A big thank you to all thos
e involved in getting the NZ film festival to air in Greymouth!
It's refreshing to see some non-mainstream films on in town, and here's my reviews/comments of the films I've made it to.
The Cove
I thank these brave souls for making this movie, for risking detention and torture, for recruiting those who could make a difference, for having the bravado to do something about this crime and bring it to the attention of the wider public. Every now and then a film comes along that makes you sit up, cover your eyes in horror, but come out at the end of it re-assessing what you thought about things, and wanting to do something about the topic. The Cove focuses on an atrocity which still takes place every year in Taiji, Japan; the annual slaughter of around 23'000 dolphins, the lies and cover up by the locals all the way up to a national level, and the efforts of a small band of activists to make it stop.
Watch the film, seriously the cinematography is fantastic and the subject
matter should leave you thinking well into the future.
Go to the website, sign the petitions & do whatever you can. It has to stop.
Flame & Citron
A story of the Danish resistance movement in WWII, focusing mainly on the activities of two prominent figures ~ Bent Faurschou-Hviid (known as Flame) and Jørgen Haagen Schmith (known as Citron), who both died during the war.
A touching story with various twists and turns, a little heavy on the graphic nature of their assassinations, but overall both an interesting look into the Holger Danske resistance group, the lies and deception, and an interesting character portrayal of both Flame and Citron as the film (and their lives) progress.
In The Loop
They're a bit funny those Brits...
I miss English humour; the dry, satirical, sarcastic and sometimes downright rude. This film ties all of those together brilliantly, in my opinion Armando Ianucci should be knighted for services to comedy. I have been glued to his productions, normally TV based, since The Day Today and Brasseye. If you haven't seen either, you really have to get back in touch with English comedy. He's not so well known as a figure in front of the camera, but his writing is just genius.
Anyway, the film is a lovely political satirical commentary on both British and American politics, which largely had me rolling around laughing out loud like an idiot. I think many of the nuances and geographic in-jokes were lost on the kiwi crowd, despite their apparent leaning toward the English arm of comedic thinking instead of the 'laugh-along sound tracks' of the Americans, yet there were many others in the audience laughing along with me.
A good review;
“A cynical, razor-sharp, truly laugh-out-loud farce about the symbiotic relationship between ineffectual, flip-flopping bureaucrats and the sneaky, petty spin doctors who need them... while we strain to catch the marginal details and sort out the hierarchic squabbling, a war is being jointly planned by the US President and the UK Prime Minister right under everyone's noses. Dr Strangelove would surely chuckle.” — Aaron Hillis, GreenCine.com
Well worth a watch.
Everlasting Moments
The sing-song of Swedish has always intrigued me, guess that’s why I learnt Swedish for a couple of months at Uni ~ I enjoyed it, but didn’t have the free credits to continue sadly.
Can’t say it helped me much with this film, but the subtitles were pretty handy.
Somehow I came out of this film feeling good, though others I chatted to didn’t seem to share my optimism for life once it was over. I think that’s what is so interesting about film ~ two people can watch an identical film, but get such different things from it.
The film centres around a much wronged wife, her drunkard-scoundrel of a husband, their family, and how her winning a camera in a raffle led her down different paths. It was beautiful in parts, painful to watch in others (the domestic violence is never a theme which sits comfortably with me) but interesting and intriguing throughout. The wife’s description of her photos as ‘Everlasting Moments’ struck a chord with me, I was trying to describe a similar feeling to Elinor a little while back – ‘Captured moments in time’ I think I went with.
In summary; a very beautifully shot film with an interesting background sub-plot, good character development, and some great acting. Well worth a watch.
Tulpan
Not too sure what to say about this film.
The critics seemed to love it, with its Kazakh-Russian storyline about life on the steppe tending sheep, trying to find a wife (when there is only one girl in the area), and a constant battle to gain his own flock or leave for the big city. It was amusing in small parts, but some of it felt like you were supposed to be laughing at the lifestyle of those in yourts [LINK]. I always feel like this is reaching a little too much for comedy when you’re laughing at the real lives of others, but then I guess scathing sarcasm of so many British comedies isn’t always a million miles apart from that.
Not one I’ll bother renting on DVD and having another watch of.
We’re over here working on a new project on the Waimakariri River just north of Christchurch ~ Poynters Nature Reserve to be precise. The reserve used to pretty much be derelict land, with 4x4’s, dirt bikes, and those who liked to dump rubbish and burn cars being the main visitors to the area. Sounds pretty horrible eh?
The Waimakariri is a braided river, meaning it looks a bit like a delta with banks of gravel and sand building up and changing its course. When the Europeans started to settle the swamp that used to be Christchurch, it seemed like a bad idea to have a huge river which flooded vast sections, so they began to ‘engineer’ the river to obey man’s desires with big flood defences, to which part of the plan included planting Willow trees as the root system stabilised their workings. Today the willow and poplar trees dominate the area along the rivers (and are still being planted by the ongoing engineering works) and instead of trying to wipe them out, they are just an accepted part of the environment over this side of the mountains.
I’ve also brought my hardcore reading materials with me this time. ‘Conservation; Linking ecology, economics & culture’ by Mulder & Coppolillo is one which I am wading through in chunks as it has some interesting info and points of view, arguments and case studies discussed within. It’s really more of a text book for a uni course, but it’s helping me to think more analytically about the work I do, about my own personal understanding and view on conservation, and to read a little more information which isn’t so populous as National Geographic or the likes. If you’re studying environmental science, conservation biology or the likes, it’s a good one to pick up (if you haven’t already been buried by your reading list!).
This more studious reading is somewhat juxtaposed to my recent reads, which have included The Time Travellers Wife (by Stephanie Niffenegger) just finished recently. A beautiful story of life, love & loss, crafted quite amazingly by a lady who apparently used to be a Creative Writing teacher if my sources are correct. I know I may lose a few ‘bloke points’ here (who’m I kidding, I don’t have any of those) but my emotions were somewhat jerked around by this book, and the idea of living a life such as these characters do was stirring and I was sincerely welling up toward the end, whilst I was on the plane back from Australia a week or so back. Beautifully written, and highly recommended, and a big thanks to Mister Chris for the tip off.
Courtesy of the 350.org website
I'm sad to say the South Island of NZ only made it to fourth, behind the Norweigan Fjords, and 2 Canadian entries. But in fact, on closer inspection, it's tied 3rd with Gaspé Peninsula, Quebec.
To explain a bit more abotu why; The National Geographic's Center for Sustainable Destinations convened an independent panel of 437 experts in fields from historic preservation and sustainable tourism to travel writing and archaeology to assess 133 iconic places around the world.
I guess I should concede that whilst we have a small population, the tourism here is swamping the islands (not to the point that I can't still drive most of my time on open roads) and certain sites especially. Still, it provides some employment for the population and is helping us to lift from recession.
The sing-song of Swedish has always intrigued me, guess that’s why I learnt Swedish for a couple of months at Uni ~ I enjoyed it, but didn’t have the free credits to continue sadly.
Not too sure what to say about this film.
