Ms Information: NZIFF Review

In director Gwen Isaac's somewhat depressing-for-free-speech documentary Ms Information shows a time in New Zealand's collective life that really all of us should be ashamed of.

Opening with the question: "What do you think New Zealand's problem with you?" the subsequent response shows both the humility of the doco's subject, but also the continuing misogyny that's only deepened since the Covid-19 pandemic.

Focussing on Siouxsie Wiles, the pink-haired scientist replies to the initial question: "That's the wrong way to phrase it, what is the world's problem with women like me is the better way to phrase it." And in that one answer alone, Isaac sets out her stall for the film - a doco that's here to chart a chaotic 12 months in New Zealand history and a meteoric rise in keyboard warriors and unmitigated anger.

But while the majority of the doco simply focuses on Wiles and her increased desire to pass on information to help keep people safe during an uncertain time. 

It may occasionally be a frustrating look given that it strays away from the personal side of things, and Wiles herself, but simply presents the facts and opens a look into the dissenters who appear from the sidelines. There are voiceovers hinting at Wiles' mental fortitude failing in the face of such adversity but it's not often we get to glimpse beneath the veneer of the scientist and the damage caused to the human.

However, maybe that's not a bad thing - given how devastating the death threats are, the perpetual references to her as a Satanic witch throughout, Isaac doesn't really want to add to the pile on. But there is an overriding sense of positivity from this documentary, even if in many corners it seems to continually beat down as it shows a society fracturing.

Isaac deserves credit for allowing some of the conspiracy theorists time, but there's little engagement with them because rational debate would go nowhere. 

Through it all, with a sensitively-helmed lens and a subject whose virtues and heart are never in doubt, Ms Information shows the immense pressure one person took on during the pandemic, and how she  rose to the challenge, and rose above the dissenters.

It ends with a note of positivity and rightly so - Ms Information is a well-delivered discourse on dissent and honour - and while there's a feeling it won't change the world's misogyny, it does shine a light on how much it's increased, and how vile those involved with it have become.