Lewis

Before and after Frame enlargement 2 from PATU! Courtesy of Ngā Taonga Sound Vision and the Mita whānau

Before and after Frame enlargement 3 from PATU! Courtesy of Ngā Taonga Sound Vision and the Mita whānau

Before and after Frame enlargement 4 from PATU! Courtesy of Ngā Taonga Sound Vision and the Mita whānau

Before and after Frame enlargement 5 from PATU! Courtesy of Ngā Taonga Sound Vision and the Mita whānau

Frame enlargement 6 from PATU! Courtesy of Ngā Taonga Sound Vision and the Mita whānau

Frame enlargement 7 from PATU! Courtesy of Ngā Taonga Sound Vision and the Mita whānau

Frame enlargement 8 from PATU! Courtesy of Ngā Taonga Sound Vision and the Mita whānau

Frame enlargement 9 from PATU! Courtesy of Ngā Taonga Sound Vision and the Mita whānau

Five years of painstaking work by Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision film conservators has revealed previously obscured details in Merata Mita's landmark 1983 film Patu!   The documentary focuses on the deeply controversial tour of the Springbok rugby team, and the deep rifts it caused between activists, the police, rugby fans, politicians - often members of the same families.

New technology and fastidious attention to detail over thousands of hours have made the digital preservation and enhancement of the film possible.

But the goal was never to make it look so perfect and high def that it could have been filmed yesterday.

Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision is about to show excerpts from PATU! as part of an exhibition called TOHE | PROTEST.

Lynn Freeman visits two of the key team members who worked on restoring the film - Richard Falkner and Gareth Evans

TOHE | PROTEST  opens on Friday the 23rd of July at the National Library of New Zealand in Wellington.