No36 on The Crooked Mile Known as(Revell street),
Hokitika.
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 95 minutes Jason Stutter A crime comedy set in 1930s small town New Zealand about a naive teen
who conspires with two misfits to photograph and blackmail wealthy,
adulterous couples. Stars Flight of the Conchord's Jemaine Clement as the creepy Spook, The Lovely Bones'
Rose McIver as the lusted-after Maybelle, portly Australian comedian
Heath Franklin, Wellington theatre actor Hayden Frost and musician Tim
Finn.
 99 minutes Faith Akin In Hamburg, German-Greek chef Zinos unknowingly disturbs the peace in his locals-only restaurant by hiring a more talented chef.  90 minutes Simon Mark-Brown THE SUN CAME OUT – THE MOVIE Starring Neil Finn from acclaimed and loved band “Crowded House”
‘The Sun Came Out’ is a locally made, intimate, behind the scenes look as Neil Finn invites world class musicians – Johnny Marr, KT Tunstal, Bic Runga, Don McGlashan, members of Radiohead, Wilco and others to New Zealand to write and record an album for the charity Oxfam and put on some live shows, all within a very tight time frame. This is a unique glimpse into the workings of these great artists, their impressions of a New Zealand summer at Piha and the camaraderie of like-minded people thrown together under a great common cause. Witness the love, the humour and especially the music.  92 minutes Juliette Veber Trouble Is My Business is the inspirational story of “Peachy”, an unconventional white teacher in a tough New Zealand school whose refusal to give up on any of his Pacific Island and Maori students, even the gang members and the habitual truants, helps them to turn their lives around.  129 minutes Daniel Alfredson - Lisbeth
Salander (again played by Noomi Rapace) is a wanted woman. Two Millennium
magazine journalists about to expose the truth about the sex trade in Sweden
are brutally murdered, and Salander's prints are on the weapon. She returns to
Sweden, after a year abroad, with the authorities after her. Meanwhile, Mikael
Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist), editor-in-chief of Millennium, will not believe
what he hears on the news. Knowing Salander to be fierce when fearful, he is
desperate to get to her before the police, and before she is cornered.  112 minutes Michael Hoffman Double Oscar nominated, The Last Station, is a love story set during the last year of the life and turbulent marriage of the great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy and his wife the Countess Sofya. Tolstoy, having rejected his title and embraced an ascetic lifestyle, finds himself increasingly at odds with Sofya. As his devoted disciple Vladimir Chertkov urges him to sign a new will leaving the rights to his work to the Russian people rather than his family, the conflict between husband and wife grows to breaking point. The Last Station is a film about the difficulty of living with love and the impossibility of living without it.  93 minutes Gaylene Preston A true story of romance, secrets and terrible adventure in which Ed Preston, on his way home from rugby practice in 1940, joins the New Zealand Army to go to World War II. His new wife, Tui, is pregnant and distraught, but he tells her not to worry, he’ll be home by Christmas. And so he is – four years later – after escaping from a prison camp in Italy. But while Ed is away, Tui has fallen in love with another man. A remarkable memoir of resilience, determination and love.
 105 minutes Jean-Pierre Jeunet A man and his friends come up with an intricate and original plan to destroy two big weapons manufacturers.  124 minutes Juan José Campanella In 1999, retired Argentinian federal justice agent Benjamín Espósito is writing a novel, using an old closed case as the source material. That case is the brutal rape and murder of Liliana Coloto. In addition to seeing the extreme grief of the victim's husband Ricardo Morales, Benjamín, his assistant Pablo Sandoval, and newly hired department chief Irene Menéndez-Hastings were personally affected by the case as Benjamín and Pablo tracked the killer, hence the reason why the unsatisfactory ending to the case has always bothered him. Despite the department already having two other suspects, Benjamín and Pablo ultimately were certain that a man named Isidoro Gómez is the real killer. Although he is aware that historical accuracy is not paramount for the novel, the process of revisiting the case is more an issue of closure for him. He tries to speak to the key players in the case, most specifically Irene, who still works in the justice department and who he has always been attracted to but never pursued due to the differences in their ages and social classes. The other issue is that Gómez is still at large, no one aware if he is alive or dead. But as Pablo at the time mentioned that passion is one thing that cannot be changed in behavior, Benjamín learns now that that premise still holds true.
