On May 4th, China celebrated the 100th anniversary of the May 4 Movement - a student-led demonstration that protested foreign imperialism, an authocratic and incompetent government, and asked for "democracy" and "science".
China has changed a lot in the past 100 years, and so has the meaning of the Movement. Producer Lisa Boudet tells us why.
The New Zealand Government has made a deal with global tech giant Amazon to the sum of $100 million plus NZD for the production of . The deal extends to an ongoing relationship where a senior team from Amazon will look at further opportunities available in Aotearoa.
News and Editorial Director Jemima Huston looks into the deal and some of the different perspectives on it. She speaks to National Party spokesperson for economic development Todd McClay, New Zealand film producer John Barnett and Green Party spokesperson on economic development Chlöe Swarbrick. They go over their individual positions on the deal, the impact it could have on employment in New Zealand's film and television industry, and the problems that could arise between Amazon’s reputation for treating workers poorly and New Zealand’s Hobbit Law which has left all those working in the film industry as independent contractors without the same protections of employees or rights to unionise.
The Amazon deal has brought up a number of different economic and moral issues for those working in film and television, politicians, economists and New Zealanders more generally. Will a state relationship with Amazon provide more opportunities for New Zealanders or could the millions of dollars this deal involves be better used elsewhere in a Covid-19 world?
This week marks our final weekly catchup with the National Party before the election. Former Wire host, Milly, took this opportunity to cover National's 100-day plan and the party's Foreign Buyer's Tax plan.
Milly also took the opportunity to discuss the Bowel Cancer screening age.
Do you know what your neighbourhood looked like 100 years ago, and can you envisage your neighbourhood in 100 years from now? Those are the questions an upcoming documentary, Now & Then, is asking. Made by local filmmaker, Ursula Williams, the film takes looks at artist John Radford & his alter ego Ron, who together are making and selling 256 highly detailed miniature replicas of early 1900’s suburban bay villas for a major sculptural installation and participatory performance, Graft. Fixated on the destruction of inner city domestic architecture, the work comprises two hillside precincts from his imagined suburban oblivion. Williams joins Ximena in the studio to tell her more about Radford's work & and about how her film will examine it.
Director Paul Oremland talks to us about his new documentary, 100 Men, which looks at 40 years of gay history via the lens of (and honest interviews with) Oremland’s list of past lovers. As people, societal norms, and countries age, how does that affect identity, community and freedom? Penelope Noir also joins us in the studio to review a doco that contains her specialist subject: feshun. Not just for couture hounds, the story of fashion designer Zac Posen is a classically American rise-fall-rise tale as told by Sandy Chronopoulos in her new documentary, House of Z.