Here is a calendar of upcoming events, up and down the country. Some are organized by us, others by like-minded organizations and groups.
We are pleased to welcome author, Lynley Smith to address the Society on December 1.
After finding a tenuous family connection to the mysterious and captivating Jane Haining, Lynley Smith crafted Jane’s fictionalized diary, a biography of a faithful servant and Scottish missionary who died at the hands of Nazi butchers in Auschwitz Concentration Camp during World War II, in the inspirational and bittersweet From Matron to Martyr.
One of Jane Haining’s best friends was Frances Warburton Lee, who ended up in the same prison cell as Jane in Budapest. Frances moved to Christchurch after the war and settled in Christchurch.
Jane’s story has had moved the hearts of many. In December she will be speaking at the Holocaust Centre for New Zealand in Wellington. The second largest publisher in Hungary has agreed to translate and publish the story, and sell it in their numerous bookshops throughout Hungary. The Budapest Holocaust Centre also plans to launch the book in June next year.
AS HANUKKAH ALSO STARTS AT THE SAME TIME, PLEASE BRING ALONG A PLATE OF APPROPRIATE FINGER FOOD TO MARK THE OCCASION
If you’ve not heard of Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin, you’ll wonder how that could have been once you’ve seen what he does in this film. For dance aficionados, this is surely the most anticipated artist portrait since Wim Wenders’ Pina.
“A spectacular and celebratory investigation of a modern dancer’s creative process, this documentary tracks the four decades-long career of renowned choreographer Ohad Naharin, the artistic director of Israel’s Batsheva Dance Company. Thoughtfully and painstakingly researched, the film is packed with visually arresting archival footage from every stage of Naharin’s professional (and personal) life…
Choreographed pieces move in kinetic bursts from the rehearsal studio to the stage and, in interviews, dancers who’ve worked with him and colleagues from different periods offer insights in terms both admiring and blunt. Naharin is similarly expressive – about… the joys of physical expression, his struggles to convey his vision to those tasked with embodying it and the dance-world backdrop against which he developed his singular choreographic style and movement language, known as Gaga.
Heymann, a veteran documentarian whose filmography includes an earlier work about Naharin, skillfully constructs a portrait from these elements, methodically adding layers and sometimes revisiting previously seen footage, arming the viewer with new revelations and a more complicated understanding.” — Lynn Rapoport, San Francisco International Film Festival