Anyone from Canberra or the surrounding area on the boards here?
The biggest complaint I hear from my friends and colleagues about living in Canberra is that there's supposedly nothing to do. This never ceases to amuse me, because when I ask them if they're going to various events the answer is always "I didn't know it was on." I've realised that the problem is that they never bother to look to see what's happening, so they just assume nothing is going on. So I've started deliberately looking for upcoming events and passing the information onto my friends and co-workers, and I thought why not expand the audience a bit. We may not get all the huge concerts and so on that Sydney and the other cities get, but we have a lot worth checking out.
The biggest upcoming event at the moment is the 17th Canberra International Film Festival (one of the guys at work actually mentioned that he thought it was great we finally had a film festival...)
The festival opens on Wednesday the 23rd of October with a members only screening of The Butler, and officially runs from the 30th of October til the 10th of November, with a members only screening of On My Way in the week following that. There are over 60 films from all around the world and from all genres showing at 100 screenings throughout the festival. The films are split into ten strands based on themes, nine of which are then grouped into sets of three that share similar themes. The groups are Sex, Politics and Religion; Individual, Family and Planet; and Life, Love and Liberty. The final strand is 'Freaky Fridays', and only contains four movies that are horror/thrillers and are being shown as double features on the Fridays. One film from each of the main nine strands has a discussion/Q&A session following it.
You can find a complete list of the films showing at the festival here: Films by Strand
The individual pages for each film have a blurb about the film and the trailer for it. I'll be attending sixteen of the films throughout the main part of the festival, as well as both of the members only screenings. I've listed my picks below (each title links to their individual page on the Film Festival site).
- The Butler - Strand: Politics, Country: USA, Genre: Drama
- Ginger and Rosa - Strand: Politics, Country: UK, Genre: Drama
- Mirage Men - Strand: Planet, Country: UK, Genre: Documentary
- Magic Magic - Strand: Freaky Fridays, Country: USA, Chile, Genre: Psychological Horror
- Patrick - Strand: Freaky Fridays, Country: Australia, Genre: Supernatural Thriller
- In Bob We Trust - Strand: Religion, Country: Australia, Genre: Documentary
- The Priest's Children - Strand: Religion, Country: Croatia, Genre: Comedy
- Michael Kohlhaas - Strand: Individual, Country: France, Germany, Genre: Historical Drama
- Night Train to Lisbon - Strand: Politics, Country: Switzerland, Germany, Portugal, Genre: Mystery
- In Bloom - Strand: Liberty, Country: Georgia, Genre: Drama
- Short Term 12 - Strand: Family, Country: USA, Genre: Comedy Drama
- Filth - Strand: Sex, Country: UK, Genre: Comedy, Drama
- Only Lovers Left Alive - Strand: N/A, Festival Center Piece, Country: UK, USA, Genre: Fantasy, Comedy, Drama
- Blue Ruin - Strand: Freaky Fridays, Country: USA, Genre: Thriller
- John Dies At The End - Strand: Freaky Fridays, Country: USA, Genre: Sci-Fi
- What Richard Did - Strand: Life, Country: Ireland, Genre: Drama
- Intimate Parts - Strand: Sex, Country: Russia, Genre: Comedy, Drama
- On My Way - Strand: N/A, Country: France, Genre: Drama
I'm thinking of trying to fit in a screening for My Sweet Pepper Land as well since it looks like an interesting take on the Western genre, but the only time I can do that is on the same day I'm seeing two movies already, so I'd have to get to work ridiculously early and then spend around 6 hours in the cinema straight after getting out... could be worth it though.
The one I'm looking forward to the most is Filth, which is based on the novel by Irvine Welsh, who also wrote Trainspotting.
So if you're going to be going to the festival, or know anyone in the area who might be interested, please pass the info on to them. Hell, just take a look at the list of films and see if any of them catch your eye. I know I'm going to be trying to get hold of most of the ones I don't have time to go and see anyway, because they still interest me.
G'day Tinkergoth,
Great to see the film love here. I've been a day subscriber at the Sydney film festival for the past 6-7 years - 53 films this year left me a little crazy.
Of the films you're seeing I caught Ginger and Rosa, which I thought was excellent, and In Bloom, of which I'd be interested to hear your views on after you've seen it.
Night Train to Lisbon and My Sweet Pepper Land look really interesting: too bad there's no way I can make it to Canberra to see them.
Of the other films screening I've seen
Spirit of '45; If you like Ken Loach you'll like this
Grigris
The Urban Scale; great doco
The Past; IMHO Farhadi's A Separation is the best film this century, this is a damn fine follow up
William and the Windmill; Gota admit dozed off in this one, but six films a day gets to one...
A Hijacking; No need for Tom Hanks after this!
Cutie and the Boxer; mmm yea....and
Tenderness; one of the top five films of the Sydney festival for me
thanks for reminding me of some stuff I really hadn't thought about since I saw it, and enjoy your festival!
It does my film snob heart good to see this thread, but, alas, an ocean and a continent will prevent me from attending.
@ The Purity of Violence: Haha, I have to be honest and admit that aside from film festivals I tend to favour sci-fi, fantasy, comic book and (preferably dark) comedy films (Pacific Rim has been my favourite film so far this year). But I do like seeing something different from time to time, and film festivals are a great way to do that.
I'm definitely going to try and get to My Sweet Pepper Land I think. If I can't manage it, I'll get hold of it later and watch it at home. The reason I'm looking forward to Filth so much is that it looks like it's going to be a truly dark comedy with great drama. Word is it's James MacAvoy's defining performance as well.
I'll be sure to let you know my thoughts on In Bloom after seeing it. I don't imagine I'll have any amazing insights for it though :P
@Doodlebug Anklebiter: Yeah, I can see how that'd make things difficult. Still, hopefully there's some stuff there you hadn't heard of before that you can check out at your leisure.
Tinkergoth; I'm pretty much the same: suck the life out of world cinema at the festival but the rest of the year it's sci-fi, fantasy and comic book stuff down at the multiplex.
Comrade Cineaste; Just about to settle down with my just arrived blu-ray of Bande a part, inspired by you posting a clip (too lazy to post the link), vive la film!
Comrade Cineaste; Just about to settle down with my just arrived blu-ray of Bande a part, inspired by you posting a clip (too lazy to post the link), vive la film!
And that does my film snob heart even better.
Time to go get my tasty tasty barramundi burrito for dinner, then watch The Butler. I'll be sure to post some thoughts on it here and on my blog.
*Tinkergoth casts 'Raise Thread'!*
So... been a while. Had some stuff going on during and after the film festival, and it kind of killed my motivation to review anything for a while or really do much more than sit on the couch and read/watch tv. Still, we're back in business now, and my first round of reviews for the 2013 Canberra International Film Festival is up over at my blog, The Grassy Gnoll
You can find my reviews for Ginger & Rosa, Mirage Men and My Sweet Pepper Land here. Next two to be reviewed will be Magic Magic and Patrick, it should be posted tomorrow or Tuesday night.
I have restruck my on-again, off-again relationship with Cambridge, MA's fabulous Brattle Theatre.
Saw Sophie Fiennes's The Pervert's Guide to Ideology and I hope I can fit in a documentary about Kathleen Hanna during my busy Xmas work schedule.
I'll have to check that out Comrade Doodlebug.
I've been delayed by a day or so due to project tasks stretching my work hours out, but I'm hoping to have the next three or four movies reviewed in the next couple of days. There will definitely be reviews for Magic Magic and Patrick up, and I'll hopefully also get the ones for In Bob We Trust and The Priest's Children done at the same time.