 96 minutes Cherien Dabis Amreeka chronicles the adventures of Muna, a single mother who leaves the West Bank with Fadi, her teenage son, with dreams of an exciting future in the promised land of small town Illinois. In America, as her son navigates high school hallways the way he used to move through military checkpoints, the indomitable Muna scrambles together a new life cooking up falafel burgers as well as hamburgers at the local White Castle.  92 minutes Fred Cavayé Lisa and Julien are married and lead a happy uneventful life with their son Oscar. But their life radically changes one morning, when the police comes to arrest Lisa on murder charges. She's sentenced to 20 years of prison. Convinced of his wife's innocence, Julien decides to act.  103 minutes Martin Koolhoven Near the end of World War II, 14-year-old Michiel becomes involved with the Resistance after coming to the aid of a wounded British soldier
 85 minutes Thomas Burstyn ‘I treat my children the way I would like to have been
raised,’ says Peter Karena, none too impressed by the adoptive father who
raised him. In this captivating, visually ravishing doco, we watch Peter and
his wife Colleen over an eventful four years as they do whatever it takes to
provide emotional security and a life in harmony with nature for their six
children. As charismatic a subject as any filmmaker could ask for,
Peter makes ends meet as a horse-whisperer, builder and hunter. Seeing the
children riding bareback through the East Coast dunes or astride a horse moving
up a river with their father is like glimpsing the infancy of the classical
gods. (Yes, Tom Burstyn’s cinematography is that remarkable.) But is such
glorious freedom, a respect for nature and the abundant love of family all a
child needs? Never evangelical, Peter and Colleen talk with unassuming vitality
about the values they are instilling in their children. You might well leave
their company persuaded that the parents of the future should be getting to
know horses now. (Source: NZ International Film Festival)  75 minutes Florian Habicht Florian Habicht describes his latest exposé of the recreational habits
of Northlanders as a ‘sequel of sorts’ to his classic Kaikohe Demolition.
Claimed to be the largest surfcasting event in the world, the annual Ninety
Mile Beach Red Snapper Classic attracts hundreds of anglers for five days every
February to compete for prizes in excess of $250,000, with the biggest snapper
taking out a serious $50,000. Habicht joins them, camera in hand, full of
questions about what they might be thinking as they engage in this elemental
and apparently very relaxing pursuit. How will they spend the prize money? Do
they believe in an afterlife? Habicht relishes the individual flavour of every
frank response. There are interludes of boisterous carousing, grueling scenes
of snapper passion, and long and lovely shots of the long and lovely beach. The
amiable atmosphere of tolerance and unpretentious philosophising is so salty
and true and rousing that you could bottle it, call it Kiwiade, and sell it by
the crateload to homesick expatriates.  100 minutes Lucy Akhurst The film follows the fortunes of an avant garde Morris team in their struggle to evolve Morris Dancing.  149 minutes Niels Arden Oplev Swedish thriller based on Stieg Larsson's novel about a journalist and a young female hacker.
