Tame Iti, LonelyGirl15, and kiwi films

Gidday one and all, just a couple of photos to start with. the one above is from last week when i finally received my trophy for "best player" from a year ago. I played my first ever season of soccer and was the goalie for the Western Springs Reefers!!! It took a year for me to get round to meeting up with these two guys, Martin (coach) and Michael (captain) to get my hands on the trophy, which I then had to hand back as they had to give it to this years winner!!!


In my continuing series of "..look who I/we met" here's my daughter with Lionel Ritchies daugther. Lionel and I did'nt get to hang out while our daughters got their photos taken, Nicole was on her own!

Each day... and each night.... at present are filled with a massive variety of stimulating, inspiring and totally ecclectic experiences, some to do with things film, and many have nothing at all to do with film.
I had a bloody classic experience the other day, we have a great documentary film festival called DOCNZ happening at present here in Auckland. I'm going to the awards night tonight in fact, and a couple of days ago I finally got a chance to go and see a doco called "Destiny In Motion", which is a local doco about a church leader and his followers who decided to form a political party to contest the last general elections here in NZ. Fortunately they did not get any representation in parliament (mind you our elected leaders are behaving like such a bunch of immature wankers at the moment that maybe we would be better off with Brian Tamakis god squad in there).
Anyway I turned up at the appointed time to the cinema, bought my ticket and went in, sat down and watched 2 docos,... neither of which was the one I had intended watching!!! Oppsss, wrong cinema, oh well that was all ok. I got to see a great short piece about a fanatstic NZ artist, Stanley Palmer, and the major bonus was I got to see a doco about a mate, John Howe, a stunningly talented canadian artist who lives in Switzerland. I got to meet and know John when he was working with Alan Lee as the conceptual artists for Lord Of The Rings.
So, random acts of life can serve up unexpected rewards, at least that's how I have decided to look at it. I was tempted to be pissed off with myself for not getting to the right film, but ended up with a deliciously unexpected serving anyway.
Two New Zealand films have just played to very receptive audiences at the Toronto Film Festival,.. apparently, I was not there so I can't really say. Black Sheep, a film by first time feature director Jonathan King sounds like it will have fans of early Peter Jackson films going nuts for it. It seems it is basically a splatter movie making the most of what we have here in abundance, sheep. It definitely sounds like it's worth a look, the sheep are the mutant killers in this one, so check it out.
Also at Toronto was Out Of The Blue, a feature film based on the true story of a massacre that took place here in NZ in 1990. This happened in a stunningly beautiful remote coastal town in the south island called Aramoana. Out Of The Blue was made by Robert Sarkies one of the Sarkies brothers ( in other places they have their Coen brothers, their Weinstein brothers, their Quay bothers...who/ i hear you say... go google them), well here in NZ we have our Sarkies Brothers. They are known primarily for making the NZ film Scarfies a few years ago.
A mate of mine, Steven O'Meagher is one of the producers for Out Of The Blue, which is very cool as it was a major undertaking to do a film about this event as your first. Bloody well done to all involved. Karl Urban who was my bosses nephew, Eomer in Lord Of The Rings, is one of the leads in Out Of The Blue.
A couple of nights back I had been having an early evening session with my film making partner Amarbir Singh, at a cafe on Karangahape Rd ( where we shot the film 1nite), when I spotted a friend I had not seen for many moons. Wai is his name and he is the son of one of the most outspoken and proactive Maori activists in NZ, Tame Iti. Wai invited me to go along to Tames art exhibition across the road which was opening that night. Being someone who loves hanging out at these sort of gigs, I was in. I am also a real fan of Tame and alot of what he stands for. He is often grossly prejudged and misrepresented, due I think mostly because he has a full facial moko (tattoo).
Anytime I get to go to these gatherings, of arty folk, celebrities etc, it's great as they are the places I get to catch up with some old friends. We all live our own lives going about our own journeys, so these soiries are perfect for a catch up. The great thing about this one was that Tame had done some bloody great art work also. I actually bought a couple of the smaller pieces, and feel really good about having done so.
Now to my final rant today, huge congratulations to "localish" girl Jessica Rose for being part of a team that seems to have pulled off cyberspaces latest major coup, by conning millions around the world to follow the online video diaries of "Bree". It turns out Jessica who lived in NZ for much of her life, trained as an actor here and is now living in LA, is the LonelyGirl15, on YouTube. essentially now that this news has broken, I would guess Jessica is going to be inundated with film offers, TV appearances etc. Bloody well done, to a cynical old hack like me, if you can get in through the side door the back door, or even the bloody roof,...why not. Go for it Jessica!!!
To finish off check out this article. It is about one of NZs most loved sons of all things music, Neil Finn, and his reaction to the thought of NZ Idol winners singing his songs. Good on him for taking a stand against exploitive television.
I'm outta here.
be cool, not only to yoursleves but to the rest of humanity. Actually, you haven't got rid of me yet, last bit of news it's so cool, my kids and I have sponsored a guy, Engeda, from Ethiopia, since he was about 10 yrs old. We just got word he has now graduated from University and is self supporting, so we are being asked to take on a beautifl young 4 yr old girl, Hayat, who also lives in Adis Ababa Ethiopia. If you want to make a small difference, get online and sponsor a child. Hayats father makes US$400 a friggin year as a labourer. Our money will help Hayat to receive an education and maybe break free of what will surely be the cycle of desperate poverty that she has been assigned to otherwise. Go on do it, it costs about a dollar a day.
ciao for now
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