Best of the week 15 July — 4 August

Words appar­ent­ly don’t mean any­thing any­more, so here’s our best of the week cov­er­ing… a lit­tle bit more than a week. Because life. So here’s what’s good and Welling­­ton-relat­ed this week! Best adult learn­ing option that you didn’t know about Some peo­ple know Make Room for their won­der­ful chil­dren’s STEM edu­ca­tion class­es, but you may […]

Shadow of figure sitting down in front of two wall size projected images of an abstract image of thousands of blue coloured lines

The Grid — New Digital Art Space

Writ­ten by Nadia Free­man Welling­ton’s newest and poten­tial­ly first dig­i­tal art space opened this month, and I am deeply appre­cia­tive of the entre­pre­neur­ial spir­it of Shan­non Bros­na­han Inglis and Delainy Jamahl. In an era when invest­ment in the arts is dwin­dling, launch­ing a ven­ture of this scale and qual­i­ty is inspir­ing. Ini­tia­tives like this infuse […]

DocEdge: Mr Toilet review

“Turn­ing poop cul­ture into pop cul­ture is the fastest way to solve the san­i­ta­tion cri­sis.” Hav­ing grown up in self-described slums of Sin­ga­pore before san­i­ta­tion arrived, Jack Sim has per­son­al expe­ri­ence of its val­ue. After being unsat­is­fied with his ear­ly suc­cess in busi­ness, he had a rethink, and made it his mis­sion to bring toi­lets […]

Preview: Show Me Shorts 2019 Programme Announced!

With its largest ever pro­gramme, the Show Me Shorts Film Fes­ti­val opens at cin­e­mas across Aotearoa from the 5th of Octo­ber. With six­ty short films and three music videos — all cho­sen from a record 2040 entries — this fes­ti­val is sure to be one to remem­ber. Eight Kiwi films will be mak­ing their word […]

A still from Honeyland

DocEdge preview: Honeyland

Hon­ey­land Direct­ed by: Ljubomir Ste­fanov, Tama­ra Kotevs­ka Dressed in a high-necked yel­low blouse, mot­tled long skirt and pat­terned head­scarf, the leath­ery Hatidze Mura­to­va nego­ti­ates a moun­tain ledge to find a remote hive where she extracts just the right amount of hon­ey so that both she and her bees thrive. Back home in her ancient stone […]

DocEdge preview: The Silence of Others

DocEdge kicks off in Welling­ton on 13th June (run­ning to the 23rd) and we’ve been for­tu­nate enough to pre­view some of the films that will be show­ing. First up… The Silence of Oth­ers Direct­ed by Almu­de­na Car­ruce­do and Robert Bahar María Martín pins up her long grey hair with gnarled hands, then strug­gles with a […]

Film : Where There Is Life

The task of car­ing for his ter­mi­nal­ly ill wife Mar­garet falls square­ly on the broad shoul­ders of Stephen Lee. He would not have it any oth­er way. Welling­ton film mak­er Gwen Isaac’s obser­va­tion­al doc­u­men­tary was shot over the four years fol­low­ing East­bourne woman Margaret’s diag­no­sis with motor neu­ron dis­ease. We watch as the focus of the […]

Preview: Māoriland Film Festival 15–19 March 2017

The Māo­ri­land Film Fes­ti­val 2017 pro­gramme includes mul­ti-award win­ning fea­tures, doc­u­men­taries and short films. Of the award win­ning fea­ture films, there are eight New Zealand pre­mieres. “Indige­nous film­mak­ers are very keen to screen at Māo­ri­land as they con­sid­er it to be the most impor­tant fes­ti­val in the South­ern hemi­sphere,” said Māo­ri­land Char­i­ta­ble Trust chair Tainui […]

Preview: The great maiden’s blush

From the mak­ers of Hook, Line & Sinker and Tak­ing the Wae­wae Express comes a new female-cen­tred sto­ry rich in dra­ma and emo­tion. Two first time moth­ers, Bun­ny (Miria­ma McDow­ell) and Aila (Renee Lyons) end up shar­ing a room in a post-natal ward after the birth of their babies. A pre­car­i­ous friend­ship devel­ops between them as they face the chal­lenges […]

Halloween Horror close to home

Welling­­ton-made hor­ror film The Dead Room is sure to spook audi­ences this Hal­loween. Based on a true chill­ing New Zealand sto­ry from the 1970s, a psy­chic and two sci­en­tists are sent in to inves­ti­gate para­nor­mal activ­i­ty at an Ota­go farm­house after its ter­ri­fied fam­i­ly flees. Welling­­ton-based actress Lau­ra Petersen, who plays the young psy­chic Hol­ly […]