Forty years ago, Harriet Vanger disappeared from a family gathering on the island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger clan. Her body was never found, yet her uncle is convinced it was murder and that the killer is a member of his own tightly knit but dysfunctional family. He employs disgraced financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist and the tattooed, ruthless computer hacker Lisbeth Salander to investigate. When the pair link Harriet's disappearance to a number of grotesque murders from almost forty years ago, they begin to unravel a dark and appalling family history. But the Vanger's are a secretive clan, and Blomkvist and Salander are about to find out just how far they are prepared to go to protect themselves. Millennium is based on the trilogy of books by Stieg Larsson and has sold over 8 million copies worldwide. Tragically, Larsson did not live to see the phenomenon his work has become as he died suddenly in 2004 soon after delivering the manuscripts to his Swedish publisher  109 minutes Rémi Bezançon Marie-Jeanne and Robert have three children: Albert, Raphaël and Fleur. This portrait of their family is sketched out over twelve years, through five key days. Five crucial days in the life of a five-person family. Five days that are more important then any others, and after which nothing will ever be the same again.  129 minutes Ole Christian Madsen In this thriller set in World War II-era Copenhagen, two men put everything on the line in their fight against the Nazis. Bent Faurschou-Hviid, aka Flame, is young and idealistic, while Jørgen Haagen Schmith, aka Citron, is concerned about his family as his role in the resistance grows more prominent. As they get closer to attacking the head of the Gestapo, the men realize that they can only trust each other. Directed by Ole Christian Madsen, this Danish hit is based on true events.  Armando Iannucci The US President and UK Prime Minister fancy a war. But not everyone agrees that war is a good thing..  96 minutes Matt Tyrnauer Billed as "a
behind-the-scenes look at the world of fashion, featuring access never-before
allowed in the high temples of Haute Couture", this documentary biopic
follows legendary designer Valentino Garavani in the wake of his exit from the
company he founded more than 45 years ago. Also featuring heavily in this story
is his business partner and lover Giancarlo Giammetti, with the two men looking
to flounce out of the colourful, glamourous and mega-rich style industry in,
well, in style actually, with a final couture show worthy of their reputations.  90 minutes James Toback A mixture of original interviews and archival footage and photographs sheds light on the life experiences of Mike Tyson.  88 minutes Robert Kenner The current method of raw food production is largely a response to the growth of the fast food industry since the 1950s. The production of food overall has more drastically changed since that time than the several thousand years prior. Controlled primarily by a handful of multinational corporations, the global food production business - with an emphasis on the business - has as its unwritten goals production of large quantities of food at low direct inputs (most often subsidized) resulting in enormous profits, which in turn results in greater control of the global supply of food sources within these few companies. Health and safety (of the food itself, of the animals produced themselves, of the workers on the assembly lines, and of the consumers actually eating the food) are often overlooked by the companies, and are often overlooked by government in an effort to provide cheap food regardless of these negative consequences. Many of the changes are based on advancements in science and technology, but often have negative side effects. The answer that the companies have come up with is to throw more science at the problems to bandage the issues but not the root causes. The global food supply may be in crisis with lack of biodiversity, but can be changed on the demand side of the equation.
 Wellington-based singer-songwriter. Winner of APRA Best Country Song of the Year 2009. Finalist for upcoming APRA 'Silver Scroll' Award 2009. Has worked with Justin "Firefly" Clarke, Rhian Sheehan, Module, The Upbeats, Minuit, Antix, Raze (US), Phoney Orphants (Sweden), The Woolshed Sessions. Supports include The Fleetfoxes (US), K.T. Tunstall (UK), Sarah Harmer (CA), Bic Runga. Intimate and acoustic, the tour will include theatres and cabaret style venues, chosen for their ability to allow the audience to truly experience the delicacy of Jess' music. Jess will perform songs from her debut album 'Jess Chambers and the Firefly Orchestra', from 'The Woolshed Sessions' acclaimed album as well as some new songs yet to be recorded. She will be accompanied by multi-instrumentalist Peter Hill (Rhombus, The Woolshed Sessions), and supported by Australian singer/songwriter Tim Guy.  Francis Veber An unlikely friendship develops between a hitman and a suicidal guy who have both checked into the same hotel for different reasons  88 minutes Armagan Ballantyne
