Late last month I attended the 2016 Big Screen Symposium in Auckland. It was the second network-y thing I’ve done this year (ah yes, I neglected to mention I attended the 2016 PANNZ Arts Market in Wellington in March).
Cue shameless name-dropping as I saw:
- Alice, Fritha and Pippa from the guild;
- Leanne, Selina, Christina, Karin, Jasmin and Chris from the commish;
- the gentlemen behind the smash hit Three Wise Cousins;
- multiple Adam Award-winning playwright Maraea Rakuraku;
- Aaron, Ali and Arnette from PIFT and IIML;
- Louise and Katie from the Kingswood reading;
- and dined with Mr Reid, Mr Barr, and several other gentlemen whose names I neglected to write down (sorry, I had a beer in one hand and a naan in the other).
As for the speakers, highlights were:
- creative couple Cate Shortland (Somersault, The Slap) and Tony Krawitz (Devil’s Playground, The Kettering Incident) on writing and directing Australian television drama;
- Jonathon Raymond on screenwriting for Kelly Reichardt (Wendy and Lucy, Meek’s Cutoff) and Todd Haynes (Far From Heaven, Mildred Pierce); and
- producer and BSS keynote speaker Heather Rae (Frozen River) on decolonising the screen.
Nice work, all around.
