Blog Lovin'

I haven't blogged for a while so I thought I'd start with giving some blog loving to this awesome film clip made by some cool cats from my home-town.

These guys are cool and make a myriad of things from film clips to children's TV shows (fingers crossed). I'm doing a shameless plug here for y'all to be fans of the guys on FB and spread the word so that all cool people can have cool film clips like this. (And so they can pollute young childrens' minds with stop motion mayhem.)
They're called Oh Yeah Wow, BTW.

Day Twelve

Today I had the early session free again so I went online and booked in Under The Hawthorne Tree, a beautifully realised Chinese film featured in the Next Gen program, which meant I shared the cinema with a few school groups. I thought they would be disruptive on account of being on an excursion to see a film with subtitles but they were all surprisingly well behaved. The film told the tale of a young girl growing up in the 1970s Cultural Revolution of China which meant she and some of her fellow students had to leave the city and move to the country for some time for their re-education. There she met and fell in love with a handsome geology student, but due to her delicate position in the eyes of the empire she must tread carefully the line between love and duty. This film tells the most beautifully innocent love story set against the backdrop of political paranoia and social upheaval and I was captivated by the gravity of the situation and the humble nature of the story. This was the first film of the festival that had me truly weeping and my sleeves were quite sodden afterward.
But I had time to settle in before the next film which was at ACMI 2 again, a quirky and delightfully absurd American comedy called Natural Selection. Linda is a long suffering Christian housewife whose husband has suddenly suffered a stroke. While he is lying comatose in the hospital she discovers that he has been donating sperm to a bank every week for years whilst never allowing himself to be "lead into temptation" by her due to her sin of having an abortion. In her disillusionment she is lead to believe that her husband wishes for her to track down one of his children, thus begins one of the weirdest road-to-self-discovery movies I have ever seen. I can see why the audience at SXSW voted so vigorously for this film it was simply delightfully absurd. It was also quite funny, which is always good when seeing a comedy.
I ran off next to Greater Union for a film I couldn't remember anything about and after a short discussion with one of the vollies (the lovely Simon who showed me the ropes way back in '09) I was reminded that I was in for a "controversial" and "unsettling" viewing. Teamed with this absurdity was the sweet Belgian short Swimsuit 46, the story of a poor little chubby girl who only wants to swim her best at an upcoming competition but is being held back by her horrible family. She needs a new swimsuit because hers is in disarray, which means new goggles that don't leak are not on the cards. The girl works her heart out saving up for her goggles by washing cars and doing household chores and when she has enough her brother steals it. This film was too short for me to really feel anything substantial toward the characters or the events but it was a quaint story and peaceful prelude to the feature.
The program notes for She Monkeys were incredibly misleading. The film was odd and at times menacing but I did not know what was going on or why. The lead actress was remarkable stoic with seemingly no expression or care for unfolding events which made it extremely difficult to understand her actions. Her little sister was bizarrely delightful and extremely odd. I could not predict where the film was heading and then suddenly, it ended. Given the still provided and the program notes calling this film "claustrophobic" and a "deeply unsettling exploration of the jumbled parameters of teen sexuality", even going so far as to use the phrase "taboo breaking", I thought I was in for some real shlock and horror, confusion of teen sexuality and the intensity of desire in the mind of the adolescent but it was not like that at all. Disappointing.
Last up for the day was the light hearted comedy Our Idiot Brother, the tale of well-meaning man-child Ned, played endearingly by the wonderful Paul Rudd, whose good natured view of the world leads him to trouble. His family are a bunch of self absorbed misfits who plot and scheme, and patronise him for trying to do the right thing and only see the good in people, but he is the one who ultimately fixes their lives leading to a fuller and happier life for all. This film is a charming comedy with truly hilarious moments and wonderful cameos from the likes of Zooey Deschanel, Emily Mortimer and Steve Coogan. The dynamics between the cast members was great and they delivered a lovely message in the end.
Pick of the day
Under the Hawthorne Tree was just beautiful and sweet beyond comprehension and I absolutely loved it.
Surprise of the Day
Our Idiot Brother. I can't generally see how Hollywood blockbuster types fit into the schematics of the film festival but this one was fun and the packed screening made the experience more enjoyable.
Film total so far
46

