Musings of an Idiot

Microcinema

Check out the new look MicroCinema Scene website - it is a fantastic resource for people making movies without much money - the true independent cinema (not the 'independent movies' that the major film studios put out). It has gone through a major upheaval and now looks pretty slick and has some pretty cool film makers from across the world on their forums as well. Definitely a place to hang out if you are wanting to get into film making.

I met up with Michael Saccente for an interview about my interest in doing his acting class where he teaches the Meisner Technique and I am thrilled beyond words as I have been accepted into it. Looking forward to the whole new learning curve.

Currently I am also dealing with Department of Internal Affairs about my citizenship application. NZ Immigration Service screwed up and gave wrong information to them, based on which they basically said that I wasn't eligible for being a citizen yet. But when I told them that I am eligible based on the information I had and I had the letter from NZIS stating the original dates to prove my point- DIA asked me to send the original letter in, so they can clarify the matter with NZIS. Besides that there is the matter of the birth certificate - which I am not going to get into but anyway it is now a 'wait and see' game as 2 government departments figure out what the hell is going on.

I did a quick search and found that New Zealand citizens and permanent residents have virtually the same rights. But if you are a citizen then you can:
* Freely enter the country without a permit [kind of handy but as Permanent Resident you can do that as well - it takes an extra 5 minutes at the airport to get your passport stamped]
* Avoid deportation [applicable only if you commit some serious crime or something..]
* Get a New Zealand passport with visa-free access to about 50 countries [definitely handy and possibly the main reason I was applying for the citizenship]
* Seek consular assistance while traveling overseas [handy if you are stuck while traveling]
* Stand for local and central government [not interested in politics -so irrelevant for me]

For a moment I was seriously tossing the idea of withdrawing my application but then decided to go through with it and see if DIA can sort the stuff out. There are reports in the media that the government is interested in having more migrants becoming citizens to develop a sense of national identity etc... A word of advise for them though- you can't get someone to develop a sense of national pride especially if the front line organization responsible for it makes things so bloody difficult at the first possible step for no particular fault of the applicant.

Anyway......

Labels: Acting, Movies, New Zealand

posted by Amit @ 10:41 PM