''Our project will clear up some common misconceptions about the historical Chinese population of Dunedin,'' museum exhibition developer and film producer William McKee said.
The Journey To Lan Yuan documents the Chinese in Otago from their initial arrival in 1865 up to the present day.
The Dunedin Chinese Garden is also called Lan Yuan.
Mr McKee said many people did not realise Otago's first Chinese gold-miners were formally invited by the Otago Provincial Government in 1865, because of a ''labour shortage across the province''.
The Provincial Government had guaranteed the safety of all Chinese in Otago, but when that form of government was abolished in 1876 and replaced by central government, the ''guarantees it made went with it''.
''So from a comparative peaceful co-existence with Europeans in the 1870s, the Chinese experienced much discrimination in the 1880s'', sanctioned by central government, he said.
Museum curator and historian Sean Brosnahan, is the documentary's presenter. The work had been undertaken ''in-house'' by the settlers museum and Chinese Garden.
The documentary cost less than $50,000 to make.
The total cost came from external sources, including a $20,000 grant from the Community Trust of Otago.
The film highlighted the ''remarkable'' reality of some of the ''tough living conditions'' the Chinese goldminers faced around Otago.
''When you consider that nobody lives near many of these places due to the surrounding environment 150 years later, it's little wonder some of them perished,'' he said.
''To get to these locations we have tramped, used helicopters, 4WDs and even jet-boats,'' he said.
The film will be launched at Chinese New Year, January 28.
Retired family GP and Otago community historian Dr James Ng welcomed the documentary, which he said would play a ''positive'' role in raising awareness of the Chinese role in Dunedin's history.
Gold-miners of all ancestries faced harsh conditions on Otago's 19th-century goldfields, and for part of that early history, Chinese workers comprised about 40% of the province's overall gold-mining workforce, he said.
