'Political neutrality' has never been more dead
Hi! It's been months since I've written anything outside of my day job. I've had a lot going on this year and, if to be honest, I've gotten rusty. I feel like I've retired to a cabin upstate where I
Downstream from Nowhere is back in stock!
Kia ora koutou Arohamai for the extended radio silence, 2026 has been a busy year for me. Unfortunately, that busy-ness hasn't involved much (creative) writing but has rather been a mixture of my full-time job, governance and activism. This has involved the incredibly dispiriting experience of
The 25 films I loved the most in 2025
For me, those unmoored days between Christmas and New Year are for catching up on as many as possible of the year's films. As someone at the mercy of New Zealand release dates, it is often an exercise in arbitrariness to decide on a year to which a
They made the biggest film of all time around the corner from my place
It brings me no pleasure to announce that Unesco City of Film Wellington has once again become the centre of the world with Avatar: Fire and Ash premiering in the Greater Mount Victoria area (i.e. my turf) last week. This is the third entry in new New Zealand citizen
Seriously though, won't someone PLEASE think of the children
Content warning: this article discusses child abuse, in real life and as a theme in art. It also contains spoilers for a number of recent films: Eddington, Bugonia, Nickel Boys, Weapons, Bring Her Back and 28 Years Later. I used to think there was something gauche and unserious about accusing
What does this week's MFAT proactive release tell us?
On 27 September, Foreign Minister Winston Peters announced at the United Nations General Assembly that his government would not recognise a Palestinian State. The announcement received universal condemnation from anyone with a conscience, even if recognition is a mostly symbolic gesture, completely deficient by itself to respond to the greatest
Trouble in paradise? What is going on in New Zealand's largest Pākehā political party?
For the last couple of years, there's been one question on the minds of New Zealand politics watchers: can the Pākehā political movement survive Chris Hipkins? As someone with lived experience in Te Ao Pākehā, I'd like to unpack this question. To an outsider looking in,
The Activist Canon: Preparing for the battle that comes after One Battle After Another
This is the fourth entry in my ongoing series on films about organising and how they can help us make sense of the challenges of activism. My own experience organising is one of constant learning (I'm not claiming to be any kind of expert!) but I find cinema
One for them One for Me in October
Kia ora koutou Quick update from me! Much like Sir Mix-a-Lot, Spring is well and truly sprung. When the kōwhai start blooming and the clocks go forward one hour, that's a sign I have to pull the blinds and chuck on a bunch of scary movies
So we're doing jokes now?
Uh, yeah, I think we're doing jokes now! Subscribe if you haven't already This year I've been taken-aback by the quantity and quality of movies I've seen in cinemas that are genuinely funny. Your mileage may vary on individual films (I&
British history as an eternal series of Mr. Beans
The first confirmed appearance of the archetype who would go on to be known as Mr. Bean can be found in the Bayeux Tapestry. When analysing the medieval document of the 1066 Battle of Hastings, historians have traditionally focused on characters like William the Conqueror and Harold Godwinson, 'Great
My first post on Ghost
Originally written for Substack. We’ve all been there. Like so many tech companies before it, Substack has reached the Nazi phase of its life cycle. I won’t belabour the point, David Farrier’s explanation for leaving the site lays it out better than I could. Like him, I’