S2.E2 ∙ In your face

Our film explores the decade of the involvement of New Zea land troops in the war in Afghanistan. Given our status as a tiny Pacific nation, with an independent foreign policy, the film asks why we got involved. Were we being good global citizens or were we attempting to realign ourselves with the US given the past strains due to our anti-nuclear policy? We also explore the limitations of our embedded media coverage which was not just scarce but closely followed our Government's position that our role was largely humanitarian. Finally, the film reflects on indigenous issues and some of the conflicts Maori soldiers felt about participating in what increasingly appeared to be an occupation.

In 1961, John F. Kennedy set a goal for the nation; to put an American on the moon and bring them safely home. This effort to reach the moon before the Soviet Union prompted a burst of creativity within our nation's space industry. Unbeknown to many, a small town of homesteaders contributed to a highly successful space program that derived the necessary science to develop today's aeronautic technology. History was made when the largest single rockets in the world were test-fired at the Aerojet-Dade facility.