Archive for February, 2008

‘Green isles from opposite sides of the world come together as traditional Irish and Māori music meet for the first time. Already the resulting show, called Green Fire Islands, is the talk of the indigenous music world and New Zealand’s art circles…’

Read the newest NZLive.com featured article.

‘It may seem like a wild jump from an austere religious movement founded in 1772 to a cutting-edge contemporary dance production performed in Wellington in 2008, but the jump is a clear one for Finnish choreographer Tero Saarinen. His work ‘Borrowed Light,’ which is being performed as part of the International Festival of the Arts in March, is an exploration of strong communal values, austerity and devotion inspired by the Shakers.’

Read the newest NZLive.com featured article.

For the Wellington Phoenix, 2007 was potentially more like a burning building than a fiery rebirth, and if you just look at the results, then the former is possibly quite fitting. It’s been a long hard road for the Wellington Phoenix thanks largely to the failures of their predecessors. The Kings were in constant disarray, and the Knights were little better.

However, if you want to get into comparisons – and I do – then the first year of The Phoenix has been a flaming success (alright, I’ll stop with the fire metaphors now).

Why a success you ask? Well, I’ll give you two little words – business smarts.

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by Tiki East

Many may expect Webstock 2008 to be a massive geekfest of new toys, bells and whistles - catchphrases, techery and geekspeak. They wouldn’t be entirely right .

I won’t recap too much of what actually happened. There will be others who do a good rundown of events. The whole thing has also been captured for easy web access which should be available here soon.

The key messages coming out of conference were far from technical goobledegook. On the contrary, these are all pretty sound principles for anyone communicating with the public. They particularly ring true for cultural sector organisations looking at how to build or renovate their online presence.

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From The Arts Foundation

Barry Barclay, one of New Zealand’s pioneer film-makers died at his home in Northland in the early hours of this morning. He was 63.

Barry produced some of New Zealand’s most important films. His documentary and dramatic films are national treasures as artistic works and his work often explored Māoridom in an intelligent, respectful and genuine manner.

In recognition of his prolific contribution to our national cinema, Barry was honoured as an Arts Foundation Laureate in 2004.

Ros Burdon, Arts Foundation of New Zealand Chairman said that “the Arts Foundation is proud that it was able to honour Barry in 2004. Barry was a highly loved and respected friend of the Foundation. He generously shared his knowledge of film and issues relating to aspects of documentary-making and the involvement of Māori in the film industry with management and with audiences at several Forsyth Barr Laureates On-Stage events”.

Fellow filmmaker, friend and 2001 Laureate Gaylene Preston said “Barry Barclay was a true pioneer film-maker. He established many important networks for encouraging Māori film-making. Māori stories by Māori, for Māori. He was a true visionary. He made films about his community and their concerns and he encouraged his community to make their own films. Apart from groundbreaking work, such as Tangata Whenua, and The Kaipara Affair, his classic film Ngati is one of the greatly loved films of New Zealand cinema. He will be greatly missed”.

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