Amateur says it all: Rami Malek miscast as underdog vigilante
The Amateur, directed by James Hawes, is out now.
Rating out of five: ★★
With its airport novel storytelling and TV movie acting, The Amateur wastes what might have been a neat premise.
Rami Malek (an Oscar winner for impersonating Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody but dreadful when playing original
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Otago Daily Times
15 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
Film offers look ‘behind the scenes'
This year's International Film Festival gives New Zealanders the rare opportunity to see behind the scenes at a gallery as it curates a ground-breaking exhibition, in this case Auckland Art Gallery's "Toi Tū Toi Ora: Contemporary Māori Art". Rebecca Fox talks to TOITŪ: Visual Sovereignty 's director, Oscar nominated producer, award-winning film-maker and art lover Chelsea Winstanley. More than 100 artists, 300 art works, 10 installations — it sounds huge. For art lover and movie producer Chelsea Wistanley, the concept of Auckland Art Gallery's "Toi Tū Toi Ora: Contemporary Māori Art", to create the largest Māori art exhibition in New Zealand's history, authored by Māori voices, sounded fascinating. "I like to find stories about people that are doing all the good things behind the scenes." Living in Los Angeles at the time the exhibition was being developed by gallery's curator, Māori Art, Nigel Borell (Pirirākau, Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Ranginui, Te Whakatōhea), Wistanley's marriage to Taika Waititi had broken down, Covid had hit America, Black Lives Matter was going on. "LA was kind of crazy. And it was almost like a great catalyst, actually. So I was like, I'm coming home. I'm going to sink my teeth into this." Personally she needed to come back to New Zealand, but it also seemed like the perfect opportunity for her to go back to her love for writing and directing. While she is known for producing — as a producer on Waititi's Academy nominated feature Jojo Rabbit , Wistanley became the first indigenous female Oscar nominee for Best Picture and her critically-acclaimed documentary feature, Merata: How Mum Decolonised the Screen played at the 2019 Sundance and Berlin film festivals — it is not something she ever wanted to do. "I just fell into that role and you just keep doing one thing after another and someone tells you, you're pretty good at it or they keep offering you work in that space." Along the way Wistanley (Ngāti Ranginui and Ngāi Te Rangi, Pākehā) forgot about her youthful self's wish to be a director. She had started out directing a television art show where she met artists such as Fred Graham, Tama Iti and met Waititi for the first time. "I really believe in timing. And it was the perfect time for me to come home, sink myself into something that was really right. You know, on the kaupapa that I love, art." Working alongside Borell and the gallery's team, Wistanley threw herself into the project deciding to self-fund the documentary to avoid any unnecessary restrictions. "So what little resource I had, me and my producer, we were just like, right, we're going to do this. We'll scrimp and scrape. We'll pull favours. And, you know, half the time I'm getting the camera out myself and I'm not a camera operator. But there's just times you're like, oh, my God, I've got to capture that." She had been told the exhibition was going to be the equivalent to the landmark 1980s "Te Māori" exhibition that toured the United States and then New Zealand's main centres, including Dunedin. "It's got this really neat synergy, I suppose, because "Te Māori" really awakened Māori people to what their culture and a traditional culture that they had. And then when it finished its amazing world conclusion, it actually finished at the Auckland Art Gallery. "And that was another thing that I thought, from an international perspective, was really interesting, too. Like it had all these parallels. So I was like, that's going to be fantastic." But things took a different direction as tensions emerged between Borell and the gallery's director about the imbalance of power in curating. Borrell's vision was that Māori artists should be seen on their own terms, free from colonial frameworks and he pushed to centre Māori voices and stories. He eventually decided to resign just before the show opened. "Alliedship, support and advocacy for indigenous and for Māori in this space is awesome but at the same time it often gets mixed up in authoring the ideas and wanting to have space in that and it is not up for grabs, it is ours to lead and to own. If it is not I don't want to be part of that conversation," Borrell says in the film. "If we can't shape it with this exhibition project which we have waited 20 years to do, when can we?" Like any film-maker, Wistanley had to adapt and follow the story although this was not easy at times. "I'm merely just to be there to capture and respond as an artist myself, as a storyteller. Because people talk about a story being made three times, from the paper, then while you're shooting, and then again in the edit suite. When you get to that third part, you've got to now pull all the pieces together. And whatever you thought might have been the actual story is not any more." She did not want that dispute to overshadow the film though. "I think the overall outcome of the film is, what I really want anyway is, there's nothing to be afraid of, of sharing power. Even if power is the right word. It's just living in harmony together and in true partnership. "Everyone in the gallery, Māori, Pākehā, it doesn't matter who they were, everyone was so invested in the success of that show. Because they're all working there because they love art. So they just want the best thing for the show and for the public to experience." So she also concentrated on was showing the work that went on behind the scenes. Wistanley, whose home's walls are covered in art, got to meet and watch work some of the country's top contemporary Māori artists. "I've always loved art and photography. And it's always kind of been my, I suppose, passion. But this time around, being able to spend time with and see the likes of Shane Cotton or Emily Karaka and their spaces of work. That was the great thing I wanted to show." Selecting those to follow on their journey for the documentary was difficult but working closely with Borrell and the team, she selected a variety of