Cook Sails into Prime Time
Captain Cook is the inspiration behind America’s latest hit reality TV show. The Ship follows a group of ordinary folks in their bid to sail a replica of the Endeavour from Australia to Indonesia….
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Moving biography as an art form
Nola Farman reviews Roger Horrocks’ Len Lye biography for Art Monthly Australia, calling it “the revelation of yet another brilliant and creative New Zealand moment.” The biography is Horrocks’ tribute to an artist he…
Marine advisors to Hollywood
A NZ father/son team is behind the submarine action scenes on Harrison Ford’s latest film, K-19: The Widowmaker. Lance Julian and father, Harry, run Marine Team Ltd., an American-based company with strong ties to…
Creative Edge Export
A sharp demonstration of the New Zealand Edge: Financial Time’s article ‘Time is on their side’ trumpets the on-island advantage and new world export success of Christchurch creative agency TimeZoneOne. Boosted by the value…
Girls, Gadgets, Action
Bond director Lee Tamahori qualifies his license to thrill: “A Bond movie has conventions: girls, gadgets, action. It’s not that you must stick with them, but if you don’t, you may be doing the…
Magic: It’s academic
Prominent University of Melboune based NZ-born theorist Simon During’s Modern Enchantments reviewed in Guardian. During’s “thorough and compelling” study challenges commonly held beliefs about the role of performed magic throughout history: “we milk the…
First to Drive Everest
The latest US advertising campaign for the Toyota 4Runner sport utility centres on scaling the rugged heights of Mt Everest. The Saatchi & Saatchi production uses NZ icon Sir Ed Hillary in its bid…
Rebel with an Emmy
Ex-Wellingtonian Rob Pearson received a Creative Arts Emmy for his contribution to TNT’s James Dean biopic. The award was for outstanding art direction on a movie, mini-series or special.
“Taking it to the People”
The Datsuns can do no wrong as they stage dive into the wan and pale introspection of Brit-pop. The Kiwi band recently passed the “real test” of rock’n’rollers – shedding the title of “next big thing”…
Lord of the Travel Agents
It is official: NZ is the most popular long-haul destination for Britons. From January to June, a record 228,000 British travelers visited – 8.9% more than in 2001. The Guardian puts the increase down…
“A Passionate Love Affair Between Two Great Minds”
NZ filmmaker Christine Jeffs (Rain) is to direct a British production about the turbulent marriage of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes. Starring Gwyneth Paltrow and British actor Daniel Craig, the film was inspired by…
Whale Rider: People’s Choice at Toronto
Whale Rider swerves past Bend it Like Beckham to win the prestigious AGF People’s Choice award at the Toronto Film Festival – an award previously won by Amelie and …
xXx
NZ actor Martin Csokas’ sexy (Salon) villian praised in Vin Diesel action blockbuster xXx: Csokas is “the baddest of the baddies,” “a splendid villain whose brooding and commanding persona oozes onto the screen.”…
Reforging public perceptions
James Belich’s history of C20th NZ, Paradise Reforged, applauded in lengthy TLS article. Reviewer Jane Samson: “It is refreshing to have a personal vision of the country’s history from an astounding scholar who…
Carving a place in history
For two years Polynesian “master carver” Shane Eagleton has been teaching disadvantaged Californian teens the ancient art of mallet and chisel. Employed by the One Voice arts program, the NZ-born artist/ecologist has helped his students to create…
Deconstructing faculty
Respected Dean of Columbia School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Bernard Tschumi’s tenure reviewed on notice of his retirement. His transformative guidance made the faculty a model of architectural education and he will leave…
