The Ricky Gervais Show

Sunday, January 1st at 7:30pm

**New series** The Ricky Gervais Show will premiere on TV 3 from Sunday, January 1^st at 11:30pm. The animated show features Gervais and his long-time collaborator Stephen Merchant (The Office, Extras), and revolves around the world of their unusual friend, Karl Pilkington (An Idiot Abroad).

Originally starting out as a radio program in the U.K. in 2005, Gervais and Merchant decided to turn the show into a podcast, bringing Pilkington, a radio producer they had met years earlier, along. Soon the podcasts began to focus particularly on the eccentric mind of Pilkington.

The podcast became wildly popular, gaining a Guinness World Record in 2007 for being the most-downloaded podcast on the Internet.

“It’s such a natural for animation,” Lisa Ullmann explains, Wildbrain Vice President. “We worked closely with Gervais figuring out how he wanted himself to look, as well as Steven and Karl.”

Drug Bust

Monday, January 2^nd at 7:30pm

Step inside the world of the New Zealand Police’s war on drugs. Drug Bust is a fast paced factual observational series that follows New Zealand’s largest police district, Counties Manukau, as they fight the war against drugs.

The district has the highest population in New Zealand but it is also one of the poorest regions – and with this comes crime. With unprecedented access, Drug Bust follows the district’s drug investigation teams as they take on the criminal underworld in a fight to take back their communities. From children living in meth houses to drug related violence, the viewer gets a birds-eye look at the damage drugs are doing to our communities.

Kalgoorlie Cops

Monday, January 2^nd at 8pm

The show takes a no-holds-barred look at the work of the 217 uniformed police and detectives who control the world’s largest police beat on the planet. Situated at the edge of the Nullabor Plain in the West Australian outback with a population of 32,000 people, Kalgoorlie is a town like no other.

Sprouting from the gold rush of 1893, these days the town is flush with money, miners, hookers and bikers – meaning there’s never a dull moment for Kalgoorlie’s cops.

From murders to drug trafficking, organised crime, theft, prostitution, domestic disputes and old-fashioned Friday night punch-ups, to searching for missing tourists and prospectors in the huge expanse of desert surrounding Kalgoorlie, this action-packed series takes a never before-seen look at the workings of the biggest police beat in the world.

Come Fly With Me

Friday, January 6^th at 9:30pm

The hilarious Matt Lucas and David Walliams (Little Britain) airport mockumentary, Come Fly With Me, is set in an airport and following the lives of the people who hold it all together – including airline owners, check-in staff, fast-food workers, immigration officers, pilots and cabin crew, as well as the passengers.

“Sometimes members of the public gather behind the camera and like to watch,” explains Lucas about the filming process. “But what you gain is hopefully a show that looks like no other comedy show; that has a kind of authenticity and a scale about it that you could not easily create in a studio, unless you had tens of millions of pounds to build one.”

Super City

Friday, January 6^th at 10pm

Super City is the local comedy series which sees Madeleine Sami (Jaquie Brown Diaries and Sione’s Wedding) hilariously transform into five very different characters all living in New Zealand’s super city.

Directed by Taika Waititi (Boy & Eagle vs. Shark), Super City sees Sami hilariously portraying five acutely observed and very different characters all living in Auckland.

There’s Pasha, an aging cheerleader clinging to her partying lifestyle; Azeem, an immigrant taxi driver embracing Maori culture; Jo, a closeted gym instructor in love with her best friend; Linda, the runt of her “old girls” clique fostering impoverished artists and Georgie, a homeless girl whose freedom is unexpectedly interrupted.

“Hopefully viewers will get a lot of laughs and take these unique personalities into their hearts…,” Madeleine Sami says about her onscreen characters.

Documentary: Katie: My Beautiful Face

Tuesday, January 3^rd at 9:30pm

Katie was young and beautiful, but a vicious acid attack destroyed her face. Now Katie: My Beautiful Face follows Katie as she tries to re-build her life.

A model and budding TV presenter, 24-year-old Katie had a glowing future ahead of her. But in 2008, a vicious acid attack destroyed her face, and with it her career and her life as she knew it.

More than a year on, and having undergone countless operations and rounds of physiotherapy, she has now chosen to give up her anonymity and tell her own story for the first time.