Day Eleven

I had the first slot of the day free so I booked in Buck purely based on the fact that it was at the Forum and I like the Forum. It was an interesting documentary about the man known as "the Horse Whisperer" but I guess you have to be a horse person to really get into this film. It is pretty dull if you do not like horses. The film spent a lot of time on his early life as a lasso jumper who was forced into the spotlight along with his brother by their physically abusive father, also a lot of time on his life as a professional horse whisperer running workshops for people with troubled horses but didn't spend too much time on how he went from a victim of severe domestic abuse to a celebrated folk hero and that's the part of the story I would have been really interested in. If you like horses you will probably like this but I didn't.
Across the road to ACMI for my second session of the day which was Polisse, the latest feature from French filmmaking star Maïwenn (the blue lady with the weird hair in The Fifth Element). This film is disturbingly based on actual case files and follows the many experiences of the Juvenile Protection Unit in Paris. Some of the crimes portrayed were so horrendous and the criminals unnervingly remorseless. The tension between the case workers was truly unimaginable and built to intense conclusions. The film was very fly on the wall and while at times humorous did make me want to visit Paris less given the kind of intolerable crap these poor people had to deal with on a daily basis. A greatly disturbing film.
Still at ACMI I settled into a central position for The Hungry Tide, a simple documentary following the selfless journey of Maria Tiimon, a Kiribati woman living in Sydney and working tirelessly to save her Island home of Kiribati which is slowly sinking under the rising tide caused by the melting ice caps as a direct result of global warming. Spreading the message one group of school children at a time Maria takes her country’s message to the Copenhagen Climate Conference but to no avail. The damage being done to this country is unmistakable but the world powers cannot commit to cutting carbon emissions. It felt a lot like a produced for TV doco because it was and while the message was one that should reach all people it felt out of place at a film festival alongside films by world renowned filmmakers. Was a very boring film.
I was too tired to see my last film and really needed food so I left that Monday at that.
Pick of the day
Polisse. A disturbing film but very cinematic and beautiful.
Surprise of the day
My lack of enthusiasm to seeing all my sessions despite having no illnesses or pressing engagements.
Film total so far
41

Day Ten

I stayed in ACMI 2 all day today and had a pretty cruisie, lazy day.
First up was the sweet short film The Accordion from the amazingly resilient Jafar Panahi who, in 2010, was jailed in Iran for six years and forbidden from making films for 20 years. The Accordion was a beautiful, subtly political film that shows a world so politically intolerant and foreign to me that I cannot comprehend how an innocent mistake by a child can lead an adult to steal that child's livelihood. A simple tale with a simple message and a complex tapestry of social injustice and resolve.
Following that lovely film was the amazingly powerful Mohammad Rasoulof film Good Bye. Arrested just before the films completion the film was finished underground and won the filmmaker a Best Director gong at Cannes this year. The film is a beautifully realised drama telling the painful story of an intelligent, well educated Iranian woman who is trapped in a life of uncertainty, persecution and the feeling of being a foreigner in her own country. Her husband has fled their home after publishing uncompromising articles in a newspaper that has since been shut down, leaving his wife behind in the predicament of being pregnant and unable to do anything. She is trapped in a world where women are not even allowed to see a doctor alone without written permission from a male partner of guardian, a world where she earns a living decorating cardboard boxes with wrapping paper, and where the only chance of escape is to break the law. Good Bye is Beautiful, subtle and utterly heartbreaking. I had tears in my eyes at the end and felt so exhausted with empathy at the end of the screening that I contemplated going home and having a sleep.
But I didn't, and the seat to my left that was filled in the previous session by Miff-Blog-a-Thon blogger Thomas Caldwell was filled by his lovely wife Sarah and we enjoyed the moving portrait Life In Movement of former Sydney Dance Company Director Tanja Liedtke whose life was painfully cut short in 2007 after a horrible early morning accident. Liedtke was quite a character and documented her creative processes thoroughly, this film is the painstaking amalgamation of clips from the vaults of her personal videos with interviews with her company and footage of the troupe preparing to reprise her most celebrated piece in a tribute tour of the world. This is an incredible portrait of a committed artist and the creative process lovingly told through the eyes of those closest to her. It was truly stunning and all artists and performers should see this film.
Those of us left in the cinema for Martha Marcy May Marlene had to leave before the screening due to a film test that may have spoiled the film. We were the first let back in however and I picked a great spot in the middle of the row half way down the cinema where the leg room is generous and the viewing is good. Pre-screening I met a fellow cinephile and MIFF member Jansen and we discussed our previous viewings before being warned by an official that security guards wearing night vision goggles would be surveying the crowd for anyone using electronic devices. This put an unnerving edge on the screening of a film documenting the emotional journey of a girl who has been lured into and brainwashed by a cult. I can see how this film would disappoint people however I found it to be a very affecting portrayal of the madness of life in a cult and how in affects a person after they leave. Elizabeth Olsen (sibling of the famous twins) was truly remarkable as the emotionally dysfunctional Martha who disappeared from her family for many years. Persuaded into a cult that is self sufficient and seems wholesome enough to begin with she adopts the pseudonym Marcy May after the cults leader bestows the name upon her. We pick up at a point in the story where Martha has run away and has called her sister from the nearby town. Cult members follow her and threaten and coax her to come back to the farm. The film cuts then between Martha trying to recover from the ordeal at her sisters house and flashbacks to her time at the cult. This film is a terrifying look into a world I could never comprehend or understand and was truly terrifying.
Film of the day
Good Bye was just absolutely perfect and I was so affected by it that I was still thinking about it at the end of the day.
Surprise of the day
I first read about Martha Marcy May Marlene a while back on geeky blog Bleeding Cool, where I normally go for Doctor Who news and expected something quite different. Given the thematic content of the film however I was surprised by how tenderly the film was handled.
Film total so far
38

