With over 100 gigs scheduled for the Wellington Jazz festival, Jen Riches gets to interview one of Welly’s most progressive musicians Myele Manzanza about how he came to be part of the ROSS MCHENRY FUTURE ENSEMBLE and the very wide world of jazz.
Plus the Documentary Edge Film Festival directors, Alex Lee and Dan Shanan talk to Jen about the potential Wellington has to become the Hub for all film festivals?
Wouldn’t getting your viewers to text in your script and crowd sourcing your actors seem like a logistical nightmare? Not for these Emmy award winning directors Thomas Robins and David Stubbs. In this interview they talk about their interactive TV show Reservoir Hill ( filmed right here in Welly and now Sweden has adapted it for their viewers as well) and the recently launched , that crowd sourced the kiwi characters that were encountered along the way.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/road-trip/10795858/Road-Trip-Episode-1
In this chat with illustrious Wellington actress we find out why this nice girl who is normally known for her roles in big blockbusters like District 9 and Doomsday, would want to write, crowdfund, direct AND play lead actress in a film about revenge and blinging up her vajayjay in .
If you havn’t seen the teasers yet check out http://www.rodrigofilms.com/
To watch Vajazzle, which is being launched this Valentines Day, check out http://www.rodrigofilms.com/ and don’t be afraid to share share share.
Pat Robins has been a constant female presence in the NZ film industry since the 1970’s. She was also part of the pioneering travelling show Blerta who created their own unique style of entertainment at a time when when New Zealand was merely following what was going on overseas. Blerta consequently spawned a crux of New Zealand’s best creatives of which quite a few are Pat’s family. Now as a great grandmother she is still driven to direct another of her own films, called . Wow.
In this interview I had the wonderful opportunity to speak to Pat live on , about her interesting life, and why she is getting such incredible support from family, friends and some top actresses.
For those of you who are interested here is some more information for the Boosted Crowd funder campaign for Food For Thought – a short film
http://www.boosted.org.nz/projects/food-for-thought-a-short-film
Here is a link to the Blerta song at the end of the interview with all time NZ great vocalist Beaver. http://grooveshark.com/#!/search/song?q=Blerta%20Hit%20Us%20With%20The%20Truth
Not only is the smiling face that greets you upon entry to Welly’s most fun restaurant , she is the author of a book of memoirs about her time as a human rights lawyer in war torn Afghanistan, a Yoga Guide, and she is about take on a new role as change maker with .
Part 1 – Before she hits the ground with this next project, I wanted to ask her about her life and death experiences in Afghanistan, how she got through this time and why she came back to Wellington.
Part 2 – chats about the effects of the organic tequila at her restaurant LaBocaLoca, her new role at ActionStation and some wonderful insights into what she thinks is important right now, especially for women in our community.
Phillipa O’Brien, is a very busy lady right now with two photographic exhibitions about to go up in town. One kicks off this Friday the 27th of June at where Phillipa has developed her own intriguing style of pictorial-scripts called Photofables.
The other is a major lifetime experience, photographing the scene of Danny Lemon’s 8500 collectors item records burnt in the storage fire in Wellington earlier this year. In this interview Phillipa talks about how she saw art in this devastation and made an exhibition of it, which is on now on at .
Phillipa also reveals some interesting stories about Danny Lemon in the South Island high Country, the positive thing she saw in the community through Danny’s sad loss and the simple reason why she wanted to help him out.
For more information on Danny Lemon’s story you can go here ( and please buy a poster). http://dannylemon.com/
And for more of Phillipa O’ Briens work http://www.philippaobrien.com/
and the exhibition : http://www.photospacegallery.com/2014—philippa-obrien.html
For a few years now, Brian Morris has made an art of being “Doorman” for one of our most famous bars, the . For me Brian’s welcoming, sometimes cheeky manner has been part of the fun of my evening out experience, but most importantly, he has always made me and others feel safe.
Today I’ll be talking to Brian about how we can preserve the best of Welly’s nightlife, what he see’s on our streets at night, along with a few wise words from one of our few male mentors.