“I’ve decided to tell my story so that people know what these men did to me,” Kate explains to UK’s Channel 4. “To help people understand who have ignorance about people that look different, and for people not to be frightened of burns and the stigma attached to it, to understand that it’s still the same person underneath.”

Below is a listing of the top ten programmes on NZTV, recorded as of the 25th September 2011 via Nielsen TV Audience Measurement.

The top programme being watched is still One news TV ONE, with a mixture of New Zealand drama and current affairs in the other top spots and RWC coverage making it into the top 10.

To watch some of these programmes please follow this link to the TVNZ website.

New Zealand documentary feature The Last Dogs of Winter debuted in Toronto yesterday. Director/producer Costa Botes and film subjects Brian Ladoon and Caleb Ross received a standing ovation when they took the stage for the film’s post-screening Q&A session.

The films was selected to screen in the highly regarded ‘Real to Reel’ programme of the Festival, a programme renowned for its selection of the most insightful and fascinating documentaries of the year, screening alongside the latest offerings by documentary film makers such as Werner Herzog, Morgan Spurlock, Alex Gibney and Jonathan Demme.

Directed and produced by Costa Botes (Forgotten Silver, Candyman, Struggle No More, Daytime Tiger), The Last Dogs of Winter explores Brian Ladoon’s little-known struggle to preserve the Canadian Eskimo dog, the rarest registered breed of dog in the world, from extinction.

For the last three years young New Zealand actor Caleb Ross (The Tribe) has been working alongside Ladoon, committed to the dogs and Ladoon’s self-imposed task of preserving and breeding the dogs.

Jane Schoettle, a programme selector for Real to Reel said of the film: “Botes captures the remorseless northern landscape – as well as the political, financial and meteorological struggles that Ladoon and Ross face in preserving the Qimmiq – with a raw energy and relentless honestly. Captivating and compelling, The Last Dogs of Winter is a film about wildlife – and one wild life.”

Variety magazine described the film as an wilderness lover’s delight and said it was an “intimate, gorgeously rendered documentary.”

The Last Dogs of Winter has been financed by Lone Pine Films Ltd and the New Zealand Film Commission. NZ Film, the sales arm of the NZFC, is handling world sales of the film.

Maori Television will be showcasing a range of New Zealand documentaries in the Pakipumeka Aotearoa series. The one-hour documentaries will air on Saturday nights at 8.30-9.30pm.

This week, Saturday 20 August, meet New Zealand’s own version of Erin Brockovich in The Green Chain. Whakatane man Joe Harawira fought the powers of industry and government and won.

The former sawmill worker believes his exposure to poison in the workplace led to him becoming seriously ill, so he fought to seek the truth behind the death and sickness that afflicted his community. The Green Chain tells his story.

On Saturday 27 August check out a new movement coming out of Hawke’s Bay that is encouraging Maori people to get fit and healthy in IronMaori: Movement of the People.

The first IronMaori half-ironman was born in December 2009 with 288 competitors after event founder Heather Skipworth, a health professional from Pakipaki – the rural predominantly Maori settlement south of Hastings – had an epiphany to do something to reverse the negative health statistics prevailing in the Maori community.

She viewed a half-ironman (2km swim, 90km cycle and 21.1km run) as a challenge that would force a significant lifestyle change that could be continued – “one that would lengthen the time to get to your grave”, she says.

Finally, one week out from Rugby World Cup 2011 kick off, we explore the history of New Zealand rugby culture and the world cup and its affect on our psyche in The Wait of the Nation on Saturday 3 September.

The Wait of the Nation tells the story of the All Black’s inaugural world cup triumph on home soil in 1987, where the Men In Black helped heal the wounds of the disastrous Springbok Tour of 1981 and reunite Kiwis behind their national game.

As the tournament returns to New Zealand this year, only one thing matters: winning that elusive World Cup. For this rugby-mad nation, it’s a question of national pride.

So sit back and relax whanau and look in with Maori Television for these essential Saturday night viewing of some great home-grown documentaries.

Journey into Darkness – The Strongman Tragedy, a documentary currently in production about  the Strongman Mine explosion that claimed the lives of 19 men, and the subsequent Commission of Inquiry.

The 90 minute telefeature is being produced for TV3 by Paula McTaggart from A Bigger Picture Ltd in association with Gaylene Preston Productions, with funding from the prestigious New Zealand On Air Platinum Fund.

