Anna

"The brain is a multi-faceted thing that thinks about all sorts of things, mostly bullshit. Whereas a fish doesn’t. A fish only thinks about eating, reproduction, and staying alive. A bit like the kiwi male, probably….” local fisherman Neil Moody.

Florian Habicht’s latest documentary Land of the Long White Cloud is full of fishing and philosophy and definitely worth a peek. Currently screening at the Film Archive for three weeks it’s a look into the hearts and minds of fishermen and women, as they compete for $50,000 in the 90 Mile Beach ‘Snapper Classic’ – the world’s largest snapper fishing contest. 

"Must be seen" – National Radio
"An injection of Awesome" – 95BFM

Wednesday to Saturday nights at 7pm until 27 February 
at the Film Archive cinema, corner of Taranaki and Ghuznee Sts.

Tickets: $14 adult, $12 concession, $10 seniors, $9 children

A safe place to avoid all the ghouls and zombies this Saturday night will be the Film Archive cinema.

A brilliant silent feature film from the 1920s – Under the Southern Cross – is screening with live musical accompaniment by Warren Maxwell, Maaka McGregor and Himiona Grace.  

This "Maori folk drama" made by Universal Studios in 1929, features an epic love triangle, cave scenes shot on Waitomo and White Islands, a fiery volcano and ‘A Contest of Spears’. It’s also worth coming to see for the intertitles alone.  

"Neither tribal custom, danger nor the sacred ban of "tapu" could covercome the strength of his love" 

Limited seats available. Tickets: $10

Tomorrow eve, come to the Film Archive and witness the unveiling of The Blue Room, a group show including (lucky number) 13 artists who were asked to respond ‘in a psychic way’ to an idea, site or place. Some of the results are quite startling.

Curated by Pippa Sanderson the show features Wellingtonians Bek Pilcher, Johanna Sanders and Pippa Sanderson, with Elle Loui August, Bekah Carran, Louise Clifton, Andrea du Chatenier, Violet Faigan, Lonnie Hutchinson, Saskia Leek, Louise Menzies, Dane Mitchell and Stuart Shepherd.

Some are believers, some skeptics, but all raise questions about the fascination with the psychic that haunts us now – the television programmes, the internet sites devoted to spells and spectres, the touring psychics…

All welcome at the opening, 5:30pm tomorrow, plus there’s an Artist Talk at the Archive 12:15pm, Tuesday 27 October.

The exhibition runs until Saturday 21 November 2009. 

The Wellingtonista’s Font of all Film Knowledge Dan Slevin has been getting excited about this one.

For the next fortnight the Film Archive is showing a retrospective of the work of Wellington-based independent film making collective Vanguard Films.

Screening at the Archive’s cinema on the corner of Taranaki and Ghuznee Sts, are a range of exceptional documentaries and dramas, with equipment and gear used by the film makers over the years, also on display. There’s even a Bolex camera saved from detection by the French Military at Mururoa Atoll in 1973. Hidden in a barrel of oranges (the film stock in a sack of flour) a decoy camera was confiscated, but one Bolex remained in Vanguard member Alister Barry’s possession which he used to shoot footage of the Mururoa test site.    

Don’t miss Russell Campbell and Alister Barry on Sunday with Chris Laidlaw this weekend at 9:30am (appropriately just after Mediawatch). And come in to the Film Archive to find out more about the collective’s ceaseless political and social activism over the last 30 years.