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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast

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Speaker 1: from news Talks at b.

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Speaker 2: Quenqua. Thank you for your messages this morning. Calder Jack

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Speaker 2: not only was moo and absolute beats maestrone all round

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Speaker 2: nice guy, he also played great golf in tennis, says

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Speaker 2: John from Middemar. Thanks John ninety two ninety two if

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Speaker 2: you want to send us a message this morning, It's

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Speaker 2: time to get your film picks for this weekend. Francesca

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Speaker 2: Rudkin is our movie reviewers. She's here with us now Kilda.

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Speaker 2: We're going to start off with one of the top

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Speaker 2: hits at the New Zealand International Film Festival this year.

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Speaker 2: Have a listen to this. This is Grace a Prayer

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Speaker 2: for Peace.

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Speaker 3: I think the paintings are a bit like us human beings.

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Speaker 3: We're born with what we have and we have to

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Speaker 3: head out into the world with it and make the

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Speaker 3: most of it, you know, and that's our life.

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Speaker 2: This is a documentary about New Zealand artist Robin White,

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Speaker 2: So tell us about Grace A Prayer for Peace.

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Speaker 4: Yes, one of our greatest living artists, printmaker and beautiful

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Speaker 4: painter as well. This documentary is always a bit like

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Speaker 4: a collaboration. You could stay between Dame Robin White and

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Speaker 4: one of our greatest documentary makers, Dame Gayleen Preston, and

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Speaker 4: Gailien follows Robin for a couple of years shooting this film,

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Speaker 4: and she's created something I think that's really special. Robin

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Speaker 4: White has an expansive body of work and an incredible career,

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Speaker 4: but I think this isn't a biopical trying to put

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Speaker 4: it all into place. It's a real glimpse of the

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Speaker 4: artist at work. So there's a couple of things happening

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Speaker 4: in this documentary. First of all, Robin White takes us

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Speaker 4: around the Something is Happening retrospective exhibition of hers and

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Speaker 4: she talks to us about the works, and it's a

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Speaker 4: real treat to hear hear her talk about the relationship

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Speaker 4: between art and audience. We get this personal tour and

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Speaker 4: insight into her work. So there's this and she's and

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Speaker 4: at times Gayleen is also sort of heard and on screen,

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Speaker 4: and it feels like you're having this very personal tour

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Speaker 4: yourself with the artists learning about her work. But for

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Speaker 4: the majority of this film, Robin, we follow Robin going

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Speaker 4: about her work, and this too is such a great

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Speaker 4: treat with Gallen sort of focused on two aspects of

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Speaker 4: her recent career, when she's been in Japan where she

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Speaker 4: did a residency, and also when she went to Cure

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Speaker 4: of Us and she lived there a long time ago,

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Speaker 4: and twenty years later, she finally decides to execute this

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Speaker 4: work which has been in her mind for all this time.

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Speaker 4: So we watch her going about this process, we watch

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Speaker 4: her create these works, and it's really wonderful to hear

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Speaker 4: what inspires her work, what she wants to convey, her motives,

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Speaker 4: the methods and the material girls she uses, how she

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Speaker 4: conceives the work then composes it. I found it absolutely

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Speaker 4: fascinating and I I, you know, Robin White has this

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Speaker 4: created this incredible legacy, and I think this film reminds

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Speaker 4: us about the importance of capturing the meaning behind her

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Speaker 4: significant works and learning from them from the artists themselves.

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Speaker 4: You know, it's I think, I think Gailen's just given

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Speaker 4: us this u this very special, moving, thought provoking film

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Speaker 4: here that elevates the experience of you know, seeing her

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Speaker 4: works and understanding the way she does it. And she's

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Speaker 4: done a really great job of filming the works as well,

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Speaker 4: because nothing beats seeing a piece of art in front

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Speaker 4: of you in person, right, But she comes very very

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Speaker 4: close here. She's done a really great job of filming

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Speaker 4: some especially some of Robin massive canvases, like you know,

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Speaker 4: I almost I felt the power of them through the screen.

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Speaker 4: I think this is going to be stunning to see

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Speaker 4: on the big screen. It really is a very special film.

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Speaker 2: I can't wait to see it. I love Robin White's work.

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Speaker 2: Did you see a couple of years ago, it was

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Speaker 2: probably eighteen months or so ago the Auckland Ark Gallery

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Speaker 2: had that incredible Robin White.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, and that's what she yes, that's what she takes

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Speaker 4: us around, right, So that's part of it, and I

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Speaker 4: love that it is likely in your own little to it.