Acclaimed filmmaker Gaylene Preston will direct the dramatic content of the feature-length programme, which will blend dramatisation with interviews filmed by McTaggart along with archive gathered over the past four years.

“I am humbled by the stories of lives completely thrown into chaos by that explosion in 1967,” says Preston.  “It is an honour to be involved in bringing the story of this terrible mine tragedy and inquiry to the screen.

Opened in 1939, the state owned Strongman Mine (11 kilometres north-east of Greymouth) was the pride and flagship of NZ’s coal industry and the largest underground coal mine in the country.  On 19 January, 1967, an explosion blew through the section of the mine known as Green’s No 2.

The telefeature is a labour of love for Runanga-born and raised Paula McTaggart, who comes from a long line of coal miners.  McTaggart has been developing the project since 2007, when a visit to her uncle, the late Ron Gibb, sparked her interest in this largely untold New Zealand tragedy.  Gibb was one of five men from Mines Rescue who received the British Empire Medal for their actions during the tragedy.

“The more he spoke, the more I felt that this was a critical piece of NZ history that had been largely overlooked outside of the West Coast”, McTaggart explains.

“My Uncle and I talked about the possibility of a documentary and he shared with me his knowledge of the tragedy along with the material to go forward.  Ron had a strong desire that the truth be told.”

McTaggart began filming interviews for the project in 2008.  TV3’s Head of Factual, Sue Woodfield, says the documentary’s gripping story of bravery and human resilience in the face of disaster will resonate with all New Zealanders.

“Although this project has been in development for several years, there’s a terrible sense of history repeating itself with the recent tragic events at Pike River, and the current Royal Commission.

“This is a very important film.”

McTaggart says the production team is interested in hearing from anyone who would like to be part of the documentary, at the email address enquries@biggerpicture.co.nz.

“It is important that those involved have the opportunity to contribute to the project,” she says.  “I hope that more people will come forward to tell their individual stories, or to share photos, film footage or other materials.”

Journey into Darkness – The Strongman Tragedy is being produced for TV3 with funding from New Zealand On Air’s Platinum fund which is reserved for high quality programs of historical and cultural importance with a significant relevance to New Zealand and New Zealanders.

TVNZ launches U, a ground-breaking new channel which integrates online social networking with broadcast content for the first time on New Zealand screens. U is a commercial free-to-air digital channel which features a mix of real life and factual entertainment programming and is aimed at all Kiwis aged 15-24.

The channel kicks off with our first ever episode of U live – a live daily interactive entertainment music show hosted by Connor Nester, Rose Matafeo and Tim Lambourne. Packed with giveaways, guests and entertainment news, no two shows will be the same. U live airs every day between 4pm and 7pm.

TVNZ has worked closely with Facebook to create a truly interactive show. Fans of the U live Facebook app are able to comment on topics, post pictures, vote in polls and peek behinds the scenes of the show through a live stream “producer cam”. Comments will then be pulled into the broadcast and onto screen, giving viewers a chance to interact with the presenters and each other like never before.

TVNZ’s Head of Digital Media and Channels Eric Kearley says that TVNZ is delighted to bring New Zealand its first true “social television” experience through the Facebook integration.

“It’s the first true technology-driven integration of online social media with television in New Zealand.”

U tv, which starts tonight and airs every Sunday at 8.30pm, gives viewers another chance to interact with the broadcast. People can enter a competition to be the U programmer for a month via the channel’s website. The lucky winner will effectively “own” the slot, choosing what viewers watch and then, via a video link, present their choices to NZ.

The rest of the schedule is made up of a selection of shows new to New Zealand audiences that are sure to shock, inspire and entertain. Britain’s Missing Top Model explores the biggest taboo in modelling… the lack of disabled models. The Buried Life follows the real life adventure of four guys on an epic quest to prove that anyone can do anything and to challenge strangers with the ultimate question: “What do you want to do before you die?”. And G Girls follows the glitzy team behind Britain’s top glossy – Glamour magazine. This is the series that gives fashion fans the kind of inside access they can only dream of.

According to Kearley, U is an innovative step for broadcasting in New Zealand and fills a gap in the market.

