Standing Room Only for Sunday 4 July 2021

12:16  PATU! restored

Five years of painstaking work by Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision film conservators has revealed previously obscured details in Merata Mita's landmark 1983 film PATU!    The documentary focuses on the deeply controversial tour of the Springbok rugby team, and the deep rifts it caused between activists, the police, rugby fans, politicians - often members of the same families.

New technology and fastidious attention to detail over thousands of hours have made the digital preservation and enhancement of the film possible.

But the goal was never to make it look so perfect and high def that it could have been filmed yesterday.

Ngā Taonga is about to show excerpts from PATU! as part of an exhibition called TOHE | PROTEST.

Lynn Freeman visits two of the key team members who worked on restoring the film - Richard Falkner and Gareth Evans

TOHE | PROTEST  opens on Friday the 23rd of July at the National Library of New Zealand in Wellington.

 

12:38  Appreciating the Art-East studio

A Christchurch art space has helped people who struggle with alcohol and drug addiction issues, with isolation, institutionalisation and homelessness for the past seven years.   Now it will be able to touch more lives after receiving a big grant and an award.
 
Art-East is a multi-disciplinary art studio, with resources for painting and sculpture, mosaics and stone-carving.  And many local artists come along regularly to share their skills.

Lis Rate-Smith set up the studio out of frustration.   She was unhappy that the mainstream health system focussed heavily on drugs and medicine as a way of treating people with these kinds of debilitating issues.  

Art-East has won the Arts Access Holdsworth Creative Space Award in this year's Te Putanga Toi Arts Access Awards.

That's on top of receiving a grant from the government's Creative Spaces Initiative, meaning the studio can extend its opening hours.

Lynn Freeman took Lis Rate-Smith back to the studio's beginnings in 2014:
 

1:10 At The Movies

This week Dan Slevin reviews Bye Bye Morons, the documentary Sir Alex Ferguson: Never give in, and the critically praised TV series The Underground Railway.

 

1:32  Where are all the women DJs?

 

Some male-dominated creative realms are proving harder for women to crack than others - like music production, particularly the DJ and electronic music scenes. 

So why is that?   In an effort to turn it around, a new music production course has been created specifically for women and femmes to create their own original music from scratch.  There's clearly a demand - the course sold out within a couple of days.

Lynn Freeman talks with one of the course organisers, Katie Martin, and with one of the tutors - producer, musician and DJ,  Paige Julia.   

The first Production Weekend Course for women & femmes - on the 24th and 25th of July in Wellington - may have  sold out, but there will be more.
 

1:47  Video artist Christopher Ulutupu

A series called New Kid in Town - Tiktok-type videos shot around Nelson's tourism hotspots - is just one of the projects that video artist Christopher Ulutupu has roped in his extended family to create with him.

Now several of these works are currently on show or about to go up in five art galleries.

Of Samoan, Niuean and German descent, Chris creates work that makes us think about Pacific stereotypes and the impact of colonisation.

His day job sees him advocating for the arts as a way of supporting prisoner rehabilitation and reintegration.

Lynn Freeman asks Chris Ulutupu why he's so keen to involve his family in his videos.

The New Kid in Town series is on at Tautai, and also at Te Tuhi.  Both galleries are in Auckland.

 

2:06 The Laugh Track - Rachel Rouge

The comedy business is a competitive one - and in the end the final judge of whether a comedian is any good or not is the audience.

But to get to that audience is the trick.  And for many comics, you have to start in competitions like the Wellington Raw Comedy Quest.   There are heats, there are semi-finals and finals, and the top two finalists head up to Auckland to compete for the National Title and a cash prize.

So who are the judges, and what are they looking for?  A regular one in Wellington is Rachel Rouge, veteran performer and creative director of the famous Menagerie Variety Show.   And Rachel's our guest on the Laugh Track.

Rachel's picks include Emma Wollum, Jerome Chandrahasan, Laura Bruce and Opeti Vaka.  And unusually, this week's Laugh Track is available for listening to on our web-page.

 

2:26  Geri Hakewill - the new Miss Fisher

Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, the Australian TV series set in the 1920s and starring Essie Davis as the amateur sleuth with the fab frocks, was so popular there's now a spin-off set in the 1960s.

Phryne Fisher's niece Peregrine has inherited her aunt's fortune after growing up in a trailer park.   And she joins forces with other women who refuse to be held back by their gender to solve crimes.

