Standing Room Only

Wellington is playing host to one of the city's most important arts events this year - the contemporary indigenous arts festival Kia Mau. It's grown from its enthusiastic but smaller-scale beginnings eight years ago to an extraordinary collection of indigenous talent from all round the Pacific Rim. Aotearoa New Zealand, of course, but also Samoa, Tonga, Malaysia, Cambodia, Canada - even Africa. Simon Morris is joined by the founders of the Kia Mau Festival - two of this country's most distinguished and talented creatives - playwright Hone Kouka, and poet, producer and film-maker Miria George.

Joe Bennett's weekly column is a delight. In a media world dominated by opinion pieces, influencers, pompous "reckons' and trivial drivel, Joe seems happy to provide short , funny - often thoughtful - pieces to lighten our day. Or at least he did. Like so many South Island luminaries at the moment, he's succumbed to the urge to write a memoir. It's called From There to Here - a journey both figurative and literal, with a subplot he describes as "a long and fruitless struggle against teaching for a living". Joe Bennett looks back with Simon Morris.

Simon Morris talks to Martyn Roberts from Afterburner about the upcoming interactive theatre production Dark Radio for NZ Fringe Festival 2023

Even a three-volume autobiography doesn't come close to telling the full story of poet Lauris Edmond OBE. So her daughter and literary executor, Frances Edmond, is filling in the gaps in a biography called Always Going Home. This includes assessing in depth the death of another of Lauris's daughters, Rachel, left emotionally damaged by a childhood assault, and its impact on the whanau. Lauris didn't publish her first poetry collection until she was 51. Ten more followed, plus the autobiography, a novel, dramas written for radio and theatre and her work as an editor. She was 75 when she died in 2000. Frances published Night Burns with a White Fire: The Essential Lauris Edmond with co-editor Sue Fitchett in 2017 - but, as she tells Lynn Freeman, Always Going Home is very much the personal story of a mother and daughter, both writers with strong personalities. Frances Edmond's Always Going Home is published by Otago University Press.

In the final episode of Standing Room Only, host Lynn Freeman chats to Catriona MacLeod about her five decades at RNZ.

Visual effects art director, Dylan Coburn has drawn storyboards for some of the biggest recent New Zealand projects - Rings of Power, Cowboy Bebop - even Dame Valerie Adams More Than Gold... It's an important job - not just artistically, but also budget-wise. A good storyboard can save literally millions of dollars on a shoot. But Dylan's latest project uses his drawing skills for something entirely different - to help young readers to learn how to count. Boingo and the Golden Balloon sees a young rabbit chasing his favourite object in the world through a forest, with all kinds of critters giving him directions along the way. Lynn Freeman talks with Dylan about his career switch. Boingo and the Golden Balloon by Dylan Coburn is published by Action Junior Limited.

The often heartbreaking story of the extended family of three Jewish Second World War refugees who found a new home in Aotearoa is told in a new poetry collection, We came from Hamburg. Retired judge Vivienne Ullrich became fascinated by her husband's family tree, which suddenly expanded when they received an email from relatives living in America. There was the ongoing mystery of Erna who abandoned her three daughters and disappeared in 1920. Meanwhile Wally, her son Eric and eventually her daughter Liesl came to New Zealand from England, to join Wally's second husband Walter. Vivienne's husband Philip, is the late Liesel's son. Lynn Freeman talks to Vivienne about her exotic in-laws. We came from Hamburg by Vivienne Ullrich is published by the Cuba Press.

Writer Susy Pointon is determined to capture the many stories of Northland's rugged and mysterious Hokianga, her adopted home. Since moving there 18 years ago, she's talked to locals to record their memories on tape and in writing. The first two books in her Hokianga series were fictionalised short stories based on actual people and events. Number three however, Ferry Stories of the Hokianga: Nga korero o Hokianga mai I te waka, is more of a hybrid, with locals contributing their own stories which sit alongside Susy's fiction. Lynn Freeman asks Susy for some highlights.

This year marked a first at Cannes - both the winning films came from the same country, South Korea, Decision to leave and Broker. But South Korea has been making its presence felt across the board recently - the Oscar winning Parasite, TV sensations like Snowpiercer and The Squid Game, hugely popular romcoms and action flicks on Netflix, not to mention the K Pop phenomenon. Right now the biggest bands in the world are Korean boy bands like BTS and girl groups like Blackpink. The first time Korean films crossed Simon Morris's path, they seemed to belong firmly in the "genre" area - monster movies, brutal crime stories, martial arts. But suddenly they're bigger than that - far bigger. It's like the Golden Age of Hollywood in the Thirties and Forties. So what's Korea's secret? Simon talks with Michael Stephens, longtime chair of the Korean Cinerama Trust, and also crack screenwriter Nick Ward, a regular on the Seoul Screenplay Development Support Programme.

The fashion industry is notoriously wasteful - for instance, cheap clothing that lasts months rather than years before ending up in landfills. But an expat now based in the US is leading by example, buying up unwanted garments made from quality fabrics and materials. She then unpicks and reworks them into high fashion clothes for the catwalk. Esther Lofely and her husband Robert Catalusci work together on her label, ELC. For well over a decade she worked for the Royal New Zealand Ballet company, and was Head Draper when she left in 2019 to work overseas before settling in Virginia. Lynn Freeman asks Esther why she become interested in creating garments from clothing destined for the tip.