Author: Anna

“Experimental filmic punk experience”

Yowza — what on earth could that be I hear you won­der­ing.…. I’m a lit­tle unsure myself but this week/end from 11–13 June the Film Archive cin­e­ma (cor­ner of Tarana­ki and Ghuznee Sts) is going to be explod­ing with the best of exper­i­men­tal film from Aus­tralia. 

Three of the lead­ing lights of the genre —  Sal­ly Gold­ing, Joel Stern and Dirk de Bruyn — have been brought over with help from the Aus­tralian High Com­mis­sion to present three nights of mind-blow­ing enter­tain­ment.

Each night promis­es to be some­thing a lit­tle dif­fer­ent, kick­ing off with the his­tor­i­cal then the god­fa­ther of Aus­tralian exper­i­men­tal film, fol­lowed up a riotous con­clu­sion of hand­made and hand processed film, feed­back sys­tems, incon­gru­ous foley noise, sprock­ets and flick­er, trum­pets and strings, spe­cial­ly pre­pared screens and alien­at­ed nar­ra­tion.

You’d be crazy to miss this cal­i­bre of per­for­mance in a live set­ting. As NZFA Project Devel­op­er Mark Williams says…

Calling all Neil Young fans!

Don’t miss this 35mm screen­ing of the bril­liant Rust Nev­er Sleeps (USA, exempt, 103 mins) this Sat­ur­day night at the Film Archive.  Tick­ets are $8 ($6 con­ces­sion) and this fea­ture length doc­u­men­tary could sell out so get your tick­ets now.

The God­fa­ther of Grunge is in essen­tial (read: grungy) form on this acclaimed live video, wide­ly con­sid­ered to be the best record of Neil Young’s spec­tac­u­lar con­cert pres­ence. Filmed in 1978, Young and his back­ing band, Crazy Horse, rip through six­teen of his best songs, includ­ing Like A Hur­ri­cane, Cin­na­mon Girl, and the mod­ern clas­sic, After the Gol­drush.

Rust Nev­er Sleeps is one of those rare con­cert films that renews one’s faith in rock and roll. Tell your Dad.

Create your own Video Game!!!!

Put sim­ply, Welling­ton artist Dou­glas Bag­nall is an art­sy com­put­er-nerd genius (hope­ful­ly he won’t mind me say­ing so).

Tomor­row eve, Wednes­day 15 April at 5:30pm the Film Archive’s medi­a­gallery is unveil­ing his inter­ac­tive project:

A MACHINE THAT TRANSFORMS CRAYON PICTURES INTO UNIQUE VIDEO GAMES THAT YOU CAN PLAY! 

I kid you not. Take your kids dur­ing the school hols, take your Nana. The exhi­bi­tion is free and runs until May 16. 

Take who­ev­er, and most impor­tant­ly, take your­selves for a drink on Wednes­day eve! 

Film Archive, cor­ner of Tarana­ki and Ghuznee Sts

Shhhh.…some secrets

No, this isn’t a fel­low Welling­ton­ista help­ing anoth­er out after a hard Fri­day night on Courte­nay Place, it’s a pic of the New Zealand Med­ical Corps in 1917.

This Sat­ur­day at the Film Archive (7pm, entry by koha) Dr Chris Puglsey is pre­sent­ing a peek at some of the old­est sur­viv­ing films in the Archive, from 1910–1920 of the New Zealand expe­ri­ence dur­ing WWI. 

Dr Pugs­ley is a total hoot (teach­es at Sand­hurst — yes that’s right, the school of choice for Wills and Har­ry) and he’ll be joined by live piano accom­pa­ni­ment. 

More after the jump

Calling all anime and manga fans!

Gam­bari­mashooooooo

The Film Archive is hav­ing a mini-Japan­ese Film Fes­ti­val this week with sup­port from the Japan­ese Foun­da­tion. And all the films are screen­ing for FREE! 

If you’re any kind of ani­me fan you’ll be rush­ing to see:

1979 ani­me clas­sic — Lupin the III — The Cas­tle of Cagliostro (Thurs 19) and the bril­liant Death Note (Fri 20) based on the man­ga series of the same name.

On Wednes­day eve (that’s tomor­row) there’s also the hurtling mar­itime action movie Umizaru 2 — Test of Trust which promis­es a wild ride. 

