Entertainment picks: Rwandan realism a must-see

Don Cheadle relives the horror of genocide in Hotel Rwanda (top), and Jeremy Wellseats more media.

Music

When I saw all-girl American rockers the Donnas play at the Big Day Out I was not the only one who was disappointed. The boys and girls in the crowd wanted them to rock. They didn't - Brett, Torry and the girls flopped.

A few female readers took offence at our review, which basically said the Donnas played like a bunch of girls.

But this Thursday, at Shadows Bar at Auckland University, it's time for four sexy Swedish chicks to make amends for all-girl rock. And get this, Sahara Hotnights are playing free (if you have a bCard or an AUSA student card). But tickets are limited.

Last week, I was teased and taunted by the possibility of getting an interview with Maria, Jennie, Johanna or Josephine. It was going to be Monday night some time, then Tuesday, then possibly Wednesday. It didn't happen.

So, if four Swedish vixens can taunt a guy from the other side of the world, then it should be a good show.

Call into Real Groovy or the 95bFM office at the university with your bCard or AUSA student card to get your ticket.

Elsewhere in music, Westie metallers 8 Foot Sativa head out on the Breed the Pain tour with Australia's Frankenbok and death metallers, Dawn of Azazel. To feel the pain, head along to Studio in Auckland on Wednesday, Altitude in Hamilton on Thursday, Brewers Bar in the Mount on Friday and lastly, the Odeon in Napier on Saturday.

Also, the Neville Brothers are at the Logan Campbell Centre on Wednesday, old-timer Graham Brazier plays the Masonic in Devonport on Friday and Jakob play Galatos on Saturday.

TV

A more appropriate title for film-maker Louis Theroux's doco on Michael Jackson would be: Louis & Michael Jackson's Friends And Family. You see, he doesn't interview the pop star but Louis & Michael is still a must-see on Prime at 8.30pm tomorrow.

Theroux interviews Michael's friends and family, including his father Joe Jackson ("I never beat him. I whipped him with a switch and a belt. You beat someone with a stick."), to create a unique and revealing look at the world's most freaky pop star.

Speaking of freaky, tomorrow on Eating Media Lunch (10pm, TV2) Jeremy Wells marches with Destiny Church.

Meanwhile, TV3 is keeping up the "Gidday yous fullas" theme that head bro' John Campbell so loves with the addition of another Polynesian focused show, Pacific Beat Street (Saturdays, 12.30pm). Covering everything from music and fashion to youth issues, Pacific Beat Street should be a nice compliment to the channel's bro'Town.

And for those who refuse to grow up, Malcolm In the Middle starts its sixth season on Wednesday at 8pm on TV3, and the fashion witches, Trinny and Susannah, return to TV One, 7.30pm Friday.

Movies

Opening at Auckland's Academy on Thursday is the annual World Cinema Showcase - a sort of early curtain-raiser for the International Film Festival in July.

The two-week programme will be our first chance to see the Oscar-nominated real-life drama Hotel Rwanda. As well, the programme features Spanish director Pedro Almodovar's latest Bad Education, The Blues Series - five documentaries on the origins of the blues by directors including Martin Scorsese, Wim Wenders and Mike Figgis - as well as reissues of films such as Buster Keaton's The General and Federico Fellini's La Strada.

Meanwhile, there's not much to recommend itself starting at the multiplexes - Vin Diesel playing a tough-guy babysitter in The Pacifier anyone? The other films starting this week include: a remake of the classic haunted house movie, The Amityville Horror; in Raise Your Voice Hilary Duff stars as a small-town girl who goes to a performing arts school in LA; and Sahara stars Matthew McConaughey as explorer Dirk Pitt, who goes on a treasure hunt through the desert in search of the Ship of Death. It stars camels.

So does The Weeping Camel, the Academy Award-nominated documentary set in southern Mongolia's Gobi Desert, which starts at the Lido and Bridgeway on Thursday. A family of nomadic shepherds witness the birth of a rare white camel calf, whose mother rejects it. When little hope is left for the survival of the newborn, the nomads send their two boys on a journey to find and summon a musician to the camp to perform a ritual to save the calf.

If you see one camel documentary this year ...

Arts

Cristina Popovici used to jump in front of cars when she was little to see if they would stop. They must have, because the Romanian-born artist's new exhibition, Height, is on at the Studio of Contemporary Art in Newmarket.

That childhood stunt was all in the name of risk-taking, something she carries through into her art. Her abstract style gives rise to large works that use colours, shapes and forms in curious, and often chaotic ways. Height is on at 5-7 Kingdon St, Newmarket, now.

Theatre

Get the lads and ladesses behind the bar at the Dogs Bollix Irish pub to pull you and your mates a pint or two of Guinness or Kilkenny and enjoy a night of theatre.

In a novel approach, the Dogs Bollix hosts the play Milo's Wake, which opens on Thursday.

Milo O'Connor is alive and kicking but since no one says anything good about you until you're dead, he has decided to hold an early wake.

A comedy with heart, apparently. Cheers to that, I say.