Archive

Interview: Gabriela Cowperthwaite

Posted 2:29pm Sunday 11th August 2013 by Aaron Hawkins

The film Blackfish: is it about orcas in captivity, or is it about the SeaWorld empire and their treatment of orcas in captivity, or is the overlap of those two so strong that it’s one and the same thing? Yeah, you know, I told a story. I came in as a mother who took her kids to SeaWorld and Read more...

Interview: Anthony Powell

Posted 2:29pm Sunday 11th August 2013 by Baz Macdonald

Through your film you explore many aspects of Antarctica, but did you have one encompassing goal or message you wanted to communicate? Yeah I guess my initial drive was just trying to articulate the experience, and I guess I had the “a picture tells a thousand words” cliché in my head. I just Read more...

App of the Week | Issue 19

Posted 2:29pm Sunday 11th August 2013 by Raquel Moss

Pixlr is a great web app for quick but thorough image editing. It’s better than Microsoft Paint; it’s not as good as Photoshop. This is not one for graphic designers, and if you use it, your graphic designer friends will cringe. But it does the trick. Open up the web app and you can choose Read more...

Freemium and Subscription Models Making Life Harder for Pirates

Posted 2:29pm Sunday 11th August 2013 by Raquel Moss

Just as with music there is a trend in the gaming industry to offer subscription models to gamers, which has had an impact on gaming piracy. Game purveyors are offering perks for players who opt in to paid subscriptions, such as free games and online multiplayer, while punishing pirates by Read more...

Fuck Buttons - Slow Focus

Posted 2:29pm Sunday 11th August 2013 by Basti Menkes

Rating: 3.5/5 English two-piece Fuck Buttons have spent the last decade crafting their own assaultive brand of electronica. Drawing influence from Aphex Twin and Mogwai, they snub gloss and perfectionism in favour of songs that are loud, coarse and engulfing. Though performed on an impressive Read more...

Zahava Seewald & Michaël Grébil - From My Mother’s House

Posted 2:29pm Sunday 11th August 2013 by Basti Menkes

Rating: 4.5/5 I have had a lifelong fascination with echolocation, the act of mapping an area through the use of sound. The most obvious example is sonar – the technique bats and whales use to gauge their surroundings. Echolocation is also popular among musicians, and is used by artists to Read more...

Cheat’s Tiramisu

Posted 2:29pm Sunday 11th August 2013 by Kirsty Dunn

Tiramisu is Italian for “pick me up” – and after one mere spoonful of this delectable dessert it’s no wonder the creators dubbed it so. Tiramisu contains four of the most awesome ingredients known to humankind: coffee, chocolate, cheese, and alcohol. Boom! (Which, coincidentally, is the cry your Read more...

Pikmin 3 - Wii U

Posted 2:29pm Sunday 11th August 2013 by Baz Macdonald

Rating: 7.5/10 Clearly a new definition is needed for the term “launch window.” At the moment it’s like the phrase, “I’ll be back in a moment” – it has lost any real meaning in terms of the timeframe being dealt with. We were told that Pikmin 3 (and several other Wii U games) would be Read more...

The House of the Dead

Posted 2:29pm Sunday 11th August 2013 by Lucy Hunter

Dostoyevsky’s The House of the Dead, published in 1861, explores life and death in the confines of a 19th-century Siberian prison. The book is based on the journal Dostoyevsky wrote while in prison for crimes of political and religious dissent – namely, for his involvement in the Petrashevsky Read more...

Jay Z: The Modern-Day Picasso

Posted 2:29pm Sunday 11th August 2013 by Charlotte Doyle

For six straight hours one Wednesday afternoon, Shaun “Jay Z” Carter performed the track “Picasso Baby” from his latest album Magna Carta Holy Grail in a New York art gallery. Although the ulterior motive was to shoot a music video for the song, the entire project completely transcends this idea. Read more...

