Standing Room Only for Sunday 12 July 2020

 

12:36  Creatives in Schools get welcome support, but is it enough?

The Government's 4 million dollar boost for the Creatives in Schools programme has been welcomed by artists and schools.  

The extra money is part of the Government's Covid-19 arts recovery package.  And the aim is to provide work opportunities for an additional 200 artists, by expanding the programme from the current 304 projects to 510 projects, to last until to 2023.

The Ministry of Education has invited professional artists to submit ideas for projects that they'd undertake at a school or kura, for anywhere between eight to 20 weeks.

But it's not a long-lasting solution to shortcomings in the arts curriculum and in arts-related teacher training.   Failures in arts education have long been a thorn in the side of teachers, who argue they are under-resourced. 

Lynn discusses this with artist Gabby O'Connor, who's been involved in school arts projects for around 20 years, and Perry Rush, President of the New Zealand Principals' Federation.

 

12:48 Karyn Rachtman - from pulp fiction to environmental games

She's helped create some of the most popular and influential movie soundtracks of recent times - Pulp Fiction, Clueless, Boogie Nights and Baz Luhrman's Romeo and Juliet.

Now music supervisor Karyn Rachtman has plunged into something new - the soundtrack for a new ocean-science adventure game.

Beyond Blue is based on the much-loved BBC documentary series Blue Planet II and there's not a machine gun or a car race in it! 

Karyn's now based in Auckland, so it's no surprise she's invited several Kiwi artists to be part of the new original soundtrack for Beyond Blue, along with tracks from the States, Ireland and Kenya. 

She'll also be talking about creating soundtracks at the upcoming Big Screen Symposium.

Lynn Freeman asks Karyn about the challenges of scoring a game soundtrack - and how you even turn undersea exploration into a game? .

 

 

1:10 At The Movies

This week Simon Morris reviews the documentary White Riot, the Steve Coogan movie Greed and an intriguing thriller The Burnt Orange Heresy, featuring Mick Jagger as an art dealer.

 

1:33  Film and arts sector crews - coping after Covid

 

Last week we spoke to some of the leaders of the film and TV industries - the Film Commission, New Zealand On Air, various top producers.  

But it's the people on the ground who are doing it hard, post Covid 19 and the big lockdowns of the past few months.   

These are the thousands of people who work on the crews of major and minor film projects,  who build the sets, set up the sound and lighting rigs, and drive the trucks for music festivals, theatres, operas and all the rest of the arts sector.

So how has Covid affected them, and how are these vital support people dealing with life after lockdown?

Graeme Tuckett is best known as a film reviewer, but his day job is looking after the crews on major local film and TV productions.  And Vicki Cooksley is the President of Entertainment Technology New Zealand - essentially the other half of the arts support industry.   Lynn Freeman asks them how the thousands employed in the arts sector have been coping?

 

1:47 An artist's colleagues are invited to "Rectify this painting"

Artist Eve Barlow has trusted 14 artists to take her not quite finished paintings, and complete them in any way they like.

For some it was a fun way to spend the lockdown period, for others it proved to be tougher than they'd imagined.

All of the works are about to go on show at Christchurch's City Art Depot in an exhibition called Rectify This Painting.

Lynn Freeman spoke to Eve Barlow, and to one of the artists she invited to take part, Keren Oertly.  She first asked Eve what - if any - instructions she gave her collaborators.

Rectify This Painting opens at the City Art Depot  on Tuesday. 
 

2:06 The Laugh Track - actor Arlo Green

 

When Rūrangi was accepted as part of the New Zealand International Film Festival, it was ground-breaking in several ways.  

For a start it was not technically a film - it's a web-series, the first to ever make it onto the Festival.

It's a series about transgender characters, and unlike previous trans stories - famously, The Crying Game, Boys Don't Cry and Priscilla Queen of the Desert - it comes from within the trans community.

Which sounds a little worthy and earnest, but it's getting rave reviews - not least for the performance of today's Laugh Track guest Arlo Green.  

Arlo's having a star-making year - he won the Best Actor award in the Auckland Theatre Awards for his starring role in Shane Bosher's Homos or Everyone in America.

Arlo's Laugh Track picks include Guz Khan, Hannibal Buress, Wanda Sykes, Sebastian Maniscalco and Nate Bargatze

 

 

 

2:25  More funding for Festivals, but what's expected in return?

