This time last year I was in London. I just looked through one day's worth of photos and found this photo from a school in Notting Hill. I took so many photos and I haven't really looked at them since. I'm still glad I took them though. It's so strange, it feels like such a long time ago.
Anyway, what have I been doing for the past few weeks? Basically, going to the movies. Last year I was away for the NZ International Film Festival, so I more than made up for it this year. I saw ten films altogether:
Wish You Were Here - Australian babes. Holiday in Cambodia goes very wrong.
How To Meet Girls From A Distance - Dean and Richard (and a whole lot of other hard working people) won the Make My Movie competition and got $100,000 to make a feature film. They didn't have a lot of time. It is very funny and well made. All the harbour and Mt Vic scenes made my heart swell for Wellington. It helped that it was a beautiful Sunday the day of the first ever screening, so we came outside and it was like we lived in that amazing sunny city of the movie.
The Imposter - A literally unbelievable documentary. In a very good way.
Tabu - I don't understand why the first part set in the present day had to be so long. I liked the scenery of the part set in what must have been the 1950s in Africa. The love story wasn't the grand romance I thought it was going to be.
Your Sister's Sister - So much better than your 'average' American romantic comedy. Not perfect. I really liked Rosemarie DeWitt. And the main guy.
Bernadette: Notes on a Political Journey - A documentary about the pretty amazing Bernadette Devlin who became an MP in Ireland in 1969 at 21 and has spent her life campaigning for social justice. Because I'm nosey I wish it revealed more about her personal life, as it was purely focussed on her upbringing and political life.
Last Days Here - Don't become a junkie. Even if your early heavy metal career never amounted to much. You will live in your parents sub-basement and think larvae are living in your skin. Pretty depressing. Even though it has a 'happy' ending.
How Far is Heaven - Hiruharama is beautiful and so is this documentary. The Sisters of Compassion teach a pretty good lesson about compassion and patience. The children who live in the settlement with their families have such a different upbringing from the one I had yet we live in the same country. I hope lots of New Zealanders watch this documentary. Especially politicians.
Searching for Sugar Man - By far my favourite film of the ten I saw. The less you know about it, the better. Holy Motors - One of the strangest films I have ever seen. But I liked it. I was glad it had a sense of humour, because otherwise it would have been very, very wanky.
If anything, this festival reaffirmed my love of documentaries. There are a couple I wanted to see that I didn't get to, so hopefully they come back or I can find them on DVD.
Wellington On A Plate has started. On Saturday night I had the $35 set dinner menu at The Hop Garden. We were lucky to get in actually, being the first night of WOAP everywhere that was participating seemed really busy. The food was very, very good. I am excited to try some other new places and maybe finally achieve my degustation dream...
In floral news, here are two photos I took over the last two weeks. A beautiful big magnolia tree on my way to work, and the my new tradition of weekly flowers at work.
Fact for the future: Irises are beautiful but they don't last long in an air conditioned office.
I'll be back in less than two weeks. I promise.
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