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Hero image for Survey - The Day We Landed on The Most Perfect Planet In the Universe

Part one of two from this full length film.

Part two of two from this full length film.

Part one of two from this full length film.

Part two of two from this full length film.

Survey - The Day We Landed on The Most Perfect Planet In the Universe

Television (Full Length) – 1971

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"A film developed from the imagination of New Zealand children" is how director Tony Williams described this remarkable, free-wheeling mix of drama and documentary. Writer Michael Heath features as a teacher, who works with a class of children from Petone to explore what freedom means to them. At times their notions might seem naive, but the film remains firmly non-judgmental. The free-wheeling approach — most memorably in the fantasy scenes on Paekākariki Beach — makes for a "wonderfully idiosyncratic" (said film historian Roger Horrocks) hymn to play, the imagination, and juvenile freedom.

Kids really think about freedom because wherever they are, they’re all locked up.. when they're in the house they're not free, when they're in the school they're not free ... even your bones are locked up inside your body.
– Student Perry Armstrong, who later went on to act in Tony Williams' first feature film Solo