David Farrier wishes he hadn't messed with Mister Organ

Making his new movie almost broke him, he tells us

Kia ora and welcome to The Weekend. This week’s edition is coming at you from Australia, where I’m soaking up all the novelty of being in a different country for the first time in a while and attending a conference about misinformation where we've learned that it’s important to label your sources. So in today's edition: We Are Indigo is a tech company causing controversy for government-funded Callaghan Innovation (source). The emu lady has written some controversial tweets (source). Mister Organ is David Farrier’s twistiest film yet (source). Drink some Coffee Supreme and join me in uncovering the truth.

-Shanti Mathias, staff writer

David Farrier couldn’t escape Mister Organ

David Farrier and the subject of his new film, Michael Organ (Image: Supplied/Tina Tiller)

This week Chris Schulz talks to filmmaker and writer David Farrier about his new film Mister Organ. I asked Chris to tell me what he learned and here’s what he said: “Usually, an interview with the creator of a new movie goes something like this: Pleasantries are exchanged, the person involved with the movie says some nice things about their film, and everyone leaves with a smile on their face. This was not that. David Farrier's new documentary is called Mister Organ. It took him three years to make. And he hated every second of it. ‘It was just a fucking mission,’ he says. ‘I desperately wanted to drop it. It was miserable. It just went on and on. It was so fucked up.’ So why couldn't he stop making the movie that saw him flee to Los Angeles to escape the clutches of his subject? He explains all that here.”

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What went wrong with We Are Indigo

The innovation sector – start ups, tech companies, investors at all stages and scales – is a peculiar space, and it’s one that Duncan Greive follows closely. So when The Spinoff was leaked documents relating to the activities of startup We Are Indigo, he wanted to look into the story more closely. The company won a number of government contracts in the first two years of Covid, and this year was the subject of a due diligence report by Callaghan Innovation that raised some concerns, including questions about data security on one of We Are Indigo’s e-commerce platforms. The company worked hard to have these reports removed from the public eye, and says it’s fixed its mistakes; meanwhile, a Callaghan board member has resigned because of her concerns. It’s a complex story, and in the gossipy New Zealand startup sector, it might get bigger.

Number of the week: Two too many internet emu ladies

Big bird content rules supreme (Image: Tina Tiller)

Something I personally spend far too much time doing on the internet is trying to understand why a topic or trend emerges; the reasons are usually weirder than you could ever imagine. When I started seeing people post about how much of a bad idea it was to cuddle and touch birds with avian flu, I didn’t have the patience to figure out what was going on. But Emily Writes did, and it turns out that Emu TikTok is a thing and there’s a somewhat racist emu lady, and also a good emu lady? She reveals all in this excellent explainer about a pair of online emus that also serves as a handy lesson in the way the internet works.

A message from The Spinoff’s founder and publisher, Duncan Greive

Our readers are the bedrock of The Spinoff – you are by far our largest funders, and the only reason we exist at all. I’m here to ask you for your help again.
The cost of living crisis, which we have covered extensively, has hit us and our people too – at the same time as membership income has remained flat post-pandemic. Big tech has taken over the digital advertising market, making us need your donations now more than ever.
I would love it if you would consider donating to help keep our independent, NZ owned and made journalism free for all. Please support The Spinoff today.

Paul Henry is happy with his choices

Paul Henry – that Paul Henry, the one who used to be on Breakfast, then hopped around the media for a while before fading out in a blur of controversy – has created his own gin. He’s very passionate about gin; he had a say in every aspect of his The Henry range, apparently. Stewart Sowman-Lund learned this, and more, during a visit to Henry’s wine cellar for a drink. I really appreciated this story because my upbringing in a TV-free house overseas makes me sometimes feel like I know nothing about media history in New Zealand. Stewart manages both to capture who Paul Henry is and also how his changing fortunes tell a story about changes in the media over the past two decades.

The problem with ‘Nīhaomā’

Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori, the Maori Language Commission, is best known for its work promoting te reo through campaigns and events like Māori Language Week. But one of its other important responsibilities is the creation of new words – which is where it ran into trouble this week, when a Twitter user discovered it was promoting the use of the word “Nīhaomā” – based on the Mandarin greeting “ni hao ma” – to mean “Chinese”. Charlotte Muru-Lanning talked to members of New Zealand’s Chinese community about why the new word is so problematic. The hurt derives in part from the common derogatory use of the greeting in Aotearoa, explains filmmaker Julie Zhu. “A lot of Chinese or even ‘Chinese-looking’ people will have experienced being greeted or shouted at with an unsolicited and badly pronounced ‘ni hao’ by a non-Chinese person at some point in our lives,” she says.

Everything else

• New legislation might change the status of Buy Now Pay Later companies in Aotearoa

• The contemporary art exhibition in Kosovo that’s very popular with the Instagram youth

• A new documentary wants to change our idea of who a criminal is - wage theft and tax evasion, after all, take much more value from the public than robberies

• Have you ever wanted to hide from the police? Then you’ll love the new TV show Hunted

• The future of tourism is about highlighting indigenous people

• How ghostwriting lets you into other people’s lives

• The development of the bicycle seems so obvious – but it took ages!

• Wayne Brown, Auckland’s new mayor, deals with his unruly councillors’ request for a change in seating plan

• Efeso Collins on the racism that impacted his campaign for Auckland mayor

• How the International Monetary Fund uses debt to reinforce power structures

• Sick of watching birds? Why not watch some spiders?

• There are still two rival BBQ Noodle Houses in Mt Albert

• The writer’s festival making a space for Pasifika creatives to flourish

• How do spores know when to germinate? Are they alive or dead?

• Food rescue is a good choice for the climate!

• The Real Pod has an exclusive interview with the winner of Celebrity Treasure Island

• And finally, if you’re in search of something to watch this weekend, we’ve rounded up all of the new movies and shows on NZ streaming services