New Zealand drama, set and shot in Hokianga, by playwright
Briar Grace-Smith and first-time director Armagan Ballantyne. Strength of Water
has been very well received around the world, playing at film festivals
including Cannes, Rotterdam, Berlin, Shanghai and Sydney. Ten-year-olds Kimi and Melody are twins living with their
parents and three siblings on a farm on the Hokianga coast. Together they
deliver eggs around the district - and lavish attention on a favoured hen
they've named Aroha. The arrival of Tai, a teenage drifter looking to move into
the local tapu house that belonged to his grandfather, precipitates a
terrible accident. Kimi must learn to live apart from Melody, and Tai must
learn to deal with the hostility of those in the small community who equate him
with the cursed house. Meanwhile Tirea, the lonely teenage girl in whom Kimi
senses a kindred spirit, finds fragile understanding with the outcast Tai. 'I'm
bad luck,' says he. 'But when I look at you,' she replies, 'I see light.' The
muted frankness with which the characters in this film feel out the bonds of
connection is piercingly direct. Gabor Csupo When 13 year old Maria Merryweather's father dies, leaving her orphaned and homeless, she is forced to leave her luxurious London life to go and live with Sir Benjamin, an eccentric uncle she didn't know she had, at the mysterious Moonacre Manor. Soon Maria finds herself in a crumbling moonlit world torn apart by the hatred of an ancient feud with the dark and sinister De Noir family. Maria discovers that she is the last Moon Princess and, guided by an unlikely mix of allies, she must overcome her family's pride in order to unearth the secrets of the past before the 5000th moon rises and Moonacre disappears into the sea forever.  92 minutes Christine Jeffs In order to raise the tuition to send her young son to private school, a mom starts an unusual business -- a biohazard removal/crime scene clean-up service -- with her unreliable sister.  126 minutes Philipp Stölzl Summer 1936. Toni and Andi are passionate mountain climbers. There's one mountain in particular that fascinates them: the Eiger North Face, the most dangerous rock face in the Alps, which has yet to be scaled. Being the first means not only a longed-for boost of their social standing, but also Olympic gold. As they get ready for their climb, they meet Luise, Toni's childhood sweetheart, a journalist who has been sent to report about the conquest of the mountain with her fellow reporter Arau, a Nazi follower. While a dramatic struggle for survival unfolds on the North Face, Luise sets out to save her lover. A race against time and the forces of nature begins..  126 minutes Philipp Stölzl
Summer 1936. Toni and Andi are passionate mountain climbers. There's one mountain in particular that fascinates them: the Eiger North Face, the most dangerous rock face in the Alps, which has yet to be scaled. Being the first means not only a longed-for boost of their social standing, but also Olympic gold. As they get ready for their climb, they meet Luise, Toni's childhood sweetheart, a journalist who has been sent to report about the conquest of the mountain with her fellow reporter Arau, a Nazi follower. While a dramatic struggle for survival unfolds on the North Face, Luise sets out to save her lover. A race against time and the forces of nature begins..  106 minutes Jeremy Podeswa A child escapes from Poland during World War II and first heads to Greece before coming of age in Canada.  126 minutes Martin Provost In 1914, Wilhelm Uhde, a famous German art collector, rents an apartment in the town of Senlis, forty kilometers away from Paris, in order to write and to take a rest from the hectic life he has been living in the capital. The cleaning lady is a rather rough-and-ready forty-year-old woman who is the laughing stock of others. One day, Wilhelm who has been invited by his landlady, notices a small painting lying about in her living room. He is stunned to learn that the artist is no other than Séraphine
 84 minutes Opera
fanatics won’t want to miss this, in fact lovers of ‘proper’ music in all its
forms should be foaming at the mouth. Filmed at a very special concert at the
world heritage site of Petra in Jordan, this sees Pavarotti’s old buddies
Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras lining up alongside Sting, Angela Gheorghiu,
Bono, Andrea Bocelli and more in a musical homage to the most commercially
successful tenor of all time, who died in 2007. The film is showing in
high-definition digital (so expect it to look pretty darn snazzy) and also
features behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with the stars too.  91 minutes Vito Rocco A romantic comedy set in the world of battle re-enactments, about an irresponsible guy who has to shape up in order to win back his wife  112 minutes Baillie Walsh A fading Hollywood star looks back at the days of his youth as he returns home from his best friend's...  LIVE Trio Preforming bluegrass, country blues, jug band, pop-folk, vaudeville music, and jazz � l� Quintette du Hot Club de France, ...devilishly clever wordplay for an old-time music of their own that can provide the exhilaration of watching a trapeze artist toeing the wire a few hundred feet high. - Downbeat Magazine USA  96 minutes Charles Martin Smith The story of Ian Hamilton, a dedicated nationalist who reignited Scottish national pride in the 1950s with his daring raid on the heart of England to bring the Stone of Scone back to Scotland.  130 minutes Ben Sombogaart The story of the women on the KLM flight that won the 1953 Air Race from London to Christchurch, New Zealand.  73 minutes Kathleen Gallagher Shot at breathtaking locations around the country by acclaimed cameramen Alun Bollinger and Mike Single, Earth Whisperers Papatuanuku focuses on special New Zealanders who love, nurture and protect their environment. The ‘stars’ include Craig Potton, environmentalist; Isla Burgess, herbalist; Gerry Findlay, bird caller; Alan Mark, botanist; Hugh Wilson, tree farmer; Kay Baxter, seed saver; Makere Ruka, Waitaha kuia; Charles Royal, Maori chef; Jim O’Gorman, organic farmer; and Rita Tupe, Tuhoe healer.  92 minutes Andy Cadiff A bunch of
amateurs is a comedy about Jefferson Steel (Burt Reynolds), an ageing Hollywood
action hero who finds himself out of work. His incompetent LA agent, in a last
ditch attempt, finds his client the role of King Lear at Stratford-upon-Avon in
the UK. Doesn't sound too bad, does it? But when Jefferson arrives in the UK,
he finds that he's instead been booked to tread the boards in the sleepy
village Stratford, St John, Suffolk.  89 minutes Ian Fitzgibbon An actor hard on his luck ends up with a large number of dead bodies on his hands. Together with his hilarious friend they hatch a genius plan of treating their predicament like a film scenario and try to rewrite the day. As the body count mounts, they pitch ideas back and forth desperately searching for a way out.  99 minutes Stephan Elliott A young Englishman marries a glamorous American. When he brings her home to meet the parents, she arrives like a blast from the future - blowing their entrenched British stuffiness out the window.  97 minutes Rupert Wyatt Frank Perry is an institutionalized convict twelve years into a life sentence without parole. When his estranged daughter falls ill
 Claude Lelouch  96 minutes Eric Guirado Antoine Sforza, a thirty-year-old young man, left his village ten years before in order to start a new life in the big city, but now that his father, a traveling grocer, is in hospital after a stroke, he more or less reluctantly accepts to come back to replace him in his daily rounds. Back in the village, accompanied by Claire, a young woman he loves but who hesitates to commit herself, he does the job half-satisfactorily. Too blunt, not in harmony with the locals, he offends them more than he serves them. Fortunately Claire, who has more business acumen, helps him to improve his skills
 109 minutes A drama centered on retired professional wrestler Randy "The Ram" Robinson as he makes his way through the independent circuit, trying to get back in the game for one final showdown with his fo
 84 minutes Leanne Pooley This film deserves to receive the amount of love and dedication put in to creating it and will, just like the Topp Twins, make a real difference in which ever circles it travels in.  104 minutes Dany Boon Although living a comfortable life in Salon-de-Provence, a charming town in the South of France, Julie has been feeling depressed for a while. To please her, Philippe Abrams, a post office administrator, her husband, tries to obtain a transfer to a seaside town, on the French Riviera, at any cost. The trouble is that he is caught red-handed while trying to scam an inspector. Philippe is immediately banished to the distant unheard of town of Bergues, in the Far North of France.  98 minutes Santosh Sivan Set in 1930s southern India against the backdrop of a growing nationalist movement, Before the Rains is the English language début of Indian director Santosh Sivan. An idealistic young Indian man (Rahul Bose) finds himself torn between his ambitions for the future and his loyalty to the past when people in his village learn of an affair between his British boss (Linus Roache) and a village woman (Nandita Das).
94 minutes Jon Dunham The first ever feature-length film to capture the essence, drama and unique spectacle of the famed 26.2-mile race...
