Standing Room Only for Sunday 20 February 2022

12:16  Michelle goes to Berlin

New Zealand film-maker Michelle Savill has been hovering in the "Girl most likely" category for a while now, and it looks like that promise is coming true.  

Her debut feature is called Millie lies low, starring Ana Scotney and Rachel House.    Millie has a meltdown just as she's about to head off to New York.  Rather than tell her friends and family, she decides to hide out - to "lie low".  

And the big news was that Millie Lies Low was picked up to show at the Berlin Film Festival.  Simon Morris was impressed and spoke to director Michelle Savill immediately after the big awards there.   He first asked her how it felt to be invited to one of the top film festivals in the world.
 

12:29 The golden age of state houses

When photographer David Cook started taking pictures of his neighbours in a characterful Hamilton East state housing suburb back in the 1990s, nobody realised that gentrification was about to strike.

The 90s weren't so long ago, but in some ways it's like another world.   What was once affordable housing is no longer so, and the neighbourhood is very different to the characters and chaos David documented.

The original photographs are about to go on show at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery and in a book.

Both are called Jellicoe and Bledisloe after two of the suburb's street names.

David tells Lynn Freeman that he hopes they'll help him to track down some of the people he photographed at the time.

Jellicoe and Bledisloe: Hamilton in the 90s opens on Wednesday at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery in Wellington  and will be heading out on tour starting at Waikato Museum.  
 

12:45  In praise of Kiwi film crews

A suspense/thriller set in the States but filmed in Tamaki Makaurau last year is about to get an international audience.

Australian director Damien Power hadn't originally intended to film No Exit on this side of the Tasman, but was so impressed with his Kiwi production crew that he says he'd film here again in a heartbeat.

No Exit sees a young woman trapped with a group of strangers in heavy snow, at the same time trying to figure out which of them abducted a young girl locked in a van in the carpark.

No Exit is about to screen this week on Disney Plus.  Lynn Freeman  asks director Damien Power how such an American story came to be filmed in Aotearoa?

 

1:10 At The Movies

his week Simon Morris reviews Death on the Nile, Blacklight and Red Rocket.

 

1:31   The art of "jewelleryness"

Cigarette filters, rusty chains, old pipes and other urban detritus have found a new life in the hands of Wellington jewellers and collaborators,  Caroline Thomas and Fran Carter.

It's a project that started in 2017 when they scoured the streets of Melbourne for stuff that could be given a new life as unconventional jewellery.

Fran  and Caroline first met while studying jewellery design at Whitireia, and now share a studio.

Lynn Freeman talks with Caroline and Fran about Moments of Jewelleryness, which is what they're calling their just opened exhibition.

Moments of Jewelleryness by Fran Carter and Caroline Thomas has just opened at Toi Pōneke Arts Centre in Te Whanganui a tara Wellington. 
 

1:46  Bringing native birdsong into the heart of the city

From dawn 'til dusk, pedestrians walking along Ōtepoti Dunedin's central George Street, are about to be serenaded by Recordings of Town Belt native manu or birds.

Artist Vicki Lenihan made the recordings for a work commissioned by the Dunedin Dream Brokerage as a Platform Project, where artists are invited to brighten up the city's CBD.

The $6,000 grant has made the sound installation possible.  It opens on February 21.

Vicki tells Lynn Freeman that the title - Tū atu, tū mai,- he karaka manu ki kā manuhiri. - is both a metaphor, and a call to action.

 

2:06 The Laugh Track - comedian Ryan McGhee

One of the best things about the last couple of weeks on the Laugh Track is that the guests - mostly about to star in the upcoming Fringe Festival - have generally picked other Fringe performers.

It means we can actually put the Laugh Track up on the web for a change.  And it also reminds us that the comedy pool in New Zealand isn't just the usual TV suspects.

Today's guest is a new but wildly enthusiastic Kiwi, despite his undeniable Scottish brogue.  Will Ryan McGhee need subtitles?  

Ryan's picks include Jerome Chandrahasan, Ray O'Leary, Eli Matthewson and Nick Rado

Ryan's show The Scottish Kiwi opens at Wellington's Cavern Club on February 28.

