Fillums fillums and more fillums

Am back in Sydney from my jaunt in Adelaide. And what fun was had. It’s great visiting other film festivals as a delegate – you get treated v well and don’t have to pay for anything – I could definitely get used to this life. My days in Adelaide consisted mainly of films, (occasionally interspersed with food, working on the laptop in the State Library, and the odd festival drinks event). I did manage to fit in a trip to the art gallery, which was pretty fab – they had a cute little video art exhibition on, which I took some pics of (check them out on flickr).

Film Festivals are a strange experience – just as your breakfast is going down and the sun is getting high, you settle in a darkened and air conditioned room, and allow yourself to be transported to another reality, then you stagger out two hours later into the blazing sun, grab some lunch, then plunge into another cinema, later dragging yourself back into the real world, only to repeat it all again – in my case only 3 times a day for 5 days, but some festival programmers average 5 films a day and can be on the road at consecutive festivals for a month at a time – it’s an emotionally and mentally exhausting experience. I had the good fortune to see some fantastic and often uplifting films, but my chum Matt made some unfortunate program decisions and had a couple of days of back-to-back depressing films. Here are my faves of the AFF:

Infamous – cracking film – I think it might have been out in the UK already – if you thought Capote was good then go and see this – you’ll be blown away by Toby Jones’ performance as Truman Capote.




Still Life – this beautifully made Chinese film had some exquisitely composed and lingering shots, and transported me to a world where a dam causes a whole community to be submerged and disappear, and a man doesn’t call his wife for two years and then asks ‘are things alright at home?’ Episodes from this film are still echoing in my mind. Brilliant.




Dr Plonk – silent film by Rolf de Heer that closed the festival. (World Premiere.) I thought this was going to be a painful experience, but was stunned at how well it worked – and the audience loved it. A captivating time-travel comedy with a live accompaniment by the all-girl Stilletto Sisters. I almost feel like it heralds in a new era of cinema.




Home Song Stories – another World Premiere, this Australian film centres around a Chinese immigrant family in 70s Melbourne, with a fantastic performance from Joan Chen as a night club singer and mother of two. The film deals with how her unstable, turbulent lifestyle affects her children, and while there was one too many suicide attempt for my liking, and it became a bit rambly and lost direction, it was still a great character study.




The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema – fascinating romp through cinema theory (including the cinema of Hitchcock, David Lynch, Tarkovsky) led by Slovenian-born cultural critic Slavoj Zizek – total dude and my new hero. Will read up on his theories and am sure I'll bore you with how wonderful he is once again. Not that I agree with him 100% but I like his approach to film, that’s for sure.




Oh and lots lots more, but won’t attempt to put it all on here.

Am now back in Sydney, working very hard, and looking forward to my festival brand and website launch in a couple of weeks. Good luck to all you guys at the NFT, (sorry, BFI Southbank), for your venue launch this week, let me know how it goes. I eagerly await write-ups on the BBC and Guardian websites (my main ways of keeping in touch!).

More pics of me enjoying Adelaide on my flickr page. Drop me a line if you need me to invite you as a contact (the page is set to private).

cx