 120 minutes Michael Radford In 16th century Venice, when a merchant must default on a large loan from an abused Jewish moneylender for a friend with romantic ambitions, the bitterly vengeful creditor demands a gruesome payment instead  A look at tightrope walker Philippe Petit's daring, but illegal, high-wire routine performed between New York City's World Trade Center's twin towers in 1974, what some consider, "the artistic crime of the century.  90 minutes Harold Brodie
Small-town New Zealand comedy-drama about Michael (Jordan
Selwyn) - a 16-year-old whose passion for maps helps him escape his ordinary
life and enjoy a state of isolation from those around him. But there are three
women he can’t shut out – his single mother Amelia (Rebecca Gibney), a blind
20-year-old called Mary (Bonnie Soper) and Alison (Mikaila Hutchinson), a
friend whose ‘grace betrays darker secrets’ apparently.  116 minutes Jean-Paul Salomé A member of the French Resistance, Louise (Sophie Marceau) flees to London after her husband's summary execution. She is recruited by the Special Operations Executive (SOE), an intelligence and sabotage service overseen by Churchill himself. She is immediately assigned to an urgent mission: the rescue of a British agent who has fallen into German hands while preparing for D-Day on the Normandy beaches. The man hasn't talked yet, but there is no time to lose. Louise must first put together an all-female commando unit. She will stop at nothing to get exactly the right women for the mission's special requirements, even if it means lying, blackmailing or securing pardons for serving prisoners. Based on true events, true stories and real heroines,  96 minutes Woody Allen Two girlfriends on a summer holiday in Spain become enamored with the same painter, unaware that his ex-wife, with whom he has a tempestuous relationship, is about to re-enter the picture.  100 minutes Daniele Luchetti Accio (Elio Germano) is the cause of his parents’
desperation. He’s an irritable trouble-maker. His brother Manrico (Riccardo
Scamarcio) is equally handsome, charismatic and dangerous...
In small-town
Italy in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s, the two brothers grow up with opposing political
beliefs (one tries to become a priest while the other becomes a union leader at
a factory), are in love with the same woman and endlessly confront each other in
the dramatic, swarthy way that only Italians can.  100 minutes Athina Tsoulis
Estranged adult sisters peel back the family secrets and lies in Athina Tsoulis' domestic drama. Sara Wiseman is Laura, who arrives in New Zealand after ten years in LA. Sporting an American accent and dressed for Rodeo Drive, she cuts an incongruous figure in laid-back South Auckland. She warily approaches the house of her sister Maree (Rachel Nash), happily married, heavily pregnant mother of two. Laura's hostility and thinly concealed self-loathing are too much even for this most grounded of earth mothers. While the two spar and reopen old wounds, new events force them into recognising the deceptive nature of the family myths that have shaped their enmity,  100 minutes Tom Hunsinge Sam is a charming, young chancer who has ambitions in the glamorous world of public relations when he moves to London. However, his best laid plans suffer a real setback when true love turns his world upside down in the most unexpected of circumstances  87 minutes Laurent Bouhnik Light-hearted and fast-paced, The Dinner Guest is a crazy comedy of manners, managers and mad mishaps! Fifty years old and unemployed for three years, Gérard (Daniel Auteuil) is getting desperate when, out of the blue, he is offered a job in Indonesia. Determined to make a good impression on his new boss, Gérard invites him to dinner. A BIG mistake! Panic-stricken, Colette, Gérard's wife, calls in Alexandre, their PR guru neighbour. Alexandre resolves to give the couple the ultimate 24-hour makeover. Their apartment, interior design, lifestyle, taste buds, fashion sense, general knowledge... nothing is overlooked! After many dramas, mishaps, misunderstandings and general bungling, with frazzled nerves, Gérard and Colette open the door to welcome... their dinner guest.  86 minutes Eran Kolirin The members of an Egyptian police band, all neat in their powder blue uniforms, turn up to perform in an Arab cultural festival in Israel. Unfortunately they take the wrong bus from the airport and end up in tiny Bet Hatikva, home, they are assured, to "no Arab culture, no Israeli culture, no culture at all". The people they meet in a bus stop café offer them hospitality. Communicating in English, some more successfully than others, Arab visitors and Israeli hosts dine, dance, share stories, laugh, confide, sigh and pass the night away. The principal characters are the crusty old band leader, his handsome young nemesis, and the beautiful proprietor of the café who puts them both up. Other characters are deftly rendered in a few strokes and the narrative style is pleasurably pictorial, drawing out carefully framed group tableaux to lovely deadpan effect. [  98 minutes Stefan Ruzowitzky The Counterfeiters is the true story of the largest counterfeiting operation in history, set up by the Nazis in 1936.  