Bic is back
“She sings the kind of beautiful, haunting songs that work their way into your subconscious and emerge when it’s raining and you can’t sleep.” Bic Runga’s new album Beautiful Collision (and her clothes) were…
LOTR
The Fellowship of the Ring won the Hugo Award for best dramatic presentation at the World Science Fiction Convention in San Jose, California. In attendance for the ceremony were Sean Astin (A.K.A Sam Gamgee) and NZer…
A Believer in the Green Light
“Without a doubt one of the most brilliant journalists and columnists of his generation.” Neal Travis, the “brash, swashbuckling New Zealand import”, legendary editor of The New York Post’s in/famous Page Six gossip column, as well as…
Edge People of Middle Earth
“, for all its knockout grandeur, is but the trailer, the preview of the country. NZ doesn’t need to be digitally enhanced. It has an orchestra replete with special effects all of its own.” Headlining feature on…
Sporting success: air guitar and Scrabble
Hastings meatworker Toby Peneha took out second place at the 7th annual World Air Guitar Championship in Oulu, Finland. Narrowly beaten by two-time British winner Zac Munro, Toby “the Tobanator” achieved unofficial glory by…
Children subject of Her Majesty
The Edinburgh International Film Festival screens the “quirky New Zealand film” Her Majesty. Mark J Gordon’s feature (from a Sundance award-winning script) tells the story of an impassioned young Royalist during the…
A toast to Elvis
Not content with gracing the billboards of Wellington, NZ toast artist Maurice Bennet is going global. Bennet’s Elvis tribute was noted in Ananova’s quest for the world’s weirdest news: “on his website…
Steady Hand
A thematic juggling act handled with skill: C.K Stead’s The Secret History of Modernism intersperses a tale of young love with one family’s experience of the Holocaust. Washington Post Reviewer Chris Lehman: “In the…
The blink and you’ll miss him sex symbol
“Lord of the extras: Elfin charmer nets fans.” A pout like that and musical and comedic talent! Wellington musician Bret McKenzie (The Black Seeds, Flight of the Conchords) has found internet fame via…
Critic goes ga ga for Noble
Reviewed: Justin Paton’s, Anne Noble: States of Grace, the accompaniment to Noble’s epoynmous recent exhibition. The book, “is the type of publication that makes people pat books in bookstores one finds oneself…
I am international
“He is the first important painter in that part of the world.” The Netherlands’ Stedelijk Museum is to hold the Western hemisphere’s first major retrospective of Colin McCahon’s work. “What at first sight…
Giant Spiders Terrorise Public
Campy, 50s sci-fi inspired Eight Legged Freaks achieves what it set out to do: “scare the pants off the viewer.” Written and directed by NZer Ellory Elkayem, Freaks delivers thrills aplenty, while remaining…
Pacific terrific
NZ artists Lisa Reihana, Ralph Hotere, and the “Pasifika Divas” will be exhibiting at the Asia Pacific Triennial at the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art. The exhibition brings together artists from Japan to…
Psathas & Kiri
NZ composer John Psathas and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa provided some of the high points at Manchester’s eclectic “Pulse Festival.” The concert was the climax to a six month exploration of Commonwealth arts entitled…
Alone it Stands
Irish playwright John Breen’s tale of Munster’s famous victory over the 1978 grand-slam All Blacks recieves winning reviews and box office at the Sydney Opera House on its way to a season in Auckland’s…
Third time’s a charm
NZ tenor Benjamin Makisi won the prestigious McDonald’s Operatic Aria in Sydney after making the finals three years running. He intends to put his NZ$41,110 prize money towards enrolment in a European opera studio….