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Speaker 4: But what I really loved was seeing her working and action.

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Speaker 2: Thing.

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Speaker 4: So this is screening at the New Zealand International Film Festival.

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Speaker 4: It's getting off on the thirty first of July. It's

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Speaker 4: running through the tenth of September around the whole country,

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Speaker 4: one hundred plus films, lots to choose from. What is

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Speaker 4: quite lovely though, is that this year they're also screaming

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Speaker 4: war stories our mother's never told us. And this is

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Speaker 4: a treasure. This is in the treasure section because this

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Speaker 4: is I think about thirty years old. This was also

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Speaker 4: directed and producers by Gaining Preston, so it's quite lovely. Yes,

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Speaker 4: it was released in nineteen ninety five, so it's quite lovely.

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Speaker 4: We have one of her classic treasures in the film festival,

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Speaker 4: and we also have one of her most recent works

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Speaker 4: in the film, which kind of special.

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Speaker 2: They are so good, Okay, cool, So the film is

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Speaker 2: Grace A Prayer for Peace. Next up, this is a

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Speaker 2: film showing in Cinema. Cinema is not at the International

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Speaker 2: Film Festival. It is a universal language.

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Speaker 4: So I thought that maybe if you don't want to

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Speaker 4: wait for the film Festival, you would like to see

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Speaker 4: a nutty, sweet, little absurdist art house film. This might

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Speaker 4: want to about this is It's absolutely delightful. It's a

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Speaker 4: Canadian film, but it's in French and Farcy. It's kind

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Speaker 4: of like this cross cultural absurdist comedy comedy. It's written

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Speaker 4: and directed by Matthew Rankin, so it's inspired by Iranian

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Speaker 4: films and lassie seems to be very very common in

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Speaker 4: the setting of Winnipeg, and it's got a touch of

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Speaker 4: Wiz Anderson styling to it and we meet a range

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Speaker 4: of seemingly random people going about their lives. Two school

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Speaker 4: kids trying to get a large bill out of some

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Speaker 4: frozen ice, this insane teacher who's struggling with his students,

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Speaker 4: the civil servant from Quebec come to see his mother.

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Speaker 4: A tour guy that takes people on the tour of

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Speaker 4: the most sort of underrated things you could ever imagine,

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Speaker 4: like a briefcase that has been sitting on a seat

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Speaker 4: since nineteen eighty seven. It is really quirky and weird

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Speaker 4: and strangely compelling, and all these people kind of come

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Speaker 4: together at the end. The styling's great. It's there's sort

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Speaker 4: of these gray, beige brown districts. There's lots of concrete

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Speaker 4: and brick, and then there's just these crazy bursts of

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Speaker 4: sort of color and quirky kind of eighties costumes, and

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Speaker 4: it's just it's you're sitting going this shouldn't make sense,

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Speaker 4: and this shouldn't pull me in, but it absolutely does.

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Speaker 4: It's the sort of surreal realm, and it's funny and odd,

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Speaker 4: and you do need to be a discerning film goer.

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Speaker 4: It is not for everybody, but take a look at

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Speaker 4: the trainers and see if it's for you. I really

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Speaker 4: enjoyed its good.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, cool. So that's universal language that's showing in

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Speaker 2: cinemas now. Grace A Prayer for Peace. The documentary about

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Speaker 2: artist Robin White is showing at the International Film Festival.

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Speaker 2: Thanks so much, Francesca. You have a great weekend and

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Speaker 2: we will catch you so we'll make sure those films

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Speaker 2: are up on the news talks. He'd be website as well.

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Speaker 2: I'll tell you what Robert like I say, we're big

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Speaker 2: fans of Robin White in our household, and I'll let

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Speaker 2: you in on a little bit of a romantic story.

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Speaker 2: When my wife and I were engaged, I was looking

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Speaker 2: for something kind of special along with the along with

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Speaker 2: the ring, of course, to ask for her hand in marriage.

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Speaker 2: And I end up getting a little Robin White original,

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Speaker 2: just a small one, just a little humble one, very

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Speaker 2: small to put on our walls. So we are very

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Speaker 2: lucky to have. It's like it's like, you know, like

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Speaker 2: the size of a postcard and is like far and

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Speaker 2: away our most kind of treasured artwork at home. So

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Speaker 2: I know what you're thinking, Yes, missus, Tame is very lucky. Indeed.

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Speaker 1: For more from Saturday Morning, with Jack Tame. Listen live

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Speaker 1: to news talks he'd be from nine am Saturday, or

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