Four Māori and Pasifika Festivals are the first to receive up to $100,000 from the new Creative and Cultural Events Incubator fund.

The government says the incubator fund provides seed and development funding for creative and cultural events - but there's a clear signal that these are events that are expected to attract global attention, at least once the pandemic is under control.

One recipient is a relative new kid on the block, Gisborne's Te Tairāwhiti Arts Festival, which is now gearing up its second outing in October.

Another is the Otaki-based Māoriland Film Festival, that's built up a strong following since it started in 2014.   Libby Hakaraia from the Māoriland Festival and Tama Waipara CEO and Artistic Director of Te Tairāwhiti talked with Lynn Freeman about their plans.

The other two festivals receiving Incubator Fund grants are Wellington's Kia Mau Festival and the 2021 Te Matatini in Auckland

 

2:37  David Coventry's new novel Dance Prone

Wellington writer David Coventry's second novel was inspired by the Eighties post-punk hardcore movement - bands like Husker Du, Dead Kennedies and Black Flag.   

David's award-winning first book The Invisible Mile took us on an exhausing bike race.

This time in Dance Prone he puts us up on stage with a band that tears itself apart as it tours America.

Two decades later two of the band members, Con and Tone, meet up, and reminisce.  

Dance Prone looks at the harsh realities of life on the road, at lives unfulfilled and, inevitably, the unreliability of memory.

David reads from his book and talks to Lynn Freeman about the allure of Eighties hardcore.

Dance Prone by David Coventry is published by Victoria University Press.

 

2:50  Philippa Blair - cloaked in art

Philippa Blair has been painting on and making cloaks out of canvas since the 1970s.

The artist returned to New Zealand in 2014 after 20 years based in Los Angeles where she exhibited work and taught.

Aucklanders can currently see examples of both her early and recent work at two different galleries in the city.

The Te Uru show is called Down Under Cover and features a selection of very large and very bright abstract paintings.

Her dealer gallery, Orexart, has a selection of her earlier works in a show called Shelter, including some of her colourful canvas cloaks.   

Lynn Freeman asked Philippa Blair first about her large scale brightly coloured paintings, especially those from her time in LA:
 

3:06 Drama at 3 - Plato's Cave, by Terry Swanson.

Edward Grimes, a troubled professor philosophy decides to explore the mind-body dichotomy by frequenting the local massage parlour.  Here, he strikes up an unlikely relationship with a working girl called Rosie.        

Starring Ken Blackburn and Judith Gibson.
 

Music played in this show

Artist: Sophie Gibson
Song: Something in the water
Composer: Gibson
Album: Beyond Blue Soundtrack
Label: Universal Music NZ
Played at: 12.32

Artist: Maesey Rika
Song: Tangaroa Whakamautai
Composer:  Rika
Album:  Beyond Blue Soundtrack
Label: Universal Music NZ
Played at: 12.40

Artist: Flaming Lips
Song: All we have is now
Composer: Coyne-Drozd
Album: Beyond Blue Soundtrack
Label: Universal Music NZ
Played at: 1.06

Artist: Muthoni Drummer Queen
Song: Suzie Noma
Composer: Muthoni Drummer Queen
Album: Beyond Blue Soundtrack
Label:  Universal Music NZ
Played at: 1.44

Artist: Slow Skies
Song: On the shore
Composer: Slow Skies
Album: Beyond Blue Soundtrack
Label: Universal Music NZ
Played at: 1.58

Artist:  DoubleVee
Song: Last Castaways
Composer: DoubleVee
Album: Beyond Blue Soundtrack
Label:  Universal Music NZ
Played at: 2.04

Artist: Husker Du
Song: Don't want to know if you are lonely
Composer: Hart
Album: Candy Apple Grey
Label: Warner
Played at: 2.35

Artist: Tokimonsta
Song: Love that never
Composer: Lee
Album: Beyond Blue Soundtrack
Label: Universal Music NZ
Played at: 2.58

Artist: LIPS
Song: We don't have much time
Composer: Brown
Album: Beyond Blue Soundtrack
Label: Universal Music NZ 
Played at: 3.04

Artist: Vanderocker
Song: Driftwood
Composer: Vanderocker
Album: Beyond Blue Soundtrack
Label: Universal Music NZ 
Played at: 3.58