Day Nine

Had a short day today, only three films, and the first of them was the documentary Pool Party which mixed live musical performances with interviews and historical footage, telling the story of the McCarren Pool in Williamsberg, one of the biggest pools in the world. It holds, at capacity, 6,800 bathers and was built in a public service frenzy in 1939. It became abandoned for quite some time but after a visionary choreographer saw the potential of the space it was redeveloped and has been hosting free live music events starring some of the neighbourhoods best artists such as The Beastie Boys, Sonic Youth, The Breeders and Yo La Tengo, throughout the summer. It was an amazing history lesson of the Williamsberg area as well as an inspiring story of a small groups commitment to celebrating the culture of the area whilst entertaining the locals. One aspect of the film I found particularly intriguing was the case put forward that areas that are particularly run down and therefore cheap to live in, that then become infested with creative types suddenly become expensive and trendy areas to live with high rise million dollar apartments since the commencement of these parties being erected and a multi million dollar plan by the current New York government to redevelop the pool back into a pool for the rich locals to enjoy. I suddenly feel I've been taught something significant.
I had to get back to the office and welcome the second platform acting team back inside and therefore missed the short preceding Sodankyla Forever - The Century Of Cinema, and quite a bit of the film but I did catch a number of the interviews featured in this documentary which was basically just a huge collection of cinemas finest talking to film circles (I assume at the Midnight Sun Film Festival which filmmaker and film historian Peter von Bagh Directs) talking about films. I walked in as they were all discussing the significance of war films and seeing as I had to sit at the front and the angle from the front makes me feel a bit sick, I slept through quite a lot of it. What I did see was very comprehensive and quite intriguing. This felt like the love child of von Bagh and I wouldn't mind actually seeing it in full at some stage.
Finally for the day was the incredibly moving Autoluminescent: Rowland S. Howard, the documentary celebrating the life and art of the incendiary Rowland S. Howard. Lovingly compiled interviews with his nearest and dearest woven with intermittent readings of his unpublished novel. I don't want to say too much because this film really needs to be seen by anyone who loves music, art or film. I was moved to tears post film when Howard's long time lover Genevieve McGuckin could barely speak post film through her tears, it was a lovely portrait of a troubled soul with an incredible talent and unnerving style. I want to be really post punk so much more now. Went home to put on something cool before heading to the after party. I think I freaked out Richard Lowenstein; I kept staring at him waiting for a moment between conversations with others, to go and tell him how wonderful I thought it was, and how much I love He Died With A Felafel In His Hand and Dogs in Space, but I never got the chance. I did have a nice DnM with Genevieve and got a little kiss on the cheek from Mick Harvey after I told him I liked his Serge Gainsbourg album and he told me I was cool.
Pick of the Day
Definitely Autolumiscent, it was such a beautiful film and was also incredibly inspiring.
Surprise of the Day
Pool Party was surprisingly educational. I was expecting a collection of live performances from the artists but it was so much more.
Film total so far
34

Day Eight

A quick trip home to get some fresh (and more colourful, I have been wearing lot's of black) clothes and to see my mummy and back in time for a cosy 4.45pm session at Kino.

Curling was weird and I felt a little sick afterward. The film began veeeery slowly and felt like it was heading somewhere but just as I was worrying that there was a second theatre being used at Kino and I might miss the start of my next film, it ended. So many developments in the plot were left not only unresolved, but unattended to. It had me thinking of The Room, the way things like Lisa's mum getting cancer pop up and get a mild reaction and then are not mentioned again, but far less brilliantly terrible, just actually terrible. I felt nothing for these bizarre disjointed characters and a bit freaked out about ever going to Canada.

There wasn't another theatre at Kino so I jumped into a centre seat and bumped into some friends before settling down for Life 2.0, the documentary exploring the nature of gaming addiction through three vastly different experiences of people using Second Life. One of the stories involved a couple who met on Second Life and began a first life affair that destroyed both their marriages and had far more real world consequences than either seemed to realise. The second story was that of a virtual entrepreneur making and selling virtual wares on the site and making a very comfortable living which is stolen from her resulting in a real world lawsuit that blurs the lines between real and unreal worlds. The final story is of a young man who destroys his relationship with his fiance when his obsession with the site becomes hazardous and the revelation that his avatar is an 11 year-old girl brings unresolved issues to a head. The films also looks at the virtual reality from the perspective of the creators and what they aimed to achieve when creating Linden. While I enjoyed the film I think it may have benefited from a professional psychologists point of view exploring why people are so drawn to the escapism of alternate realities. Second Life seems really dangerous to me in its almost cult like ability to seduce and capture people and totally warp their worlds. On the other hand the positive relationships that develop through it are truly remarkable. This is a brilliant cautionary tale for addictive personalities and an enthralling portrait of escapism in the age of technology, and the blurred line between authenticity and artificiality.

