Farewell February: we hardly knew you, but you were soggy and not much fun.

Sadly, the impact of February will be with us for years to come but, since there's absolutely nothing I can do about it, let's look determinedly forward.

I've decided to write a bit each week about the Jazz Festival – celebrating its 60th anniversary this year with a brilliant programme of Easter music – to spread things out and make sure nobody misses everything.

And elsewhere there a lot of other things starting up around now.

There's a whole new month's shows lined up at The Jam Factory, and as the Auckland Folk Festival recedes into the past the music there moves away from the rather over-represented folk styles of February to something more poppy, with concerts from Eve Kelly (March 3), Anthony Coulter (March 4), Where Water Meets (March 11), The RVMES (March 18) and many more.

And the Tauranga Film Society is kicking off its latest programme.

A new season

This year's season will be starting at the Rialto cinema on March 7, with films being the usual eclectic mix of classics and rarities, documentaries and fiction. There are notable New Zealand and Australian films from the 1970s and 1980s, four African outings, and three from East Europe.

The big change is that this year the society has moved their fortnightly screenings from Wednesday to Tuesday. The start time will be approximately 6.30pm, though this sometimes varies to fit in with the Rialto schedule.

One film from the programme that particularly struck me was the Oscar-nominated documentary ‘Collective' (2019), one of the most powerful bits of film-making I've seen in recent years.

Its initial focus is an investigation of a Romanian nightclub fire, which killed 27 people. As more people die in the aftermath due to lack of healthcare a journalist from The Gazette relentlessly follows the ever-spiralling web of corruption which eventually includes pretty much the entire government and health system. And all this plays out in real time in front of the cameras. It is jaw-dropping stuff, like dramatised Oscar-winner ‘Spotlight' but chillingly real.

The joy of a film society is that not only do you get to see films on the big screen but you get to hang out and talk about them afterwards. Just take the classics: who doesn't want to have a good discussion about Roger Donaldson's first two outings, ‘Sleeping Dogs' and ‘Smash Palace', the quite extraordinary films that made careers for Sam Neill and Bruno Lawrence.

Taxi Driver

Also amongst the classics on display – ‘Taxi Driver'. That's worth a chat. Did you know the film was originally set up for Robert Mulligan to direct and Jeff Bridges (hot off an Oscar nomination for ‘Thunderbolt and Lightfoot') to star? That was before Brian De Palma got hold of it.

Brian De Palma? Yep. De Palma, not Martin Scorsese got first dibs at ‘Taxi Driver' and decided it wasn't 'commercial enough”. So he passed it on to the young Mr Scorsese and a legend was born.

There we go. There's a bunch of stuff to talk about when the friendly folk from the film society pop out for a bite after their fortnightly screening.

First film of the season is another documentary, the North Macedonian Sundance favourite ‘Honeyland', an absolutely fascinating look at a woman who is the last in a long line of Macedonian beekeepers, living with her ailing mother in a village without roads, electricity, or running water, eking out a living farming honey in small batches. Filmed over three years it is simply remarkable.

You can see the full programme at: www.nzfilmsociety.org.nz\Tauranga A full 12-month membership is $120 and can start at any time of year. To find out more drop a line to Michael O'Brien at: michael@obriengeotech.co.nz

And, oops, I've run out of space. Jazz plug for the week? Keep Good Friday free! There will be jazz from 11am to 5.30pm when The Historic Village becomes the TECT Jazz Village, creating our very own New Orleans French Quarter. Expect food, drink, and music from Dixie to the J-pop-jazz of Miho's Jazz Orchestra. Laissez les bon temps rouler!

Miho's Jazz Orchestra. Laissez les bon temps rouler!