Private Peaceful

Posted 2:29pm Sunday 11th August 2013 by Ashley Anderson

Rating: 2.5/5 The tag line of this movie beautifully and succinctly describes the tumultuous relationship between Tommo (George Mackay) and Charlie (Jack O’Connell) Peaceful, two brothers living in a sleepy English town during World War I. Private Peaceful, an adaption of Michael Morpurgo’s Read more...

Farewell, My Queen

Posted 2:29pm Sunday 11th August 2013 by Jonny Mahon-Heap

Rating: 4/5 1789. The people are rebelling. Versailles is about to fall. Marie Antoinette, wilfully blind to the chaos around her, spends her days perusing the 18th-century equivalents of Vogue and chasing her chambermaids. Proving there is life in the period drama still, Farewell, My Queen Read more...

This Ain’t No Mouse Music

Posted 2:29pm Sunday 11th August 2013 by Tim Lindsay

This Ain’t No Mouse Music is a documentary film that chronicles the career of legendary American song producer Chris Strachwitz. It takes the viewer on an auditory journey through the heartland of traditional American music and showcases some mighty fine artists and their songs along the way. Read more...

Blackfish

Posted 2:29pm Sunday 11th August 2013 by Alex Wilson

Rating: 3.5/5 The American summer draws to an end, and no doubt millions of Americans have now attended “Shamu Stadium,” SeaWorld, to see Orca whales wave their dorsal fins limply, jump through hoops and engage in bizarre aquatic acrobats with their perpetually smiling trainers. However, what Read more...

The Rocket

Posted 2:29pm Sunday 11th August 2013 by Tamarah Scott

Rating: 4/5 Viewers often engage with films in an effort to derive pleasure from an existential experience. The Rocket truly gives the viewer a chance to walk in someone else’s shoes by transporting them directly into young Alo’s (Sitthiphon Disamoe) life and culture in rural Laos. The film Read more...

Antarctica: A Year on Ice

Posted 2:29pm Sunday 11th August 2013 by Baz Macdonald

Rating: 4/5 When the Dunedin International Film Festival schedule was released this year I was excited to see what would be kicking off the festival. Every year the opening film is something unique and spectacular, such as last year’s Moonrise Kingdom (directed by Wes Anderson). I was a Read more...

Much Ado About Nothing

Posted 2:29pm Sunday 11th August 2013 by Lyle Skipsey

The Regent Theatre - Octagon Thursday 22 August 8.30pm Friday 23 August 11am The Guardian has called it “the first great contemporary Shakespeare since Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet.” Now Joss Whedon’s take on the Bard’s Much Ado About Nothing is coming to the New Zealand Film Festival. Read more...

The Deadly Ponies Gang

Posted 2:29pm Sunday 11th August 2013 by Amber Pullin

Rialto Cinema - Moray Place Friday 23 August 12.30pm Sunday 25 August 2.15pm This documentary follows very-best mates Clint and Dwayne: the sole two members of the Deadly Ponies Gang. The Deadly Ponies are not exactly a conventional gang. No cars, no motorbikes: these two fellas go Read more...

Interview: E. L. Katz (Director of Cheap Thrills)

Posted 3:50pm Sunday 4th August 2013 by Aaron Hawkins

Rialto Cinema - Moray Place Saturday August 10 8:30pm The Regent Theatre - Octagon Sunday August 11 - 8:45pm Director Evan L. Katz’s latest film, Cheap Thrills, is a devilish morality tale in which a wealthy couple (David Koechner and Sara Paxton) test how far a poor couple (Ethan Read more...

App of the Week | Issue 18

Posted 3:50pm Sunday 4th August 2013 by Raquel Moss

Weebly is a drag-and-drop, no-coding-required platform for creating websites that actually look good. If you need to create a quick website to advertise your tutoring skills, or your Mum’s clothing-swap event, Weebly is the way to go. Think of it as the 2013 equivalent of GeoCities, with nicer Read more...