artists doing different projects who also had strong stories. "The artists were so generous." Getting to see the work of the Mataaho Collective (Erena Baker, Sarah Hudson, Bridget Reweti and Terri Te Tau) as it was being made in collaboration with Maureen Lander was special, especially as afterwards the collective went on to win the Golden Lion Award at the Vience Biennale, one of art's highest accolades . The documentary follows their journey at Venice. "My gosh, that was just, like, ultimate, you know. But they're amazing. They're just wonderful." These experiences gave her a new appreciation for artists. "Artists are just the most incredible people. They truly are." Being able to watch and film Ngahina Hohia installing her Paopao Ki tua o Rangi (2009) mixed-media installation using poi, light and sound, drawing on her own whakapapa and the story of Parihaka, over a few days was "mind blowing". It is a piece that has been shown around the world. "It's so beautiful. Again as a viewer you go in and you don't know how many days she spent putting it all together." Then she got to be in Australia when Reuben Paterson saw the glass waka he had designed in real life for the first time. Due to Covid he had supervised its construction via the internet. "It was great to capture him there. I would have been freaking out if that was my piece and it's so incredible when you see it going." But it also gave her a new appreciation for what galleries and their staff do to make exhibitions come to life for the public from driving across the country to pick up valuable and fragile works to conserving pieces so they can can continue to be seen for years to come. "I didn't realise how many people even worked at the gallery, or what all their roles were. Everyone from the registration team, were just such lovely people who take such incredible care, meticulous care. There is just so much that goes on behind the scenes." Sad that the show came down in 2021 six months after opening and that it did not go on to travel internationally, Wistanley took time to decide whether or not to finish the documentary. "I really just didn't want to put out a piece that, oh, the show opened. And yet again, it smashed all the records for visitors and things like that. It did all those things. But it didn't do some other really fundamental things, which sat with me for some time." Two years ago she began working on the piece again, trawling through the hundreds of hours of material to piece together the final story. "I think for them, it's a great archive. I just really wanted to kind of celebrate really what goes on. And it probably turned into something slightly different in the end." TO SEE TOITŪ: Visual Sovereignty , Rialto Cinema, Dunedin, August 24, 3.45pm. Q and A by director Chelsea Winstanley.
NZ Herald
28-07-2025
- NZ Herald
George Lucas debuts at Comic-Con, previews narrative art museum
'I've been collecting art since I was in college,' Lucas, 81, told the crowd, adding that he has amassed tens of thousands of pieces in his collection. 'I've been doing this for 50 years now, and then it occurred to me that what am I going to do with it all because I, I refuse to sell it. 'I could never do that, it's just, it's not what I think art is – I think it's more about an emotional connection,' the director said. In his description of the museum, Lucas said the institution will feature a blend of works. They include illustrations by Norman Rockwell, Jessie Willcox Smith and N.C. Wyeth; artworks by Frida Kahlo, Jacob Lawrence, Charles White and Robert Colescott; and pieces by cartoonists and artists like Winsor McCay, Frank Frazetta and Jack Kirby. 'This is sort of a temple to the people's art,' he said in summation. The museum, housed in a sleek, curved building, will also feature items from Lucas' films and other exclusive pieces. For the Star Wars mastermind, the museum aims to be a tribute to the importance of narrative art. 'When you're born, the baseline is fear. And as you go through life, you're curious about things, but you're especially curious about things you don't understand, and therefore that's a threat to you. 'And as a result, you make up stories to make it feel good,' he continued. 'Science fiction is a myth ... but we've made it real because of science fiction books and art.' 'A critical moment' Among the other members of the panel were Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro and production designer Doug Chiang, who shaped the aesthetic of the Star Wars universe for decades. 'What's remarkable about George is that he leads from the heart, and this museum is him,' Chiang said. Del Toro, who will release his latest film Frankenstein in November, said many of the museum's pieces will celebrate freedom of speech. 'We are in a critical moment in which one of the things they like to disappear is the past, you know, and this is memorialising a popular, vociferous, expressive and eloquent moment in our visual past that belongs to all of us,' Del Toro said. The fantasy film-maker also described comics as a medium with 'a lot of social conscience' and joked that comic artists 'were the first one to punch a Nazi' in their works. 'What a panel!' said attendee Jesse Goldwater, who travelled to San Diego from Los Angeles. 'They are the embodiment of Comic-Con itself, without them Comic-Con wouldn't exist.' - Agence France-Presse
NZ Herald
26-07-2025
- NZ Herald
Gwyneth Paltrow aids Astronomer post-CEO scandal with satirical video
Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech. Gwyneth Paltrow has been hired as Astronomer's temporary spokeswoman. Photo / Coldplay singer Chris Martin's ex Gwyneth Paltrow became a 'temporary spokesperson' for Astronomer after its former CEO was caught having an alleged affair with another employee. Andy Byron, the married CEO of software company Astronomer, was publicly outed cosying up to his co-worker Kristin Cabot after footage of them caught in an embrace at the concert went viral around the world. Byron has since resigned from his high-profile role while Cabot, who is also married, has also left the company. Now, in a bid to deflect from the negative press, Astronomer has given a satirical response with the help of Oscar winner Paltrow, who says she has been hired on a 'very temporary basis' to represent the 'more than 300 employees' at the company. She said that she had been asked to answer some serious questions that the world has had for the company ever since Coldplaygate.
