Film and TV reviewer Tamar Munch joins Kathryn Ryan to review some of the newest offerings on television.
1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything (Apple TV+)
An eight-episode documentary series that uses archival footage to examine the music and politics of the year.
"It's a bold title isn't it, the year that music changed everything," Tamar Munch told Kathryn Ryan.
Set against the backdrop of 1971, in primarily the United States, it's a time of the Vietnam War, and Richard Nixon is in power.
"The documentary, it parallels the musical innovation and renewal of the time alongside the social and political changes that were going on and issues that people were facing."
It's based on a book and the team behind the documentary made the Amy Winehouse and Banksy documentaries.
With archival interviews, voice over of fresh interviews and archival footage, you're really immersed in the era, she says.
"There's an episode where they're looking at female artists, female singer songwriters like Joni Mitchell and Carole King who had something to say through their art about the place of women in the world.
"It puts the artists against the backdrop of socio-political stuff."
It's good to watch through an intellectual lens, but also good to just sit back and watch, she says.
"Artist-wise, it's a who's-who of the era."
Heaven & Hell - The Centrepoint Story (TVNZ1)
A feature length documentary, former members and children of the commune tell their stories for the first time.
"What was interesting, there's a bit of text at the end of the documentary that says of over 60 members of the community who were approached, only four were willing to be part of the documentary."
They're compelling interviews, Munch says.
"There's a real sense of reflection on why they joined Centrepoint in the first place, what went on there, a realisation that they were contributing to some of the stuff that, even if they weren't directly contributing to some of the sexual offences against children themselves, that they were complicit in supporting those who did commit those crimes."
The first police officer to visit Centrepoint is also interviewed.
"The segments we see him interviewed are really terrific. I felt like there's this real depth of compassion when he talks about this subject matter."
Three women, who were children of Centrepoint tell their stories - the most harrowing of the interviews, Munch says.
The Circus (Bravo)
The Circus looks at the longest-running Kiwi circus, Weber Circus. It follows a circus family and shows the trials and tribulations of running a circus in New Zealand.
"What I didn't appreciate was that it's literally a family event, it's mum and dad and their eight children...it's following them in their day-today work and life and everything else."
Munch says it's very much like a Bravo reality show, and it's the first made here for Bravo since the Real House Wives of Auckland.
