Diane Hume-Green shares her comments about two interesting documentary films she has recently seen at Tauranga’s Rialto Theatre.
TED 2016.: Conference, Vancouver,Canada. The first session of the Conference with the theme Dream was shown at the Rialto in Tauranga and around New Zealand.
One of the organisers of TED, Chris Anderson, introduced the speakers and entertainers. From a young Indian girl to one of the most powerful women in American television, plus entertainment, it had it all.
Ten year old Ishita Katyal had poise and wisdom well beyond her years. She challenged parents to let children discover playing and not put their fears onto their children. She said children can cope with more than adults think they can. She wrote a book when she was eight years old and has hosted a Ted Youth event.
Riccardo Sabatini had cartons of books wheeled onto the stage to help explain the work of DNA expert, Craig Venter. Riccardo used great graphics in a simplistic style to help explain this complex subject and his sense of humour won us over, as well as his Italian accent. All the books contain the human DNA codes and it is only one or two genes that make us all different. Now the human DNA is coded it will be interesting to see how this information and technology will impact on our lives. Fascinating stuff.
Shonda Rhimes talk was excellent. I sent a text to my daughter who is studying at Otago University to say my two favourites were genome guy and Shonda Rhimes and she had just got back from watching the same event. They were both her favourites as well which proved maybe I finally know her after 21 years. Maybe!
Shonda is the award-winning writer and producer of shows such as Grey’s Anatomy, How to get away with Murder and Scandal to name a few. Her work load, mother of 2 children, marriage and divorce adds up to work/life juggling on a giant scale. During all of this Shonda felt she had lost her hum, the hum that makes you want to go to work and enjoy it and interact with family and friends after work as well. So she decided to say yes for a year and found her hum and so much more, including having fun with her children. She doesn’t like playing, she likes working, so this was a revelation to her to enjoy the simple things in life and leave her cellphone at arm’s length.
Super nerd, Astro Teller who calls his workplace, the ‘moonshot factory’ where they investigate and try to solve seemingly impossible tasks such as how to get internet connectivity to four billion people. These people who through lack of money, resources and location can’t access it are going to be connected using balloons, yes giant balloons. You need people like Astro who only see possibilities in problems.
Dan Pattello wants us all to dream boldly to unite humanity. He said the non for profit and for profit sectors need to unite and challenged our thinking of giving and begging. He has created many multi-day charity events.
Entertainment was from two totally different performers. A. R. Rahman is an award-winning musician from India who wrote the score to Slumdog Millionaire. He was on stage with his band and an array of unusual instruments to accompany his keyboard playing. The vocals were haunting and the style of music is called a raga.
Bill T. Jones is a dancer and performer. He is a black man, and he is in his 60’s. He told the story of his life through a series of movements and was accompanied by acoustic guitar playing. It was beautiful, ugly, painful, thought-provoking and more. Very powerful solo performance.
Tauranga TEDx is being held at ASB Arena on August 20th 2016. Tickets from Eventfinda or more info at www.taurangatedx.com
Architectural Movie night at the Rialto
Making Spaces – 5 Women Changing The Face Of Architecture
A documentary featuring five female architects from around the world, showcasing some of their work and interviews with them about their businesses and working in a male dominated field. The interviews with the women were unscripted and the style of the documentary is interesting with great shots of architecture and landscapes shown as well.
Annabelle Selldorf from New York is a woman who’s projects are as diverse as an apartment block with an internal car elevator to a recycling plant.
Farshid Moussarvi is an Iranian born architect who works in London. She has also designed the Museum of Contemporary Art in Cleveland Ohio and talked about leaving Iran for the environment in London where she found success.
Odile Pecq from Paris is a woman with a unique goth rock star style. She talked about working in the male environment where she just got on with it. She has designed museums for contemporary art and the restaurant at the Paris Opera House.
Marianne McKenna from Toronto designed the famed Royal Conservatory of Music. She has been an architect for a long time but was still emotional talking about taking her baby to work and the guilt she felt for still wanting to work.
Kathryn Gustafson who has offices in both Seattle and London is a landscape designer. She designed the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain which was controversial at the time and the Millenium Garden in Chicago.
You can watch this documentary on You Tube. All the women featured had a high work ethic and determination to succeed.
Diane Hume-Green: Writer Diane Hume-Green is regular contributor to ARTbop through her column Scene about Town, She is also a lead interviewer/conversationalist on The ARTbopSHOW. Diane is a member of Tauranga Writers and the local TedX organising group. She is the eldest daughter of an established Tauranga music, business and creative family. Diane recounts family stories of her attendance at Tauranga Jazz Club events in her carrycot. With her background in fabric, fashion, interior and architectural design, her continuing participation in a broad spectrum of arts and creativity and her attendance at a wide range of performance, social and community activities, Diane’s contributions are an interesting and readable insight into current Tauranga.
