STACK NZ Jan-Feb #59

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In the wake of The Interview controversy, a newAustralian documentary offers a funny and fascinating insight into the North Korean film business. north korea on screen

T he James Franco/Seth Rogen

far more welcoming for her new project Aim High In Creation , which is released in February on DVD. Determined to stop a new fracking mine near her Sydney home, she travels to North Korea to learn from the masters of propaganda cinema. The government gave her access to the country’s top directors, composers and movie stars, who teach her

comedy The Interview , which was originally pulled from its US theatrical

release after Sony came under sustained cyber-attack, will open in New Zealand cinemas on February 19, with a DVD release to follow towards the middle of the year. The film tells the story of two inept TV journalists who gain an exclusive interview with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un

Aim High In Creation

Spielberg, upgrading the dour propaganda films he hated by adapting western film genres and techniques.” On returning to Sydney, she sets out to produce a didactic socialist melodrama , full of song and kick-ass fights, in which “heroic workers” rise up to defeat the “evil, gas-fracking miners.” The result is a intriguing doco-comedy about a side of North Korean society rarely seen before.

the techniques outlined by the late Kim Jong-Il in his manifesto The Cinema and Directing . “Kim Jong Il was passionate about movies – in particular Hollywood ones,”

and are recruited by the CIA to assassinate him. While The Interview clearly did not go down

well with the North Korean authorities, Australian documentary filmmaker Anna

Broinowski says. “As ‘Creative Commander’ of North Korea’s film industry, he restyled himself as an Eastern Bloc

Broinowski found them

Aim High In Creation is out on DVD this month.

The Interview

Bob Dylan as Ol’ Blue Eyes? Believe it or not, that’s the theme of Shadows in the Night the new album from the legendary singer-songwriter out on February 6. The 10-track LP consists mainly of American standard popularised by Sinatra, although Dylan looks to have gone for a much more stripped down approach. “It was all done live, maybe one or two takes,” he says. “No overdubbing. No vocal booths. No headphones. No separate tracking, and, for the most part, mixed as it was recorded. “I don’t see myself as covering these songs in any way. They’ve been covered enough. What me and my band are basically doing is uncovering them. Lifting them out of the grave and bringing them into the light of day.” DYLAN TACKLES THE STANDARDS

It’s shaping up to be a big year for MilesTeller, whose latest movie Whiplash arrives on DVD and Blu-ray on February 25. As well as reuniting with ShaileneWoodley for the Divergent sequel Insurgent – due to open in cinemas in March –Teller will also star as Mr Fantastic in the reboot of the Marvel super-heroes The Fantastic Four . Directed by JoshTrank ( Chronicle ) and co-starring Kate Mara, Jamie Bell; and Michael B Jordan, is due in cinemas in August. As well as Whiplash – in whichTeller plays a promising young jazz drummer who joins a cut- throat music conservatory – this monthTeller can also be seen opposite AnaleighTipton ( Warm Bodies ) in the quirky rom-com Two Night Stand, which is out on DVD and Blu-ray on February 18.

SUMMER EDITION 2015 JB Hi-Fi www.jbhifi.co.nz

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