Author: Anna

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

In an age of whizz bang graph­ics and fan­cy cam­era tech­niques, it’s a real treat to be able to watch a silent film with speech titles such as: “Where Mary was con­cerned Sam­my, the hired hand, had the soul and ardour of a fifth cen­tu­ry poet” ??WTF!? and all with live piano accom­pa­ni­ment.

On Wednes­day 20 August, 7pm The Bush Cin­derel­la is screen­ing, a pre­sen­ta­tion by the Friends of the Film Archive, to cel­e­brate the 80th anniver­sary of this Rudall Hay­ward film.

Star­ring Miss New Zealand Dale Austin, “who com­bines Hol­ly­wood expe­ri­ence and tech­nique with a fault­less pho­to­genic face.” — The Sun, 1928.

As promised

Here’s some info about This is Exper­i­men­tal — also kick­ing off tomor­row eve.….

A fes­ti­val of exper­i­men­tal film and film mak­ers (talk about niche‑y) If you know some­one who’s into avant-garde film, please do let them know.

High­lights include a screen­ing and work­shop by Guy Sher­win, one of the pre-emi­nent British film artists of the last 40 years; Free Rad­i­cal: The films of Len Lye, a pro­gramme which screened to over­whelmed audi­ences in the USA last year; and a col­lec­tion of 1980s Super 8 Movies from Cana­da, NZ and USA pre­sent­ed by film mak­er Mar­tin Rums­by.

Image: Len Lye, Stills Col­lec­tion; New Zealand Film Archive

Plus The Michael Nichol­son Stu­dio Visu­al Music Project Stage 3: Ops 1–4 video instal­la­tion — see below.…

Video synthesizer

Open­ing this Thurs­day at the Film Archive at 5:30pm, an exhi­bi­tion by 92-year old Welling­ton painter, sculp­tor, artist Michael Nichol­son.

If that’s not impres­sive enough this work, The Michael Nichol­son Visu­al Music Project: Stage 3. Op.s 1–4, was orig­i­nal­ly cre­at­ed on a “Scan­i­mate” machine in Aus­tralia in the 1980s; the same machine that ear­ly Star Wars, Sesame St and The Elec­tric Com­pa­ny ani­ma­tions were made on. Nichol­son worked with the Film Archive to restore the orig­i­nal U‑matic tapes and edit­ed them togeth­er as ‘Visu­al Music’ with the assis­tance of edi­tor Diane McAllen.

Michael Nichol­son first came to New Zealand in the 1950s to work at the Elam School of Fine Art. His lat­est work is inspired by the abstract expres­sion­ist paint­ings of Wass­i­ly Kandin­sky. It’s hyp­not­ic, fas­ci­nat­ing­ly beau­ti­ful and on dis­play for the next month in the Pelorus Trust medi­a­gallery.

This event launch­es an Exper­i­men­tal Film Fes­ti­val too but more about that soon!

Still images: Screen grabs from The Michael Nichol­son Visu­al Music Project: Stage 3. Op.s 1–4

Rare treat for Wellington

I’m com­plete­ly gob­s­macked. Just got a lit­tle sneak live pre­view of the one and only CW Stonek­ing (Myspace) who plays the Mighty Mighty tonight.

I advise you to fight your way to the door. Welling­ton’s own Slim Chants will be kick­ing things off from 9pm and Palmy’s how­ing wolf man Boss Christ will take things into the night.….. but this CW Stonek­ing.

I think I’m in love.

Holy Mac Truck

Check out the Par­ty of the Uni­verse the Mighty is putting on for Welling­ton NEXT WEEK!!!!!

(click image to see larg­er ver­sion of the poster)

For those of you who don’t know CW Stonek­ing — you should. He’s nev­er played NZ before and he’s some­thing. Check him out on myspace.

And for the oth­er nights, the finest in NZ bands from around the coun­try cov­er­ing a pret­ty diverse range of gen­res. There’s the Amer­i­cana night kick­ing things off, extreme neon for the Heavy Pet­ting elec­tro night, fol­lowed by a total mash up of rock­a­bil­ly and elec­tron­ics from Bang Bang Eche, and then a Wild Trash extrav­a­gan­za of Welling­ton’s own to top things off.

There’ll be pole dancers, lim­bo com­pe­ti­tions, a vod­ka slide and so much more. Chose your night. Bring your friends and come and par­ty at the Cas­tle that Cares!

Something smells like fish

For those of you who’ve nev­er heard of Nanook, Thurs­day night’s screen­ing at the Film Archive is unmiss­able.

