World Cinema Showcase Off To A Great Start

The World Cinema Showcase kicked off tonight in Auckland. In its 14th year, the Showcase has celebrated the films (and filmmakers) that sit firmly outside the mainstream. For me, it has always filled the tremendous gap between the New Zealand International Film Festival in July. Tonight I was grateful to attend the official launch party and opening night film, Our Idiot Brother.

These days it's even harder for our distributors to take risks on small films and give them a limited release in cinemas, but the Showcase provides a tight window of opportunity to see films the way they should be seen - on the big screen.

World Cinema Showcase launch | Director Bill Gosden (Top Right)

The Showcase director Bill Gosden pointed out candidly in his opening night speech that the Showcase "is a shared risk venture with the cinema and its hosts," this year our finest art-house cinemas share that risk to give us that thing dedicated cinema goers value the most: choice. He also urged us to "keep the Showcase flag flying" as this is often the only way to see the films in local cinemas. When a film like Margaret is on the line-up, I will fly that flag high.

With a perfectly formed line-up promising a blend of art-house and foreign features and documentaries that look at the worlds of art and music - it would be cliche to say "there's something for everyone" but that's quite literally true.

Among my picks are Miss Bala, the thriller about a Mexican beauty queen involved in a drug cartel, Beats, Rhymes and Life, the riveting documentary about hip-hop group A Tribe Called Quest, This is Not a Film, a film that proves that limitation truly does breed creativity, Paradise Lost 3, the Oscar nominated documentary that got three innocent men off death row.

Margaret, the masterpiece so grossly under seen it ignited a Twitter protest #teammargaret, Chico & Rita, Oscar nominated this year for the Best Animated Feature award, Coriolanus, Ralph Fiennes directorial debut and adaptation of the Shakespearean tragedy, and The Deep Blue Sea, the film adaptation of the Terence Rattigan play of the same name.

Paul Rudd was funny in opening night film, Our Idiot Brother

This year I am pleased to announce that I will cover the World Cinema Showcase in collaboration with View New Zealand. My coverage will take the form of a Showcase diary which I will update with capsule reviews of what I've seen at the Showcase.

Also, the plan is to record short conversations, using my iPhone, with Showcase goers. We will talk to the familiar faces, who frequent the Showcase every year, and talk about what they've seen.

You can find entries here on my movie blog and the View website.

The showcase will continue in Auckland at Rialto Newmarket and Bridgeway throughout April, and then around the country, in Wellington on April 5th, in Dunedin on April 19th, and finally, in Christchurch on April 26th.

For more information visit the World Cinema Showcase website.
www.worldcinemashowcase.co.nz