You are currently browsing the monthly archive for July 2009.
If you feel like marking Māori Language Week this week by watching some excellent Māori television and film titles, check out NZ On Screen’s Matariki Collection. The collection was curated by longtime TVNZ Head of Māori Programmes Whai Ngata.
There are two titles in the collection in full te reo Māori – Waka Huia episode one and Te Karere Waitangi Day 1984. Many of the other titles in the Matariki Collection also feature some Māori language, including the opening excerpt from the launch day for the Māori Television Service.
Also on the NZ On Screen site – but not in the Matariki Collection – is the Toby Mills short film Te Po Uriruri, which is in full te reo Māori. The Ask Your Auntie Christmas Special also features significant amounts of Māori language.
Ka kite ano
Today is Montana Poetry Day in New Zealand. While there are lots of poetry events around the country, we would like to share some of the poetry titles we have on NZ On Screen.
Allen Curnow
Early Days Yet, 2001
A documentary about New Zealand poet Allen Curnow, made in the last months of his life.
Hone Tuwhare
Hone Tuwhare, 1996
A documentary glimpse into the life, art, and inimitable cheeky-as-a-kaka style of late Kiwi poet, Hone Tuwhare.
Review, Hone Tuwhare, 1975
A 1973 interview with a 51-year-old Hone Tuwhare at the Maori Writers’ and Artists’ Conference, Te Kaha Marae.
Tuwhare, 2005
In 2003 Toi Māori Aotearoa engaged Charlotte Yates to produce an album and stage performance celebrating the verse of poet Hone Tuwhare. Yates co-opted various musicians (e.g. Dallas Tamaira, Graham Brazier) to transform Tuwhare’s poetry into lyrics using a range of music from rock to dub.
Janet Frame
Three New Zealanders: Janet Frame, 1975
A documentary about the internationally acclaimed New Zealand writer. It is a fresh, unhurried, film based around a substantial interview with Frame herself, filmed in 1975 with Michael Noonan as interviewer.
Denis Glover
The Coaster, 1950
The coaster Breeze was immortalised in this film, travelling from Wellington to Lyttleton then back to Wanganui. Written by the poet Denis Glover and narrated by Selwyn Toogood, the commentary is rhythmic and lyrical.
Between the Lines, 2005
This documentary, directed by Bill de Friez, takes a candid look at the poet and reveals a larger than life figure (“a great drinker, a great womaniser, a great poet”) connected to all the literary personalities of his day.
Sam Hunt
Artists Prepare: Sam Hunt and Gary McCormick, 1980
This film was made in the days when Sam Hunt and Gary McCormick were the heartthrobs of the New Zealand poetry scene. The camera follows them on tour in the Nelson region as they give poetry readings, talk to high school girls, drink whiskey, and deliberate about poetry and its role in their lives – while Minstrel, Sam Hunt’s dog, lies patiently under bar tables.
The Roaring 40’s Tour, 1995
Old mates poet Sam Hunt and raconteur Gary McCormick shake out the ache of descending middle age and hit the road for an old fashioned ‘rock and roll style’ poetry tour up and down the country.
James K Baxter
The Road to Jerusalem, 1997
Readings from the poems of James K Baxter trace the poet’s life through its various New Zealand locations, and provide a biographical voice in this film by Bruce Morrsion (co-written with Dr. Paul Millar). Baxter’s family and friends discuss the man and his work, and the readings and beautifully shot landscapes fill in the gaps.
Aspiring, 2006
Aspiring revisits six eventful weeks in 1949. Led by cameraman Brian Brake, an all-star art team – James K. Baxter as scriptwriter, composer Douglas Lilburn and painter John Drawbridge (all under 30; Drawbridge was 18) – attempt to make a ‘cinematic poem’ about an ascent of Mt Aspiring.
Cilla McQueen
Kaleidoscope – Cilla McQueen, 1984
Cilla McQueen is a Dunedin-based actor, poet, teacher and multimedia artist. She won the New Zealand Book Award for Poetry and the Jessie MacKay Award in 1983 for her book Homing In (1982), and in this item, reads poems from that book shot in and around Dunedin.
Take a look at these and many other literary gems on NZ On Screen.
Today is the birthday of Sir Edmund Hillary (1919-2008). We thought we’d share the material we have on NZ On Screen – some lovely footage of this kiwi legend:
Hillary Returns – NFU Short, 1953 – Full length
Sir Edmund Hillary – Encounter – Full length episode from 1976
Holmes – Sir Edmund Hillary – Full length episode from 1996
Also online from NZ History Net is:
On top of the world: Ed Hillary – his life
