An overlooked New Zealand film getting a special screening tomorrow will be of special interest to people who whakapapa to the Whanganui River.

The New Zealand Film Heritage Trust – Te Puna Ataata is showing a new digitised version of Pictures at the Roxy cinema in Wellington.

Produced and co-written by New Zealand screen pioneer John O’Shea of Pacific Films fame, the 1991 film is based on the photographs of English migrants Alfred and Walter Burton.

Whetu Fala from Awa FM says O’Shea was raised in Whanganui and had a lifelong affection and respect for Māori people and culture.

She says Pictures highlights Alfred Burton's journey up the Whanganui during the closing stages of the New Zealand Wars and features not only photographs of ancestors taking at the time but also their descendants.

"Uncle Matiu Mareikura from Te Ati-Hau-nui-a-Paparangi stars in this film and he actually plays one of his ancestors, Ngatai, who appeared in some of these portraits taken by Alfred Burton in the 1860s," Ms Fala says.

The special screening will bring together the remaining stars and crew members including Helen Moulder, Ken Blackburn, Peter Vere-Jones and assistant producer Craig Walters along with with descendents both from the original Burton subjects and the Te Atihaunui-a-Pāpārangi actors and extras.

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