98 minutes Thomas McCarthy From the writer/director of 2003's The Station Agent. Economics professor Walter Vale (the fantastic Richard Jenkins) is the shy, disillusioned male at the centre of Thomas McCarthy's ensemble piece, who returns to his New York apartment after a long absence to find it occupied by a couple of illegal immigrants. Convivial Tarek (Haaz Sleiman) is a talented drummer who encourages Walter out of his protective shell, while his prickly girlfriend Zainab (Danai Gurira) carries the burden of their perilous citizenship status. Each learns something new from the other, but just when you think you have this film pinned, it takes off in an unexpected direction.  90 minutes Gary Burns&Jim Brown Something�s happening on the edge of town. There�s a desperate housewife in the parking lot, a musical chorus line mowing the lawn � and a loaded gun in the upstairs closet. Welcome to Radiant City. Gary Burns, Canada�s king of surreal comedy, joins forces with journalist Jim Brown to craft a vivid account of The Late Suburban Age. Sprawl is eating the planet. Politicians call it growth. Developers call it business. The Moss family call it home. While Evan Moss zones out in commuter traffic, Ann boils over in her dream kitchen and the kids play sinister games amid the fresh foundations of monster houses. Turning the documentary genre inside out, Burns and Brown rummage through a toybox of cultural references �from Jane Jacobs to The Sopranos � to consider what happens when cities get sick and mutate. Cinematographer Patrick McLaughlin evokes an eerie dystopian monoculture while the soundtrack features songs from Joey Santiago of The Pixies. Radiant City. Welcome to the neighbourhood.  87 minutes Ari Folman
with fragmentary episodes drawn from their meUnlike any animated film you'll have seen before, Waltz with Bashir is a drawn documentary based on filmmaker Ari Folman's own experiences, as a drafted Israeli soldier in abetting a 1982 massacre of Palestinian refugees during the Lebanon War. While trying to work his
way out of a severe depression from the war, Folman contacted many of his
former military comrades, along with a psychiatrist friend and a neurologist
who specializes in memory impairment. The film combines pieces of these
interviews with fragmentary episodes drawn from their memories and dreams.mories and dreams. jfk from their memories and dreams. episodes drawn from their memories and dreams.
 104 minutes Stephen Walker A story of the Young at Heart Chorus, a group of senior citizens who perform contemporary and classic rock and pop songs  103 minutes Sam Garbarski Maggie, a 50-year-old widow - still faithful to her dead husband, desperately needs some money to pay for a medical treatment for her ill grandson. After several unfruitful attempts to find a job, Maggie finds herself roaming the streets of London Soho. Her eye is caught by a small poster in the window of a \'shop\' called \"Sexy World\" which reads: \"Hostess wanted\". Too desperate and lost to realize what she does she enters. Micky, the owner, is embarrassed at first, but intrigued by Maggie, he decides to have fun and offers her the job. Under the pseudonym of Irina Palm, Maggie courageously gets to know her first anonymous customers. Micky observes his recruit. Maggie, who applies herself in order to keep her job, fascinates him. When she does something, she makes sure she does it well  107 minutes Ali Selim A young Inge Alltenburg travels to Minnesota in the 1920's to marry Olaf Torvik, a Norwiegan man who lives there. It is Inge's story of not being able to marry Olaf due to there different citizenship's, and not being accepted because of the war with Germany. Over time she learns English and befriends Olaf, Frances, and Frances' family  118 minutes Julian Temple Temple uncovers the myth behind the front man of the seminal punk band the Clash. Through previously unearthed interviews with Strummer himself and recollections of those who knew him best, Temple reveals a complex man who used his music as a bullhorn for his conscience-as well as a means to educate others about the injustices of the world. The film includes live concert footage spanning Strummer's career and tapes of his BBC radio program, all of which provide a fitting soundtrack to his distinctive and storied existence. The performance footage would be fascinating on its own, but Temple probes beyond Strummer's mystique to reveal a person with his own flaws who could sometimes be idealistic to a fault. Temple has created a thoughtful and poignant portrait of a man many think they knew.  127 minutes Kay Pollak A successful international conductor suddenly interrups his career and returns alone to his childhood village in Norrland, in the far north of Sweden.It doesn\'t take long before he is asked to come and listen to the fragment of a church choir, which practises every Thursday in the parish hall. Just come along and