Arts Friday – Sydney Film Festival Interviews

by Justine 

Justine Poon and Maren Smith are filling in for Chris Horsey today and bringing you a documentary-focused edition including interviews with two of this years Sydney Film Festival guests.

The show will present interviews from two of this years Sydney Film Festival’s international guests: Stephen Maing and Pietra Brettkelly, as well as Justine’s review of ‘High Tech, Low Life’.

High Tech, Low Life

Zola in a still from 'High Tech, Low Life'

Screens at the Sydney Film Festival on Saturday 9th June 2.15pm at Event Cinemas George St. Tickets can be purchased at the SFF website.

Zola is 27 years old and used to sell vegetables from a cart attached to his scooter. Then he discovered the Internet and began to ride around the country looking for stories to tell on his blog. Tiger Temple is 57 and part of the Lost Generation of Chinese people who were unable to go to university due to the Cultural Revolution, now riding his bicycle around the rural parts of China, blogging on the stories that the media doesn’t see fit to report and helping the downtrodden where he can. Together they present a fascinating picture of the Internet landscape in China, a place where citizens hungry for information are negotiating the tricky path to transparency in a country notoriously guarded about its image and the control over information.

Tiger Temple in a still from 'High Tech, Low Life'

Director of 'High Tech, Low Life' Steve Maing

Maori Boy Genius

Ngaa Rauuira Pumanawawhiti in 'Maori Boy Genius'

Screens at the Sydney Film Festival on Saturday June 9th at 6.45pm, and Sunday June 10th at 12.15pm, at Event Cinemas George St. Tickets can be purchased at the SFF website. 

Born under the sign of the double rainbow and displaying great intelligence and political consciousness from a young age, 16-year old Maori Ngaa Rauuira Pumanawawhiti is destined for great things and slated as a future leader of the Maori people and New Zealand. Having obtained his first university diploma at the age of 13 and frustrated at being halted from studying further, he enrols in Yale’s School of Politics. This film follows the journey of this charismatic and ambitious young man, with the weight of the expectations of his family and tribe on his shoulders, as his engagement in politics moves beyond his passion for his culture and for books and into action.

Ngaa Rauuira (centre) performing the Haka

Director Pietra Brettkelly