The best Sam Neill’s documentary movies

Sam Neill

Sam Neill

14/09/1947 (76 años)
If you love cinema, you will share this ranking of the best Sam Neill’s movies, although you may have ordered them differently. In any case, we hope you love it and with a little luck discovering a movie that you still don’t know about Sam Neill.

Return to Jurassic Park

Return to Jurassic Park
7.2/10
A multi-part documentary about the making of the Jurassic Park trilogy. Each part walks through the making of part of one of the films, including the hurricane during the shooting of the first film, and how advances in CGI for Jurassic Park helped change the world of special effects forever. All interviews for these retrospective documentaries come with comments from Spielberg, Johnston, Neill, Dern, Goldblum, the effects crews, the child actors, and Peter Stormare. This documentary is broken into five parts: Dawn of a New Era (25 min) Making Prehistory (20 min), the Next Step in Evolution (15 min), and the Third Adventure (25 min), Finding the Lost World (28 min), and Something Survived (16 min).

Gallipoli

Gallipoli
7.4/10
The Gallipoli campaign of World War I was so controversial & devastating, it changed the face of battle forever. Using diaries, letters, photographs and memoirs, acclaimed director, Tolga Ornek, traces the personal journeys of Australian, New Zealand, British and Turkish soldiers, from innocence and patriotism to hardship and heartbreak.

The Story of Film: An Odyssey

The Story of Film: An Odyssey
8.4/10
  • Genre: Documentary
  • Release: 03/09/2011
  • Character: Self
The story of international cinema told through the history of cinematic innovation. Covering six continents and 12 decades, showing how film-makers are influenced both by the historical events of their times, and by each other.

Ashes

Ashes
6.7/10
Conversations with four people — an artist, a woman struggling with her identity as a high achiever, an actor, and a priest — exploring their inner worlds, their self-image and how they feel they fit into society.

River Deep, Mountain High: James Nesbitt in New Zealand

River Deep, Mountain High: James Nesbitt in New Zealand
8.5/10
  • Genre: Documentary
  • Release: 25/12/2013
  • Character: Self
James Nesbitt moved to New Zealand in 2011 when he landed the role of Bofur in Peter Jackson's Hobbit trilogy, but he says the country remains largely unknown to him. Travelling more than 1,000 miles from the tip of the North Island down to the South, the actor finds out more about the place he has called home, visiting areas of natural beauty and learning about the nation's history and traditions. Along the way, he meets former All Blacks player the late great Jonah Lomu, takes a trip around film star Sam Neill's vineyards in Queenstown, catches up with Peter Jackson and goes Base-jumping from the tallest building in Auckland.

Working with a Master: John Carpenter

Working with a Master: John Carpenter
7.6/10
  • Genre: Documentary
  • Release: 28/03/2006
  • Character: Himself
Documentary by Frank H. Woodward.

The Show Must Go On

The Show Must Go On
6.9/10
  • Genre: Documentary
  • Release: 08/10/2019
  • Character: Himself
The Show Must Go On is a personal journey behind the scenes that confronts the epidemic of mental health issues in the Australian entertainment industry.

David Stratton: A Cinematic Life

David Stratton: A Cinematic Life
7.7/10
  • Genre: Documentary
  • Release: 09/03/2017
  • Character: Self
A compelling personal journey with David Stratton, as he relates the fascinating development of our cinema history. David guides us from his boyhood cinema experience of Australia in England, where he saw the first images of this strange and exotic landscape via the medium of film, to his migration to Australia as a ‘ten pound pom’ in 1963 and onto his present day reflections on the iconic themes that run through our cinematic legacy. All of this reflects a passionate engagement in a uniquely Australian medium. Parallel and at the heart of the series is the story of an industry whose growing pains David has witnessed over a lifetime. Alongside David, the protagonists of this history are the giants of Australian cinema – both behind the camera and in front of it.

Surf Sail

Surf Sail
7.2/10
  • Genre: Documentary
  • Release: 04/09/1978
  • Character: Narrator (voice)
A documentary following the attempt by three young people to be the first windsurfers to cross Cook Strait.

Architect Athfield

Architect Athfield
7.3/10
  • Genre: Documentary
  • Release: 01/01/1977
  • Character: Narrator
Examines the practical philosophy, the achievements and frustrations of one of New Zealand's most lively and innovative architects, Ian Athfield. The film provides a portrait of the architect and his work both in New Zealand and his project to design housing for 140,000 squatters from the Tondo area of Manila in the Philippines, for which Athfield won an international competition in 1975.

Cinema of Unease: A Personal Journey by Sam Neill

Cinema of Unease: A Personal Journey by Sam Neill
7.3/10
  • Genre: Documentary
  • Release: 10/10/1995
  • Character: Narrator / Host
Actor Sam Neill discusses New Zealand film and his own experiences within and without.

Sea Lions: Life By a Whisker

Sea Lions: Life By a Whisker
7.5/10
  • Genre: Documentary
  • Release: 04/01/2020
  • Character: Narrator
Between a jagged cliff face and a roaring ocean, lives a colony of Australian Sea Lions. In an environment equally as harsh as it is beautiful, be immersed in a classic coming of age tale guided by one of Australia’s most unique, intelligent, and playful animals. Take an intimate journey inside the colony where a life of great intimacy, tenderness, and clumsiness, must often give way to a life of great sacrifice and bravery. Dive into the world of an endangered Australian Sea Lion pup - and meet the people that are trying to save her species.

New Zealand: Earth's Mythical Islands

New Zealand: Earth's Mythical Islands
8.4/10
  • Genre: Documentary
  • Release: 19/07/2016
  • Character: Himself - Narrator
Isolated from the rest of the world since the time of the dinosaurs, New Zealand’s magnificent wildlife has been left to its own devices for 80 million years, with surprising consequences. This series reveals New Zealand’s rich and intriguing wildlife stories, from the bustling communities of penguins hiding away in giant daisy forests to the kakapo – Earth’s only species of flightless nocturnal parrots. New Zealand was also the last place to be discovered and settled by people who brought with them new animals, like merino sheep and new predators like the stoat. Finally the series meets the pioneering conservation heroes who are fighting to save some of its most endangered species.

New Zild - The Story of New Zealand English

New Zild - The Story of New Zealand English
  • Genre: Documentary
  • Release: 25/05/2005
  • Character: Self
Oft-derided across the dutch for its vowel-mangling pronunciation (sex fush'n'chups anyone?) and too fast-paced for tourists and Elton John to understand, is New Zealand's unique accent. Presented by Jim Mora, New Zild follows the evolution of New Zealand English, from the "colonial twang" to Billy T. Linguist Elizabeth Gordon explains the infamous HRT (High Rising Terminal) ending our sentences, and Mora interprets such phrases as 'air gun' (how are you going?). Features Lyn of Tawa in an accent face-off with Sam Neill and Judy Bailey.

Lindy Chamberlain: The True Story

Lindy Chamberlain: The True Story
  • Genre: Documentary
  • Release: 27/09/2020
  • Character: Narrator (Himself)
Lindy Chamberlain recounts the panic and the chaos of the night her baby Azaria was taken by a dingo at a campground near Uluru 40 years ago in a new documentary – a tragedy that would become one of the biggest stories in Australian history.

The Water Cycle

The Water Cycle
An award-winning short exploring man-made impacts on New Zealand’s water cycle.

Four Shorts on Architecture

Four Shorts on Architecture
  • Genre: Documentary
  • Release: 10/10/1975
  • Character: Narrator (voice)
A visual essay on contemporary Kiwi architecture.

Related actors