give a little bit of good advice. He can\'t say no, and from that moment, nothing in the village is the same again. The choir develops and grows. He makes both friends and enemies. And he finds love.  74 minutes Gerard Smyth Filmmaker Gerard Smyth turns his camera on Alun Bollinger, whose own camera has been informing the way we New Zealanders see ourselves for almost 40 years. Geoff Murphys Goodbye Pork Pie, Vincent Wards Vigil, Peter Jacksons Heavenly Creatures and Gaylene Prestons Perfect Strangers, amongst his many credits, are superbly photographed films by any standard and each of them carries the distinctive signature of its director. All four auteurs express their admiration here and impart some flavour of the crucial collaborations involved, starting with the difficulty of ever luring the man they all call AlBol away from his South Island West Coast home. AlBol, meanwhile, discusses creativity as if its a mere matter of practicality enlivened by the occasional flash of ingenuity. Smyths portrait of the artist as unassuming alt-lifestyle Kiwi bloke is also a valentine to the four decades of marriage that began after AlBol and Helen - HelBol - had known each other exactly three days. Existing admirers should be delighted by Smyths tribute, and the unfamiliar captivated. BG  67 minutes Robin Greenburg Robin Greenbergs documentary introduces us to the remarkable life of New Zealands very own Tai Chi master, Loo-Chi Hu, affectionately known to all by his nickname Huloo. A master mariner, Huloo was seconded from Taiwan to New Zealand in the late 60s to work as a fisheries consultant. He has remained here ever since, working for what was then the Marine Department designing navigational and fishing equipment. This is simply one element of an adventurous life that has ranged from sailing a Chinese junk across the Pacific to rescuing explorer Thor Heyerdahl near Barbados. Before the revolution he studied Tai Chi under master Chen Wei-Ming in Shanghai. He has brought these teachings to New Zealand, where he continues well into his 80s, to conduct classes in a shed next to his house. No materialist, he lives in the same modest Christchurch home he purchased in the 60s and still drives his 38-year-old Volkswagen. Huloos down to earth approach to his achievements is as inspiring as his cheerful embrace of life itself as an adventure. MM  Mel parsons Inspired by all the usual suspects - love, heartbreak & loss - West Coast native Mel Parsons presents her long awaited debut album 'Over My Shoulder', a catchy and non-indulgent wee gem for the optimist in us all. Together with her band The Rhythm Kings, 'Over My Shoulder' is eleven heartfelt and hook-laden tracks of of alt-country/pop/folk persuasion. The album was made in Wellington under the guidance of Mutton Birds' guitarist and celebrated NZ producer David Long (Fur Patrol, Dave Dobbyn), and mixed at Trident Studios by Mike Gibson..  127 minutes Gonzalo Arijon This riveting documentary strips away the sensationalism that has accrued around the survivors of the 1972 Andean air crash to reinstate their experience as one of the great instances of heroic human endurance. Ten days after their plane crashed in the frozen mountain wilderness, the surviving passengers, most of them 19-year-old members of a Uruguayan rugby team, heard on the radio that they had been given up for dead. More than two months later two of them set out through blizzards and interminable waist-deep drifts, in threadbare clothing, without equipment, hoping to arrange the rescue of their remaining 14 friends. Mixing the testimony of the survivors with vrit-styled reenactment, Stranded renders their ordeal grippingly real. Filmmaker Gonzalo Arijon was a childhood friend to many of them, which may be why they chose to end their long public silence for his film. He doesn\'t shrink from the grisly details, but shows how these educated, mostly God-fearing young men confronted their situation with exceptional perseverance and a grave understanding of their moral choices. BG  98 minutes Nicky Hager's The stolen insider emails that informed Nicky Hagers best-selling account of Nationals 2004 election campaign rise again in Alister Barrys (Someone Elses Country) new film just in time to caution us against campaigning politicians in 2008. Addressing each other like schoolboy Machiavellis, party leader Don Brash and his advisors spelled out how theyd copy the big boys in Australia and the US in order to win the votes of people whod never support the kind of policies such men are widely presumed to represent. The dividing and conquering began at Orewa. Barry strings the emailed stage-directions through a chronology of public performances as Brash appears nightly on television, dispensing disharmony while espousing honesty, fair play and integrity. There can be fewer more telling images of the spiritual bankruptcy of mid-00s politics than Barrys footage of the man who intends to be PM evading journalists basic questions about his intentions with the dogged, on-message politeness of a Mumbai call centre help desk. BG |
