No, not the Sydney Film Festival, and not the Melbourne Film Festival… The Other Film Festival!

Check out something a bit different and adventurous as the 2010 festival of New Cinema By, With and About People with a Disability kicks off at the Melbourne Museum this Wednesday 25th August through to Sunday 28th August.

The festival dares to dream that one day everybody’s story will be written boldly across the cinema screen and that universal access to the cinema will be the norm not the exception. The program this year offers an exhilarating array of choices: sessions dedicated to the experience of people who are Deaf or hard of hearing, films that celebrate the power of expressive dance, workshops for emerging actors and filmmakers, a forum on accessible cinema, and of course Rob Spence and the world premiere demonstration of the Eyeborg prosthetic eye.

So come and check out the future, because it’s right here, right now.

Click here to view the program and buy tickets!

Melbourne’s annual celebration of its vibrant poetry scene, the Overload Poetry Festival has a new logo, a new website on the way and a penchant for technology as it gears up to run from 10-19 September 2010. Read all about the Melbourne Overload Poetry Festival»

It’s back! The Comedy Event of the Year, World’s Funniest Island, returns on October 16 and 17 on Cockatoo Island in Sydney.

The event will feature more than 200 performances of every imaginable kind of comedy.  The event transforms the former colonial prison and bomb shelters into the island of hilarity for two days.  Read more about the worlds funniest island»

NEW PRIME MINISTER JULIA GILLARD ENDORSES LONG OVERDUE RECOGNITION FOR COMPASSIONATE AUSTRALIAN SCHOOLS

In her former role as Education Minister, Australia’s new Prime Minister The Hon Julia Gillard MP, welcomed Australia’s first national awards program established to recognise the enormous impact of philanthropic activity in Australian schools. Read all about SchoolAid»

Tommii Lim – Hobbes Ride

Curating a salacious group show titled Off the Strip, in which 25 artists put their own deviant spin on the wholesome comic strips we all know and love, Industrial Squid will turn the walls of the WWA gallery into a veritable who’s who of your favorite funny pages’ characters this July.  Open to the public, the Off the Strip gallery reception is from 7- 10pm on Friday, July 16^th.  The exhibition will run until September 4^th.  Read all about Off the Strip»

After just a few moments in the company of Melbourne-based singer/songwriter, Bridget Pross, it becomes clear that she is a woman who fearlessly wears her heart on her sleeve. Some pessimists warn that it’s dangerous to display emotions out in the open as it leaves you exposed and vulnerable.  Bridget reckons these people worry too much.  “If you hurt me, it just don’t even hurt me,” she proclaims in a lyric from an upcoming single.

One marvels at how an isolated teenager from the remote town of Westerway in Tasmania has arrived at the age of 25 and in the possession of such self-assured exuberance.  With one album already released and a second currently being recorded, I meet with Pross just as she is busy packing her bags for Sydney, having just won an APRA-sponsored trip to attend music discussions and workshops at Song Summit 2010.  “Everything is happening at once,” Pross grins.  “I’ve had this massive spurt of creativity and I’m waking up with songs in my head.  It’s so good, it’s just happening, my music is happening.”  For the envious among us, the truth is that Pross’s road was not always paved with yellow bricks.  It’s just that she learnt how to put on a brave face and get on with it.

From a young age Pross knew that her destiny lay beyond the restrictive confines of Tasmania.  Life at home continuously presented difficult challenges: at the age of four Pross and her two year old sister went to live with their mother’s new partner, whom had 6 children from a previous relationship.  Though the household atmosphere was always lively and high-spirited – Pross’s new dad, who loved to sing, referred to himself as American folk hero Davy Crockett – Pross struggled to find her place within the new family and never felt completely accepted. Read the rest of Bridget Pross's Diary»

Torn Edges is the Dirty Hands Collective’s 3rd group show, showcasing a wide array of printmaking practices commonly (and not so commonly) used today.

The exhibition is a collaboration between 9 talented young printmakers with a multitude of different aesthetic and conceptual practices, each testing the boundaries of their practice and taking printmaking to the cutting edge.

Dirty Hands have chosen to adopt the concept of torn edges for their show at Hardware Gallery. Referencing the deckled edge often seen in fine art printmaking, and also the tearing away from traditional practices of printmaking and testing new boundaries, playing with combinations of new and old techniques, whilst still retaining a love for quality fine art printmaking.

What: Dirty Hands – Torn Edges Exhibition
When: 22nd June to 10th July 2010
Where: Hardware Gallery – 263 Enmore Road Enmore
Ph: 02 9550 4595
Cost: Free

Rev is very much a work in progress. Since 1990, the event has developed from a range of alternative and independent screen culture activities and experiments to what is regarded as one of Australia’s most unique annual screen activities. Taking place in cinemas, bars and clubs around the country this strange brew embraced live music, performance, movies and all manner of strange and unusual activity.

Since 1997, audience figures for the event have increased at an average rate of 30% each year, rapidly outgrowing the intimate surrounds of the Greenwich Club. Today, the event includes in excess of 100 international films presented over 75 sessions at established cinema and nightclub venues across Perth. Revelation is Australia’s fastest growing annual film event.

It sees over 500 films submitted for selection from local and international filmmakers and includes an active, creative and argumentative screen conference component. Programmed as part of the Australian film festival season, Revelation actively interacts where possible with the Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and New Zealand International Film Festivals and a range of Australian screen culture organisations with program and print sources and curated projects and guests and as a result fills the gap in the development of a truly national independent screen community.

Revelation was (and still is)  concerned with the conservative nature of film distribution and exhibition practice in Australia. It has always sought to deliberately challenge current marketplace modes and biases through unusual and contextualised screening concepts, focused curation and active interaction with industry guilds, independent curators, the academic community and other Arts related activity and practitioners.

Revelation maintains its focus on progressive and inspiring works and embraces audiences of all ages, tastes and backgrounds. Like the films it presents, the event maintains an energy and enthusiasm for the industry quite unlike any other film festival in the country.

What: Revelation – Perth International Film Festival
When: 8th till 18th July 2010
Where: In & around Perth
Cost: Varies

Little Big Shots is Melbourne’s International Film Festival for kids. Now in its sixth year, it includes around 80 films from over 20 countries. The festival allows children to see international material that would never otherwise make it to Australia. A 10-member children’s jury will vote on their favourite films in two categories: the best Australian adult-made film and the best Australian child-made film. The winning films will be screened at the Little Big Shots. An Australia-wide tour of the festival follows.

Vivid Sydney is back to shine light, music and ideas across the city in the biggest festival of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere. From large-scale light installations and projections through to music performances, ideas, creative summits and beyond, Vivid Sydney pulls out all the stops across every creative field. From art lovers and creatives through to families and first-timers to Sydney, everyone will find something illuminating about Vivid Sydney!