A new name and era for the New Zealand AIDS Foundation by Andrew Whiteside

It’s winter in New Zealand which means it is time for the annual Documentary Edge Festival. This year, it spans over 40 days both online and in cinemas in our three biggest cities. The online portion is already in progress, but the entire festival runs to the 10th of July 2022. To talk about the highlights with Andrew Whiteside is Alex Lee the festival director of Doc Edge.

Auckland Theatre Company has a new production opening this month called Scenes from a Yellow Peril: Scenarios for the Assimilated Asian. It was written by Nathan Joe, a Chinese kiwi playwright and is described as a political stream of consciousness. In this interview with Andrew Whiteside, Nathan explains why he wrote the play.

Keagan Carr Fransch is a Zimbabwean/New Zealand theatre director. In this interview with Andrew Whiteside, she talks about the exiting and somewhat full on play 'seven ways to kill kylie jenner' that opens this week in Auckland. The play was written by British playwright Jasmine Lee-Jones and debuted in London in 2019 and has subsequently been in seen many cities overseas, and has received some rave reviews.

2022 marks the 50th anniversary of the beginnings of the gay liberation movement in New Zealand. It was back in 1972 that the first groups of gay men and women got together to try and decriminalise gay male sex and discrimination against gay people. To commemorate that anniversary, kiwi author and historian Brent Coutts teamed up with artist George Hajian to create a very novel new book called 1972 - A Year in Focus. In this interview Andrew Whiteside talks to them both about the project and the stories behind it.

This month sees the launch of the Ukraine Film Festival in Auckland New Zealand. It is happening at The Vic theatre in the suburb of Devonport from the 29 May 2022.

It is being organised by Elena Stejko and Dasha Volga. Elena is an actress and acting coach who you may have seen in the kiwi vampire film What We Do in the Shadows. And Dasha is a filmmaker and actress.

I sat down with them to talk about the festival, and also, inevitably the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.

Tickets thevic.co.nz

This week sees the launch of a research study aimed at gathering robust and diverse data about safe sex practices and HIV transmission rates in Aotearoa/New Zealand. The reason for the study is because men who have sex with men are unable to donate blood unless they have abstained from sexual activity for three months.

To talk about this research with Andrew Whiteside is Dr Peter Saxton, Associate Professor of Public Health at Auckland University’s School of Population Health, Auckland University.

Now, just a quick a warning, there will be sexual references in this interview, so I am assuming if you are going to continue to listen that you are an adult, and that you are grown up enough not to be offended.

spots.org.nz

Ageing is something that all of us face in life, and as a species, we are living far longer than previous generations. But how do we deal with the challenges and changes that ageing brings. That is the central question posed by author Juliet Batten in her new book The Pomegranate Journal in which she shares snippets from her life over a period time. She shares the joy, but also the difficulties in getting older and offers a unique perspective on how to adjust to it. In this interview with me, Juliet shares her wisdom on ageing.

Here in New Zealand, a charity called InsideOUT Kōaro has officially released a series of guidelines and resources for schools aimed at helping them create policies and procedures that are inclusive of LGBTQI students.

To talk about the resources, the need for them, and the reactions to them, is Tabby Besley, managing director of InsideOUT Kōaro. 

https://www.insideout.org.nz/resources/

Auckland Theatre Company has just announced they are beginning a Youth Programme. The initiative is free, and will be a year long training and performance programme for aspiring actors, directors, designers and writers aged 16-25 who are looking to develop their craft.

Talking about the venture with Andrew Whiteside are Sam Phillips - Participation Coordinator for Auckland Theatre Company, and Gabby Solomona - who along with Sam is one of four leaders of the programme.

www.atc.co.nz/participation/youth-company