“We had identified that there was an opportunity to extend the content available for young New Zealanders with new locally made and overseas programming. U will be the only fully localised youth channel in the market providing bespoke opportunities for New Zealand advertisers to speak to young Kiwis.”

U will be broadcast on Freeview/TiVo channel 6 and SKY/Telstra channel 016.

For more information about “u” Channel please follow this link to the TVNZ page or follow this link to their Face book page.

Pollywood Pasifica Short film Festival is now into its ninth successful year, this is an event to watch out for. With each year growing bigger and better, Pollywood has largely become a launching pad for Pasifika Film and multimedia art for the past 9 years. The core focus of Pollywood is to showcase and celebrate Pacific Island writers, Directors and Actors.  Pollywood is the leading Pacific Island short film festival in New Zealand.

Each screening will be introduced by curator Craig Fasi, and promises to please audiences from across Auckland. “I am hubled by the status of films that have been sourced  for this years festival, in light of so much that has changed over the years. I am thankful that Pollywood is still delivering quality Pacific Island art for the community”says Mr Fasi.

There is seven films which will be screened in total with just over 80 mins of heartfelt stories to be showcased. With such a varied mix of short films there is bound to be something for everyone, so get your tickets now. All are welcome.

The premiere of Pollywood Nine2011 is set for Wednesday the 16th of March At Galatos, Galatos Street, Newton 7:30pm.

For more information on this event and ticket bookings please follow this link

Brian Brake is regarded as New Zealand’s most successful international photographer. But before heading overseas, working for photo agency Magnum and snapping iconic shots of Picasso and the famous Monsoon series for Life magazine, Brake was also an accomplished composer of moving images. In his 20s, he shot many films for the National Film Unit, including New Zealand’s first Oscar-nominated film.

NZ On Screen is delighted to present this record of Brake’s formative moving image work to complement the launch of a major Brake exhibition at Te Papa. Alongside the exhibition surveying Brake’s life’s work, a magnificent book, Brian Brake: Lens on the World (edited by Athol McCredie), has been published by Te Papa Press. The exhibition opens on 23 October 2010.

Brake brought his distinctive eye to several of the tourism and documentary films produced by the NFU during the late 1940s and early 1950s.

The films in the NZ On Screen collection include NZ’s first Oscar-nominated film, Snows of Aorangi. Brake had a particular affinity for the Southern Alps: “because I was brought up among the mountains”. Other stunning examples of his alpine cinematography are found in Prelude to Aspiring and high country farming classic The Snowline is Their Boundary.

Also included is the first colour footage of Waitomo Caves; and Canterbury is a Hundred (of which an extract opened Peter Jackson’s feature film Heavenly Creatures), and Brake’s innovative filming of pianist Richard Farrell playing a Chopin waltz.

There is an excerpt and rare ‘lost’ footage from the 2006 documentary on Brake’s incomplete Aspiring project, which revisits the attempt by a Brake-led all-star Kiwi art team (Baxter, Lilburn, Drawbridge) to make a ‘cinematic poem’ from an ascent of the mountain.

In a background written piece Te Papa’s Lissa Mitchell — Collection Manager Art (Photography & New Media Art) — discusses Brake’s time at the NFU and his apprenticeship in “painting with light”.

Many thanks to Te Papa and Archives New Zealand, for their support in helping present this collection. Te Papa are the guardians of the Brake photographic collection, and Archives New Zealand are the custodians of the National Film Unit archive.

For the full listing of this story please follow this link: NZ on screen

The Hobbit dispute could mean other big budget films such The Lord of the Rings trilogy are no longer made in NZ, says a NZ actor and filmmaker.

Actor and filmmaker Luke Hawker says an industrial dispute that threatens to derail the production could hobble the entire New Zealand film industry.

“If Peter Jackson can’t get films done then what hope do I have?,” Mr Hawker said.

“The thing about New Zealand is we are such a small industry that we do a lot of things that aren’t standard. We work together to make films. That’s how we survive.

“A lot of actors are feeling misrepresented by a union that is putting our industry in jeopardy.”

NZ Actors’ Equity, with the support of Australia’s Media Entertainment Arts Alliance, advised its members not to accept work on The Hobbit until filmmakers entered into union-negotiated agreements with New Zealand actors.

Mr Harker has worked on big budget films such as Lord of the Rings and Avatar and made his own independent films.

Different pay rates for different levels of production is just part of being in the film industry, he says.

