Culture

Director Catherine Hardwicke New Line Cinema 2006 PG Every year around this time I am besieged by RE teachers in our state schools looking for resources they might use to communicate the story of Jesus’ birth effectively. With the release of The Nativity Story I think those RE teachers might just have hit the jackpot. Starring Keisha (Whale Rider) Castle-Hughes ...

Miramax Films. Running time: 103 minutes. Rating: M (Infrequent moderate coarse language) Before we had celebrities to observe, I suppose our attentions were drawn to members of the royal family. Unlike most celebrities, however, the British Royal Family has real power and enduring appeal to their admirers throughout the Commonwealth. "The Queen", a new film by Stephen Frears, features this ...

Polebridge Press 2006 RRP $18.00 Available from http://www.westarinstitute.org/Polebridge/Title/GodProblem/godproblem.html I guess there is in any kind of religious awakening a great sense of discovery. It’s like seeing a rare and beautiful bird in the forest for the very first time. Perhaps I discovered this bird. Surely no one else has ever seen this fantastic creature or I would have heard about ...

One Day Hill Publishers RRP $24.50 including postage This is a moving account of how a young man grows up in rural Tasmania and copes with the terrors of a Japanese prisoner of war camp during World War Two. Arch Flanagan has used simple words and subtle emotion to describe virtues of friendship, endurance and courage. His powers of expression are ...

IPS Publications- University of the South PacificRRP $30 which includes postage When Ted Freeman sailed to the New Hebrides, now Vanuatu, to assume the responsibility of Superintendent of the Paton Memorial Hospital on the island of Iririki, he little knew he was to become a legend, and that he and his family would become part of the folklore of the ...

Documentary film Rated PG The movie An Inconvenient Truth, directed by Davis Guggenheim, is a 97 minute documentary based upon a lecture that one time US presidential candidate Al Gore has given over one thousand times in recent years around the globe. It is an eclectic mix of science, pseudo-science, personal anecdote, political reminiscences and posturing, graphic and humorous examples ...

By Michael Duncan Urban Neighbours of Hope RRP: $22   What is it to be real? Radical, enthusiastic, alive, living. These words describe the story in this small book from Michael Duncan. Duncan, a lecturer at Carey Baptist College in Auckland, reminds me of some people I know (too few sadly and I wish I were one of them). Honestly ...

Macmillian AustraliaRRP: $32.95 This powerful and unforgettable autobiography of a convicted armed robber and serial prison escapee is not for the faint hearted. Intractable is the story of Bernie Matthews from reform schools to award-winning journalist and doesn’t claim to be a balanced view of the harshest of the New South Wales and Queensland prisons. This is an ex-prisoner telling ...

Rated M Jindabyne is another brilliantly gripping film from director Ray Lawrence (Bliss and Lantana). Based on a short story by Raymond Carver, every detail of this film was crafted with precision and poise. Set in small town New South Wales, Jindabyne follows four friends on their annual men’s fishing weekend. On their first day, they find the naked and ...

Directed by Daniel Lapaine Buena Vista International Rated M Fastest selling film at the 15th International Film Festival in Brisbane in August, 48 Shades has since received neither critical acclaim nor box office success. I struggled to find a showing and was pleased to see it. The film is a faithful rendition of Brisbane author Nick Earls’ award winning coming-of-age ...