Playing Peregrine Fisher is actor and singer/songwriter Geraldine Hakewill.   Before she took on the 60s miniskirts, she was best known for a contemporary Aussie TV drama called Wakefield, set in a psych ward.

But Geri tells Lynn Freeman she was a fan of the original Miss Fisher mysteries,  and she's also fallen in love with the whole 1960s vibe.

The new series of Miss Fisher's Modern Murder Mysteries is screening on Acorn TV. 
 

2:35   Owen Marshall dives into the dark side

One of the bleakest stories by respected writer Owen Marshall, Coming Home in the Dark, is the basis for a new film of the same name.

The story of a family tormented by strangers in Central Otago was published back in 1995.  Now film maker James Ashcroft has fleshed out the story - especially the villainous central character Mandrake.

Coming home in the dark recently premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and will be released here next month.

In his many novels and short stories, Owen Marshall's proved an expert at capturing the inner lives of everyday people - lives of quiet desperation, rage, unfulfilled dreams and enduring hope.

Coming Home in the Dark was a departure for the multi-award winning Timaru based writer, as he tells Lynn Freeman.  He's included it in a new book of short stories selected from his previous 13 collections.

The Author's Cut is published by Vintage. The film Coming Home in the Dark opens in New Zealand cinemas on the 12th of August.

 

 

2:48  A boost for Tauranga's arts sector

 

Almost a million dollars over the next three years is earmarked to boost Tauranga's arts, culture and heritage sectors as part of the city council's long-term plan.

In fact, over 10% of the almost 2,000 submissions on the plan concerned arts and culture.

In February, the city's elected councillors were replaced by four commissioners, who'll govern Tauranga until after next year's local body elections.

The commissioners have now approved $750,000 of new funding for arts, culture and heritage over the first year. That includes $100,000 towards the local film sector, $150,000 for the Tauranga Art Gallery, as well as money to check the feasibility of a Heritage Centre in the currently museumless city. 

So what can the city expect in return for this sizeable investment?

Lynn Freeman talks to the Chair of the Commission, Anne Tolley, and to Simone Anderson, the Director of the Incubator creative hub.  She asks why the commissioners have committed so much money to areas that not all ratepayers see as essential.
 

  

3:06 Drama at 3 - End of the Golden Weather by Bruce Mason

Next week will see a new, major event in the Classic Drama slot.  Carl Bland's Te Po features a policeman, a priest and a blind man looking for clues that will lead them to the missing playwright Bruce Mason. 

And to whet your appetite, we're playing excerpts from one of Bruce Mason's best known works, The End of the Golden Weather.

The entire play is too long for the drama slot, so we have chosen two acts from Peter Vere-Jones' acclaimed production.

Here is Peter Vere-Jones with act one and four of Bruce Mason's classic The End of the Golden Weather.
 

 

Music played in this show

Artist: D D Smash
Song:  Outlook for Thursday
Composer: Dobbyn-Smash
Album: The Collection
Label:   Festival
Played at: 12.12

Artist: Django Django
Song: Storm
Composer:  Django Django
Album: Django Django
Label: Because
Played at: 12.36

Artist: Katrina and the Waves
Song: Walking on sunshine
Composer: Kimberley Rew
Album: Waves
Label: BGO
Played at: 12.58

Artist:  The Scorpions
Song:  Love you like a hurricane
Composer:  Scorpions
Album: Scream until you like
Label: EMI
Played at:  1.07

Artist: Darude
Song: Sandstorm
Composer: Darude
Album: Now that's what I call music 46
Label:  EMI
Played at: 1.58

Artist:  Led Zeppelin
Song: Immigrant song
Composer: Page-Plant
Album: Led Zeppelin 3
Label: Atlantic
Played at: 2.05

Artist: Gladys Knight & the Pips
Song: I wish it would rain
Composer: Whitfield-Strong-Penzabene
Album: 17 Greatest Hits
Label: Motown
Played at: 2.58

Artist: Unfaithful Ways
Song: Snow don't fall
Composer: Van Zandt
Album: Free rain
Label: Aeroplane
Played at: 3.05

Artist: Crowded House
Song: Weather with you
Composer: Finn
Album: Recurring Dream
Label:  Capitol

Played at: 3.58