The Commonwealth cool club
Emily Perkins muses on OE, clinging to Mummy Britannia’s apron strings, and what being in the Commonwealth meant for her as a young New Zealander: “Being a member of the Commonwealth always seemed, to…
Heavenly pop hits
Aotearoa musical ambassador Neil Finn’s One Nil launched in the US as One All, and draws in at No.2 on Salon’s audio charts. New songs and collaborations with Wendy and Lisa of Prince…
Finn No Warbler
Chicago Tribune’s Kevin McKeough wonders “what kind of birds are fluttering around he sings melodies that are just plain gorgeous.” Finn’s performance before a packed Park West Stadium (Chicago)…
Politically correct
“The Capitol is our castle, our shrine”, says author and historian David McCullough, “and Waddell has snapped it to life.” Smithsonian Magazine. Kiwi Peter Waddell has boldly gone where no artist has painted…
Alan Brunton: Mystic Gold From the Edge
NZ performance artist Alan Brunton (57) died while touring Europe with his Red Mole theatre troupe, ” NZ letters of its one truly iconic radical figure.” Coming to prominence in the late 70s as…
Reforging Paradise
“No one likes snapshots of one sitting on Mother’s knee being shown at one’s 21st birthday, especially if the snaps were taken at age 19.” Novelist Emily Perkins reviews James Belich’s history of NZ:…
Dancing from the ceiling
“Start off by swinging from the chandeliers.” Mark Baldwin has been appointed artistic director of the prestigious Rambert Dance Company. The Fijian-born Baldwin, who danced with Limbs Dance Company and New Zealand ballet before…
Critique of Pure Fay
Fay Weldon’s autobiography (up to year 32) continues to entertain. The Guardian is seduced by the lure of biography: “her fiction suddenly seems a whole lot less peculiar … much of the work…
For those about to rock
“The greatest rock’n’roll band since the Rolling Stones.” Rave reviews like this have earned The Datsuns an unprecedented 200,000 pound one album deal with Britain’s V2 Records plus countless offers to tour. “If…
Club Edge
Saatchi & Saatchi’s London office went on a Euro junket to win Agency of the Year at the industry’s top awards at Cannes. Their infamous inuendo-laden and intricately art-directed campaign for Club 18-30 won…
Earthworks
Ceramic work by New Zealand artist Edith Slee was on show at the Balance House in Glenavy. The “Dwelling” exhibition featured 150 pieces made of earth from her native Otago and clay from the…
Substance Wins
And this web award actually means something: the Webby’s are the internet Oscars. All the more glory to Christchurch-based Arts and Letters Daily which was awarded the People’s Voice award for best…
Making myths
Lower-Hutt author Lloyd Jones gives the Aussies something heavier than Pavlova to think about: “Now and then someone will write a book in the smaller country that demands the bigger country sit up and…
From strength to strength
Boston Globe finds the UV rays result in intense expression in Lower Hutt writer Catherine Chidgey’s latest novel, Strength of the Sun: “a meticulously constructed novel of true imagination.”
Xenites Unite!
7th Xena Fest held at the University of Hawaii-Manoa June 9. Activities included martial arts demonstrations, auctions, and battle-cry contests. See the NZEDGE hot story on Lucy Lawless for the person behind…
Wild West Coast designs production
Sam Neill films in NZ for the first time since The Piano on South Island’s rugged West Coast. Perfect Strangers, directed and produced by noted NZ documentary maker Gaylene Preston (Bread and Roses), also…
Scarfies in Shanghai
Five recent NZ films – Once Were Warriors, Scarfies, The Price of Milk, Magik & Rose, and Jubilee – hit Chinese screens June 8 – 22 in China’s first NZ film festival.
Maximus vs. Hannibal
NZ-born Russell Crowe has beaten Hollywood heavyweights including Anthony Hopkins, Paul Newman, Tom Hanks, and Robert DeNiro to be voted favourite Best Actor Oscar winner of all time, according to a poll by US…
Ludic love
Harry Sinclair film Toy Love applauded in Indiewire: “I love how deftly it hides surprisingly dark themes beneath its very sexy and funny depiction of love and lust. It’s a screwball comedy that’s quite…
Where is New Zealand again?
Doing the Billie’s Kiss PR, Elizabeth Knox pauses and reflects on the exotic settings for her books with a wry comment on her cultural identity: “I know I’m a New Zealand writer, but I’m…
Scene stealing
The LA Times surveys an “invasion of American films by directors and stars from Down Under. The biggest star now working in American films who began in his native New Zealand is Russell Crowe…
Pacific mix
Jazz has been described as the “original dance music” and one of the genre’s legendary labels, Verve, has dipped into its vaults and commissioned new mixes for contemporary dancefloors. Kiwi Mark de Clive Lowe…
The novel is dead, long live the novel
Keri Hulme joins a list of postcolonial booker people ratttling the bones of the form: “The years the Booker Prize doesn’t go to an English novel the winning book tends to be an interesting…
Rain
Christine Jeff’s “sexually potent yet understated” feature debut Rain continues to make splashes as it opens across North America. The Boston Herald reports that Jeffs “easily captures the rhythm of a summer…
