2008

This is the documentary many New Zealanders will be shocked to see. Gang members are not just the patch wearing, tattoo covered people you cross the road to avoid. They are a big part of society, and are far more involved in the activities surrounding your day-to-day life than you might think.

Inside New Zealand: The Gangs is a two-part look inside the gang culture and their place in our society, beginning Thursday, June 19th at 9:30pm on TV3. Journalist Pam Corkery spent 18 months of her life getting in amongst New Zealand’s biggest and most feared gangs, and her unprecedented access is brought to you in this eye-opening documentary.

The Gangs – Part One goes behind the headlines and introduces the actual gang leaders – men who have never agreed to be on television before. Prepare yourself to be face to face with the real men in charge of some of the country’s most notorious gangs; gangs that affect your everyday life without you even knowing it.

“We wanted to reveal the actual level of New Zealand’s gang problem – to speak to leaders who could impart unprecedented insight into the culture of the gang world,” says producer/ director Laurie Clarke.

From minor crimes to gang infiltration into government departments, this first episode will also explore the unbelievable range of gang activities throughout New Zealand. “It’s nothing less than astonishing,” says Clarke.

We will meet non-criminal citizens who use the gangs to do legitimate work (backed by the not-so-legitimate inferences of their fear factor), and criminals who pay the gangs “taxes” so that they can work within the jealously guarded gang territories.

We will also meet prospective members, whose life ambitions are to become fully patched gang members, and explore the psyche behind gang violence. Is it always when used only when necessary, or is it sometimes just a brutal form of fun?

Plus, we go deep inside the only maximum security wing at Auckland Prison, better known as Paremoremo, to see what kind of criminal activity takes place, business-as-usual, inside its walls, and to find out how successful inmates can be in corrupting prison staff.

“Another revelation is the range of gang infiltration into the prison service,” says Clarke. “People just don’t realise the extent of the gang networks.”

Sometimes terrifying, Corkery and her camera crew find themselves in tricky situations during this documentary. From gangsters making threats and throwing things at them under a darkened bridge in the middle of the night, to drug dealers wielding handguns during meetings, some of the circumstances under which these interviews took place are nothing short of life-threatening.

Prepare to be enlightened as the first part of the powerful and shocking documentary Inside New Zealand: The Gangs screens on Thursday, June 19th at 9:30pm on TV3.

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