Anna Cottrell: Behind the scenes at the Alexander Turnbull Library

In 2020, journalist, oral historian and documentary producer/director Anna Cottrell was asked to make a five-minute film on the history of the ATL. Five minutes? Not possible!

Anna discussed her recent film project taking her behind the scenes at the Alexander Turnbull Library, and showed the 15-minute documentary that focuses on the fascinating behind-the-scenes work of this amazing research library and its many treasures. See Anna’s terrific short film below.

Anna is a storyteller who records personal stories often to illustrate a bigger picture. Her latest overseas trips were to Iran twice for The Kiwi, the Knight & the Qashqai, a documentary featuring the nomad weavers, the Qashqai, NZ’s oriental rug repairer, Anna Williams, and Sir David Attenborough.  Also, during the World War I anniversary, Anna made 35 short ‘haiku’ documentaries for TV3 MediaWorks based on personal stories of women and men, Māori, Pākeha and a Chinese tunneller. She spent hours researching in the Katherine Mansfield Reading Room.