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!

 With over 800 entries from countries including the UK, USA, France, India, Iran, Cuba and South Africa, The Sydney Underground Film Festival has announced a brazen new program for its 4^th annual festival, which runs 9^th-11^th September this year.

Held at the Factory Theatre Marrickville, with 89 films screening from 10 countries internationally, the festival is sure to have something for everyone. Covering the political, the perverse and the simply bizarre, the festival boldly goes where no other festival dares tread, screening a number of films never before seen in Australia. 

The festival will kick off with a truly political flavour, with the Australian premiere of Oliver Stone’s SOUTH OF THE BORDER, a controversial documentary following the filmmaker’s trip through South America and interviews with past presidents.

Festival highlights are also set to include ENTER THE VOID from famed French filmmaker Gaspar Noé, a screening of THE TAINT, Australian film EL MONSTRO DEL MAR!, LIFE AND DEATH OF A PORNO GANG, and Harmony Korine’s TRASH HUMPERS

DATE: 9^th – 11^th September, 2010
LOCATION: Factory Theatre, Marrickville
TICKETS: www.suff.com.au

Watch this space as we will doing a ticket giveaway for this film very soon!

A sexy comedy of errors about a very modern family. The Allgoods are a close family experiencing life’s typical ups and downs: 18-year old daughter Joni (Wasikowska) is heading off to Stanford University and starting to distance herself from her parents; 14-year-old Laser is hanging out with a deadbeat friend who constantly leads him into trouble. The only difference is that this family has two mums. Jules (Julianne Moore) and Nic (Bening) have been together for years, deeply in love, and had both children through artificial insemination.

This loving but strained home life is thrown into comic disarray when the kids track down their biological donor-Dad, Paul (Ruffalo), and invite him home for dinner. Paul is a bachelor whose sudden longing for a family introduces an interesting sexual dynamic to the not-quite-ordinary equation of the Allgoods. At first Joni is so happy to have a cool, handsome dad like Paul. But soon enough she comes to realise that Paul is fun loving but lacks self-control and when he starts sleeping with one of her mums chaos reigns.

Director: Lisa Cholodenko  Cast: Julianne Moore, Annette Bening, Mark Ruffalo, Mia Wasikowska

IN CINEMAS 2nd SEPTEMBER, 2010 

The sunshine state’s coolest creative hotspot, the Brisbane Powerhouse, is hosting a screening of indie, surf montage Last Hope.

Renowned surf filmmaker, Andrew Kidman’s latest offering is a unique fusion of surf movie and music is “a brief journey into the heart and soul of surfing through music and film.”

Editing 16 original short films to the wicked tunes of Smog, Sufjan Stevens, Dirty Three, Explosions in the Sky, My Morning Jacket, Vetiver and Mogwai, Kidman’s film has attracted a fan following from surfers and film buffs and wannabe surfers and film buffs alike. The concept was a collaboration aiming to elevate the traditional surf film into an artistic vision, treading deep to the heart of the subculture.

With very little dialogue, the film is an immersive experience washing over the viewer with hypnotic vintage footage and inspired music. The music lulls the audience into a trance, where you become lost in the vastness of this pagan love song to the sea.

Last Hope sold out at the Perth International Arts Festival, so don’t miss out. The film is showing Wednesday, August 25th at 7:30pm.

Tickets are $29 for details go to www.brisbanepowerhouse.org

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

Max Munroe – Scone NSW
Mary Scunthorpe – Allawah NSW
Sandie Harrison – Paradise SA
Maggie Thornton – Redcliffe QLD
Joey Catcher – Cairns QLD
Benjamin Fisher – Tourak VIC
Danny Thomas – Richmond VIC
Sarah Taylor – Penshurst NSW
Mini Koury – Burney TAS
Adam Ball – West Richland WA

An important new voice has emerged in the Australian film industry – one that looks poised to tear apart the current model of chasing the next blockbuster and set about creating a culturally-enriching body of work.

Two Flat Whites chats with Pene Patrick…

TFW:  Playing for Charlie is a humble film but it’s very strong in heart.  This is your directorial debut for a feature-length film.  You also wrote the screenplay.  Have you always written from such raw emotional territory?

Pene Patrick:  Well I think I’ll always go to the heart of a character.  That’s when I most lose interest in a film, when they haven’t gone to the heart of a character, and instead they’re being used to comment on something.

TFW:  How did you develop your writing?

Well it developed through my acting training which involved a very intense and serious training period in New York.  I was taught to look for the truth of humanity and the truth of the character in a situation.

TFW:  The actor who plays Tony Hobbs, Jared Daperis, resonates on the screen.  He seems an odd choice for the part, but it really pays off.  Was this intentional?

I think I cast him because he’s not a stereotype.  I see a lot of stereotypes in Australian films.  He has an international universality about him.  The thing that really excited me is that he has a boy / man quality: a wisdom.  He was an embodiment of everything I was trying to do in the film.

TFW:  I think his performance guides the wonderful score, written by Lisa Gerrard.

Yes her score is a character in the film, that’s what I love about it.  She’s brought another level to the narrative.  She’s come in and given a lovely river for everything to flow.

TFW:  It reminded me of Jane Campion’s ‘Bright Star’ in that respect.

Oh lovely, thank you.

TFW:  Audiences for Playing for Charlie are responding positively to the optimism in the film.  I did too, although I found some elements melancholic, particularly the Thomas Gray poetry whispered at one point; “Full many a flower is born to blush unseen”.  I felt this line reflected the fate of many disadvantaged young Australians: kids who don’t have the full opportunities to explore their talents.

Yes that was the core note from which the film sprung from.  But I also want the audience to see that it’s not always the case and that it is possible to move forward.  Tony is so certain and has a solid rock faith which I attribute to his upbringing and his relationship with his father.  These are good elements in this boy from a working-class background.  It’s actually a very positive statement about working-class values, so it’s very uplifting in that way.

TFW:  Producer Jan Chapman recently encouraged Australian film-makers to be “courageous and challenging,” and to “keep an Australian national spirit whilst appealing to an international audience.”  Do you agree with her?

Yes, and I think the issues in Playing for Charlie are universal.  It transcends race, class, and spirituality.  Tony’s boy to man journey is everyone’s journey.  It’s such a crucial time, the boy to man phase.  Playing for Charlie is about the struggle to protect that which is really vulnerable in us – whether that is our sex, or our race, or our art.

TFW:  Do you think films can make a difference?

Yes they get the issues out there.  Playing for Charlie explores the difficulties relating to young carers.  Since the film opened we have had a letter from the Minister for Health’s office – two years ago they provided a lot more resources and money to aid young carers.  Radio National has done a program on young carers.  There are thousands of people in Tony Hobbs’ situation in Australia so it’s important to tell these honest stories and bring greater awareness.

Playing for Charlie is in limited theatrical release at the Cinema Nova in Carlton, Melbourne.

Interview by Ryan Nance.