TO CELEBRATE ALLEN CURNOW’S ANNIVERSARY

June this year marks the 100^th anniversary of the birth of the great New Zealand poet Allen Curnow. To mark the occasion, there will be a special benefit film screening of “Early Days Yet” (the feature-length documentary about Curnow which director Shirley Horrocks completed in 2001 during the last year of the poet’s life).

The event will happen at the Bridgeway Cinema, Northcote,

on Thursday June 16^th.  The screening will start at 8pm,
but there will be wine and a speech or two from 7.15pm.
This is a charity event and all proceeds will go to the
Cancer Society of New Zealand.
Tickets are $35 per person (which includes a glass of wine).

 Allen Curnow (portrait above by Marti Friedlander) was one of the most original of all New Zealand  writers, and his influence on our culture is incalculable.

With a memorable personality and a lifetime commitment to literature, he richly deserves to be remembered and honoured, and it is timely that this special event has been organized.

To pre-book or for further information, contact:  lanirain@yahoo.co.nz

The film (“Early Days Yet”) is a very engaging, in-depth record
 of Curnow’s life and work, the only profile of the poet.
It was screened by the International Film Festival, by TV One,
and by the ABC in Australia. It has received many glowing
reviews such as these:
 

Diana Wichtel, “Late, Great,” in The Listener:

“Shirley Horrocks’s lovely documentary about poet Allen Curnow
[is] a portrait of our greatest poet, at an astonishingly sprightly
and acute 90 years of age.”
 

Bill Manhire on The Kim Hill Show on Radio NZ:

“A wonderful, wonderful documentary about Allen Curnow,
filmed over a period of two to three years.”
 

Ali Bell, “Documentary Review,” Women in Film and Television

Newsletter: “A visual and verbal feast…and a stunning record
of a valuable poet’s words.”
 

Greg Dixon, “Comfortingly Ordinary Life of an Extraordinary Man,”

NZ Herald: “A rich and wonderful portrait of Curnow…who
explains a life, his life, in a way few can.”