Michael King, a Moment in Time

A Moment in Time is an armchair interview with historian Michael King OBE filmed in 1991. King discusses his early influences, motivation, and distinctive publications. King died in a car accident with his wife Maria Jungowska in 2004, and his reflections in A Moment in Time are testament to the tragedy of that loss: "We've got to be able to trace our own footsteps and listen to our own voices or we'll cease to be New Zealanders, or being New Zealanders will cease to have any meaning."

It was very moving for me, [...] to find documents written by Moriori themselves in the 1850s and 1860s which told the story, which listed all the names of those who had been killed and to know that these documents had been written by people crippled with arthritis and tuberculosis, going blind from cataracts, [...] as messages to their descendants and messages to posterity. And I was quite affected to find these things and to be able to give those people a voice again in the 20th century. That to me, probably, was the most satisfying part of that whole project.

– Michael King

Key Cast & Crew

Clare O'Leary

Director

Glenis Giles

Producer

Michael King

Subject

Vanya Shaw

Interviewer

Rewa Harre

Camera

Simon Reece

Editor