 

2:26  Murder in the Far North.  Call DI Bradshaw

Aotearoa's latest literary sleuth, D.I. Nyree Bradshaw is faced by a mystifying and culturally challenging case in Catherine Lea's thriller The Water's Dead.

The DI and her team are in a race against time to solve the murder of a young Māori woman whose body is found dumped in volcanic rock pool by passing tourists tourists, as well as find a missing diabetic child.

The story's set in the Far North where Catherine now lives. As she tells Lynn Freeman, she's previously written thrillers set in the USA.

The Water's Dead by Catherine Lea's is published by Breaklight Press
 

 

2:36  Veteran poet Alan Roddick looks back - and forward

The past, present and even speculation about the future all find a place in the latest poetry collection Next by Ōtepoti Dunedin based writer Alan Roddick.

It's the octogenarian's third collection, covering 2016 through to last year, and it includes several poems relating to the Covid-19 lockdowns.

Alan also reflects on his childhood, meeting up with an old mate by chance after many years, and the invisibility and health concerns that come with age.

Alan Roddick was born in Belfast in Northern Ireland and emigrated to New Zealand in 1952.  Lynn Freeman opens the conversation with one of Alan's poems from Next:

 

2:48  Artist Yona Lee has a thing about steel pipes

Artist Yona Lee uses hundreds of metres of stainless-steel pipe - the sort more commonly turned into handrails - for her room-sized gallery installations.  Then she adds everyday objects like umbrellas, lamps, chairs and even beds, to give the work a surrealist twist.

An Arrangement for 5 Rooms is the South Korean-born artist's most ambitious solo exhibition to date, taking over a large chunk of the Auckland Art Gallery.

The maze-like sculpture is immense.  It extends from the glassed area of the gallery into Tāmaki Makaurau's Albert Park, where it becomes a very public art work. 

Visitors can look at the pipe structures, they can interact with them - even take a nap on one of the beds!

Yona, (yo-nah) moved to Aotearoa from South Korea to study art.  Since then, her creations have been exhibited in galleries around the country and overseas. 

Lynn Freeman asks her why she chose stainless steel as her art medium of choice.

An Arrangement for 5 Rooms opens at Auckland Art Gallery on the 26th of February

 

3:06 Drama at 3 - Austen Found

Back in 2017, RNZ marked the 200th anniversary of the death of Jane Austen with an improvised musical from New Zealand's Conartists.  The premise of Austen Found was that a manuscript by Jane Austen had been newly discovered.

Just a warning at the occasionally risqué material - listener discretion is advised. 
 

Music played in this show

Artist:  Cast
Song: Thoroughly Modern Millie
Composer:  Cahn-Van Heusen
Album: Thoroughly Modern Millie
Label: RCA
Played at: 12.16

Artist: Millie
Song: My boy Lollipop
Composer:  Levy-Roberts
Album: Hard to Find 45's 6
Label:  Eric
Played at: 12.27

Artist: King Wilkie
Song: Millie's song
Composer: Burgess-Reeb
Album: Low Country Suite
Label: Zoe
Played at: 12.41

Artist: Millie Jackson
Song: (If loving you is wrong) I don't want to be right
Composer: Banks-Jackson-Hampton
Album: Caught Up
Label:  Southbound
Played at:12.58

Artist: Noiseworks
Song:  R I P (Millie)
Composer: Stevens-Noiseworks
Album: Greatest hits
Label:  Columbia
Played at: 1.07

Artist: Milli Vanilli
Song: Baby don't forget my number
Composer:  Farian-Reuther
Album: Hit Blitz
Label: Possum
Played at: 1.46

Artist: Dennis Coffey
Song:  Miss Millie
Composer: 
Album: 
Label: 
Played at: 1.58

Artist: Natalie Merchant
Song: Maggie and Milly and Molly and May
Composer:  Cummings-Merchant
Album: Selections from Leave Your Sleep
Label: Nonesuch
Played at: 2.05

Artist: Chris Thompson
Song:  Millie Christine
Composer:  Thompson-Pans-Krabman
Album:  Jukebox
Label:  Esoteric
Played at: 2.58

Artist: Love Square (and Milly Tabak)
Song: Where does it go
Composer: Atkinson
Album: single
Label:  Melita
Played at: 3.58