“There are a lot of insecurities to deal with as an actor. There is feast or famine.

“If you want a job that’s secure, become an accountant, become a lawyer. I didn’t get into films to make money. I got into it because I wanted to make movies. I started on $12 an hour. If you come into this business to make money you’re in the wrong business.”

NZ Actors’ Equity Union demands to standardise pay rates could cripple dozens of New Zealand films, he says.

“I made a low budget film and I couldn’t pay anyone. If that was a unionised production I couldn’t have made it.”

Electronics Model Maker Martin Jago was at an emotional meeting that ended with film technicians picketing outside a planned NZ Actors’ Equity meeting.

Some of the businesses he works with will have to close down if The Hobbitis shifted offshore, he says.

But he is convinced the damage done to the reputation of the New Zealand film industry is the greater concern.

“It’s not just about The Hobbit. It’s about the next five to 10 years. How are we going to attract another large budget film to New Zealand? If you have $500 million to invest, why would you take it somewhere unstable? The long range repercussions are quiet vast.

“People here love their jobs. They’re working for a lot less than they would get elsewhere. They’re going to have to look at either changing industry or try to get work in another country.”

He emigrated from England to make films in New Zealand.

That decision would not have come easily after the events of this week, he says.

“I came to New Zealand to be part of the film industry. New Zealand would not have been as attractive a place for me to come to as of yesterday.”

Story compiled by Hayden Donnell for the full story please follow this link:  NZ Herald

For related stories please folow these links:

Producers and union statements

Attempts to save Hobbitt films

Maisey Rika-Won the Best Maori Female Solo Artist at the awards in 2009

From the contemporary beat of urban hip-hop and rap to the traditional sound of kapa haka and show bands, Maori Television is proud to bring you the highly anticipated WAIATA MAORI AWARDS (MAORI MUSIC AWARDS) 2010.

The third annual awards show will be filmed live at the Hawke’s Bay Opera House in Hastings on September 10, to screen on Maori Television on Saturday, September 18 at 9.30 PM.

Co-hosted by Maori Television’s popular presenter Te Hamua Nikora and opera singer William Winitana, the WAIATA MAORI AWARDS recognise and celebrate the contribution of musicians and songwriters to both modern and traditional Maori music.

This year’s theme is `Te Koanga’, which reflects the new spring season, new life and new beginnings.

Executive director Tama Huata says this year’s awards will feature two new additions – the recognition of show bands and a new reggae category.

“The show bands are called the forgotten generation of Maori musicians and performers, so they are being featured this year and reggae is being featured for the first time as its own genre.”

The new reggae category is Best Maori Urban Roots Album – primarily for artists in the urban genre of reggae.

Other categories up for grabs include Best Maori Traditional Album and Best Maori Pop Album

Peter T- Nominee for Best Maori Urban RAP/Hip Hop/Rnb Album 2010

Mr Huata says it is important to have the awards because it provides a forum that Maori music has never had before.

“We’ve never honoured our composers and musicians and singers. They’ve normally had, like in the New Zealand Music Awards, only one category and every Maori had to go into that one category.”

The WAIATA MAORI AWARDS – which will be broadcast in a mixture of English and te reo – also stand out because they encompass both modern and traditional music.

“The commonality is music, whether it’s rap, hip-hop, or kapa haka,” says Huata.

“We have managed to bring everybody to the table at the same time. You’ve got the rappers and hip-hoppers sharing the same stage as our kapa haka type performers. It’s all Maori music celebrated as one event.”

Performance highlights include the Sons of Zion and Showband Aotearoa.

Last year, Nesian Mystik scooped up a range of awards including Best Maori Urban Artists; Best Maori Pop Artists; Best Maori Song; and Best Maori Songwriter.

Another new addition this year will be the appointment of a Waiata Maori Ambassador who will promote the event here and overseas. This year’s ambassador is well-known singer/songwriter, and previous WAIATA MAORI AWARDS recipient, Taisha.

Find out the winners and watch some amazing performances in the WAIATA MAORI AWARDS, screening on Maori Television on Saturday, September 18 at 9.30 PM.

Fur further information about nominees please folow this link: Nominees

Young Sid- Winner of Best M?ori Urban Artist 2008-Nominee for Best Maori Male Solo Artist 2010