We're all familiar with our big-note homegrown filmmakers like Peter Jackson and Taika Waititi. But some of our nation's video buffs have been quietly plugging away for years just under the surface, like 93-year-old Fred Holloway just outside of Masterton.
Halloway has been filming the Wairarapa for decades, documenting the region's ever-changing landscape.
Seven Sharp went to visit him, checking out his mighty collection, including what's thought to be New Zealand's first-ever colour news story — about a marching competition.
The 93-year-old has seen it all, and he's only just been discovered by local videographer Phil Stebbing.
His love for film started when he was around five or six, when his father, a projectionist, brought him a projector to play with.
"It was a 35mm which you can't see nowadays except the big ones in the theatres."
As a child, Holloway was in England when the Nazis started bombing and the authorities adopted him out to the countryside.
The first film he saw was about the war, 1943's San Demetrio London. It inspired him, and he trained as a projectionist.
"The guy said 'can you join a film?' 'Yes, I can'. He gave me a splicer, and I said 'I don't want that'. He replied 'what do you mean you don't want that?'
"I said 'watch'. He ripped the film for me, I scraped it to the side, put the cement on, and he said 'I don't believe this. Do it again'. I did 15 pieces."
Now he conducts his hobby from a DIY cinema in a paddock — a building that used to be the local telephone exchange.
If Holloway's life were a movie, it would be a five-hour epic — he lost his hearing while doing bomb disposal, he lost his son at a young age and was even the local bailiff.
A kaleidoscopic arc of a story with all the colours of the rainbow, a tale with most twists and turns than a film noir — no wonder Holloway likes a good flick. His own is the best watch of all.
Watch the video above to check out Holloway's cinema.
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