All screen­ings start at 6:30pm and it’s on a first in basis. 

Urban isolation

Ter­ry Urbahn has spent a lot of time in bars and hotels — just the kind of guy we love here at the Welling­ton­ista.

He has an exhi­bi­tion of select­ed works from 1994–2008 on show at the Film Archive medi­a­gallery until 9 April, with the open­ing tak­ing place tomor­row — Sat­ur­day 14 March at 5pm. This is a bit of a depar­ture for the gallery. A week­end open­ing!

Come along and start your Sat­ur­day night right with a tip­ple and some great art — pho­tog­ra­phy, video work, dio­ra­ma and sculp­ture — by one of Welling­ton’s favourites. Every­one is wel­come to cel­e­brate this launch. 

All of the work was made dur­ing Urbah­n’s time liv­ing in Cap­i­tal City (he cur­rent­ly lives in Syd­ney) but it’s the first time it’s been shown here…

includ­ing the spec­tac­u­lar work The Sacred Hart (pic­tured) which is on dis­play by spe­cial arrange­ment with Auck­land Fes­ti­val.

[Image cour­tesy of Gov­ett-Brew­ster Art Gallery, New Ply­mouth]

Hollywood That Was

This very hap­py look­ing young man is New Zealan­der Ron Tonk­ins (pic­tured with Mar­garet Chap­man) who trav­elled to Hol­ly­wood in 1946 and worked as a pub­lic­i­ty pho­tog­ra­ph­er.

Inter­est­ing thing is, dur­ing his time in Hol­ly­wood he shot reels and reels of Super 8 film footage like any usu­al tourist. Com­plete­ly Bizarre thing is, he had unlim­it­ed access to the stars of the day and the major Hol­ly­wood lots (includ­ing Hopa­long Cas­sidy). All with­out a secu­ri­ty guard in sight.

Come and watch this “back­stage” look at Hol­ly­wood, shot by a plucky Kiwi and nar­rat­ed with his own rec­ol­lec­tions, “Here’s Mar­lene Diet­rich and she’s ask­ing me, ‘What’s New Zealand like Ron?’ ??!?!

I kid you not, this rare record of Kiwi inge­nu­ity must be seen to be believed.

Screen­ing Thurs­day 12 and Fri­day 13 March, 7pm. FREE ADMISSSION at the Film Archive. 

Can’t make it to Womad?

Nev­er mind, on Wednes­day 11 March at 7:30pm the Film Archive is host­ing six Gyu­to Monks who will per­form live chant­i­ng before a fundrais­er screen­ing of Mur­der in the Snow. On their way to Wom­ad this week­end the monks will con­duct a Q&A ses­sion after­wards.

Happy Birthday to the little station that could

Well blow me down, the VBC is turn­ing two! Bra­vo! 

Not entire­ly sure how they’ve pulled it off but the radio sta­tion con­tin­ues to go from strength to strength (best lis­tened to stream­ing at www.vbc.org.nz  And they’re throw­ing a whop­per par­ty to coin­cide with VUW Ori­en­ta­tion 2009. 

See you at the Front Room TONIGHT (at 5 Hania St off Kent Tce) for the Dead C, So So Mod­ern, Rory Storm & The Invaders

All for a mere $15. Tick­ets on the door. 

CONGRATULATIONS guys! 

The Rainbow Reels

Come down to the Film Archive this eve for the last exhi­bi­tion open­ing of the year.

Hot damn — it’s a good­ie! Tes­sa Laird, whose name you may recog­nise from her bril­liant art writ­ing over the years, has curat­ed an exhi­bi­tion from the Film Archive’s Home Movie Col­lec­tion.

With such a wealth of mate­r­i­al (over 30,000 titles) she cre­at­ed an arbi­trary selec­tion process based on the colours of the rain­bow. The resul­tant Rain­bow Reels are fan­tas­tic. There’s every­one from Opo to Chair­man Mau.…

Plus, per­form­ing tonight by spe­cial request are Alpha­bet Bomber — a band of 13 year olds who must be seen to be believed. They’re influ­enced by the Cramps and sheesh — it’s going to be a par­ty!

See you tonight!

Image from 1982 Sweet­wa­ters Fes­ti­val from the Yel­low sec­tion.