I rushed off then to ACMI to see the wildly audacious and thoroughly Australian produced documentary of the underground sensation Shut Up Little Man. In 1987 two young graduates Eddie and Mitch moved into a dilapidated apartment in the heart of San Francisco, unbeknowns to them their neighbours were two aging alcoholics, a homophobic southerner and a real queen, who proceeded to scream and yell profanities at one another disturbing the sleep of the two young boys. After a scary encounter with the men Eddie and Mitch proceeded to record the arguments of the two men and after including snippets on mixtapes they had made for their friends and having parties where friends would come over and listen to the old men bickering, their recordings became an underground sensation. They compiled hours of material and started releasing tapes with popular zines and soon the obsession progressed into comics, plays and finally a war between various different groups vying for the rights to make a film. This film follows all of this madness through interviews with Mitch and Eddie and comic artists, zine editors, playwrights, and film producers all embroiled in the phenomenon. Pre-internet viral mania, absolutely incredible. This is an outrageous story and a wonderful film, "when" this gets a release you must see it.

Finally was Super which I thankfully had my late night movie buddy Alex to watch with. This film stars Rainn Wilson of The Office as a bumbling nowhere man whose wife is lured away from him by her ancient drug addiction by none other than Kevin Bacon (eating eggs, brilliant). He forms an unlikely friendship with comic book nerd Ellen Page and creates his own super hero to fight the crime in his city and take down the Bacon and get his wife back. This film seems on the outside to be pretty Hollywood but went off on some pretty fucked up tangents. Ellen Page was completely off the chain. This film was unexpected, funny, weird and had the most excellent guest appearance from Nathan Fillion whose appearance in the film made me (and only me) burst into hysteric laughter until I composed myself, whispered that it was him to Alex and a wave of whispers followed by laughter flowed through the cinema. Unexpectedly good, will possibly be a cult hit.

Pick of the day
Shut Up Little Man was just such an outrageous story of obsession, cult success and pre-internet virality. Bizarre and wonderful.
Surprise of the day
Super. I wasn't expecting much but I was surprised, shocked and quite disturbed.
Film total so far
31

Day Seven

I didn't get out of bed in time to see my first film and then I moved into an apartment on Southbank so I missed the next one as well, so the fist film of the day wasn't until 6.30pm.
Tiny Furniture is the latest from filmmaking wunderkind and my new favourite gal Lena Dunham. The film begins when Aura arrives back at her New York home after finishing her studies at film school, her younger, gorgeous, smart, successful still in high school sister has taken over her room and she is feeling the pressure of getting a job and working out what she wants to do with her life. She has also recently been dumped and when seeking the companionship of a youtube sensation Aura is reunited with her childhood friend Charlotte whose life philosophy is to live as much as she can until her father no longer wants to support her and she is forced to do something. This film is wonderfully complex, honest and completely familiar to me (also a recent film school graduate back in the family home trying to find some direction in life). At the same time I felt a little like this film was trying a little too hard to be "cool", but I absolutely loved Charlotte, played beautifully by the gorgeous Jemima Kirke.

I jumped into the queue with my friend and boyfriend for the much anticipated debut feature from The IT Crowd star Richard Ayoade Submarine. Josh showed me the trailer for this film a bit over a year ago and I have been waiting with bated breath for it to arrive on our shores ever since, for if you watch the trailer you will be enticed by the quirkiness that makes up the kind of film I like to see. Oliver is a confident lovable loser who knows who he is, what he wants and how to get it, or so he thinks. This is a beautifully wonderful piece of cinema and literary adaptation. The characters are genuinely disconnected, bizarrely wonderful and awe-inspiring. The issues of the film screamed honesty and although it was quaint and quirky it was also full of perfectly imperfect people and relationships without the perfect ending, it was just unapologetic and true, which I didn't expect but which I loved. I wish I was as sure of myself as Oliver although I think he spends far too much of his time living inside his head and not in the real world. I can't wait for it to come out so I can see it again.

Pick of the day
Submarine, need I say more?
Surprise of the day
Tiny Furniture was surprisingly good. I have had Lena Dunham at the back of my mind since glancing her name in a "one to watch" article in Vanity Fair and I was pleasantly surprised when I finally got to see her work.
Film total so far
27