Wide­ly con­sid­ered the first fea­ture length doc­u­men­tary ever made (shot in 1922) it’s an excep­tion­al account of Inu­it life on the ice.

Using tra­di­tion­al meth­ods (includ­ing killing large fish by bit­ing the back of their heads/necks? what­ev­er you call that bit at the top) and hang­ing out with his “wives” in the harsh­est of climes, this snap­shot of Nanook’s life is even more poignant as he died two years lat­er, lost in a snow storm.

The film lat­er went on to be dis­cred­it­ed for “set­ting-up” tra­di­tion­al hunt­ing meth­ods, rais­ing inter­est­ing ques­tions which fit per­fect­ly with the cur­rent medi­a­gallery exhi­bi­tion by Welling­ton artist Sarah Jane Par­ton.

She’ll be per­form­ing a response to the film live with the musi­cal back up of Henderson/Beban/Crewdson

THIS THURSDAY, 7PM, AT THE FILM ARCHIVE
TICKETS $8 / $6

Film Archive events cal­en­dar

At the Castle that Cares

It’s a grand thing to be in Welling­ton for the long week­end cos SPAM INC is bring­ing the best of the coun­try’s dirt­i­est rock and roll to Cap­i­tal City tomor­row night.

The Hories (AK), Boss Christ (Palmy) and The Grand Saloon (Banks Penin­su­la) all at the Mighty for a mea­gre five bucks.

[insert howl­ing wolf nois­es here]

The World of Interiors

Open­ing tonight at the Film Archive (this one well worth a look) is artist Nova Paul’s exper­i­men­ta­tion with the bright bold world of Tech­ni­col­or.

Part trip­py, wan­der­ing colourscape, part high­ly tech­ni­cal process, film geeks and art lovers will drool over this one…while many should remem­ber her work from last year’s Prospect show at the City Gallery.

Plus she’s pre­sent­ing a screen­ing of some of her works along­side Tech­ni­col­or gems from the Archive’s vault on Thurs­day 5 June — includ­ing the fas­ci­nat­ing Tuber­cu­lo­sis: How it spreads: How to pre­vent it (1954, Mor­row Pro­duc­tions, NZ)

Open­ing tonight 5:30pm at the Film Archive. Exhi­bi­tion runs til Sat­ur­day 21 June.

And something else tonight worth a mention

The Cos­bys are Auck­land’s undis­put­ed kings of North­ern Soul — a hyper­charged R&B revue thun­der­ing through uptown, down­town, deep soul, dance and bal­lad sounds, and most impor­tant­ly, doing it with impec­ca­ble style.

Appar­ent­ly dis­sat­is­fied with the groove­less, under­sexed state of mod­ern rock­’n’roll, The Cos­bys found the answer by smash­ing togeth­er four-on-the-floor Motown rhythms with a two-fist­ed Stax-style horn sec­tion and a singer — “Papa” Craw­dad­dy — who is so damn good he made James Brown just give up and die.

So cut loose, ladies and gen­tle­men — shake those hips, jive with the Hot Cos­by Horns, be touched by “Papa”. Do the jerk, watch them work, do the Mashed Pota­to, do the Alli­ga­tor. And do it on Cos­by Street, or even bet­ter — tonight (Fri­day 18th April) at Mighty Mighty.

10pm — $5 — good times

Web­site here

Opening tonight — all welcome

A swag of Welling­ton artists have pro­duced video art for The Artists Film Fes­ti­val, open­ing tonight at 5:30pm at the Film Archive (cnr Tarana­ki and Ghuznee Sts).

Curat­ed by Welling­ton-based cura­tor (and Lis­ten­er art crit­ic) Paula J Book­er, the show promis­es an extreme mix of artworks.…28 video works in total, pos­si­bly the largest video exhi­bi­tion ever under­tak­en in NZ.

High­lights include some­one singing to Janis Joplin until almost pass­ing out, CHCH artist James Oram gen­er­at­ing elec­tric­i­ty by bike to pow­er his own ME sign.…it’s all pret­ty enter­tain­ing/shock­ing/thought-pro­vok­ing stuff.

EXHIBITION DETAILS
The Artists Film Fes­ti­val
11 April – 17 May 2008

LIVE PERFORMANCE, Thurs­day 17 April, 7pm
The Twi­light Drone by Johannes Con­tag (of Cloud­boy fame) Tick­ets $8/6.

Con­tag explores the notion of the ambi­ent film with live accom­pa­ni­ment to this film work shot in a snow-cov­ered Aus­tria…