The program launch for Perth’s REVELATION FILM FESTIVAL took place over this past weekend and we have our picks for the festival! For those who don’t know about Revelation it all kicked off in 1997 and has since grown to one of the best Film festivals in Australia showcasing feature films, documentaries, shorts plus Masterclasses and workshops.
FEATURE FILMS
WHAT LOLA WANTS
Teenager Lola Franklin has run away from home, but everyone thinks she’s been kidnapped and she’s happy for them to believe that story. But then she meets Marlo in a diner and everything changes. Love and the open road beckon, but nothing can go smoothly when the world is hunting for you, and everybody wants a taste of the reward. Lola has her own reasons for running, and Marlo has issues of his own. And then there is the small –and lethal – problem of Mama.
WHAT I LOVE ABOUT CONCRETE
When eleventh-grader Molly Whuppie wakes up in a strange bed in a mess of feathers she realises something unusual has happened. Exactly how strange events are becomes clear as the narrative take turns both surprising and surreal, transforming Molly’s school life and the film’s suburban Memphis locale into what the directors’ describe as a homespun high school fairy tale comedy. There are a lot of ideas at play in What I Love About Concrete, and the directors create and explore Molly’s world with a true appreciation for the uniqueness of the fairytale imagination.
What I Love About Concrete combines the youth movie with a genuinely unique and outsider perspective. Made over four-years on a micro-budget, this film is an example of classic DIY movie making at its most imaginative, the film is a clear labour of love that plays with genre and narrative, and is, finally, a joyous affirmation.
I BELIEVE IN UNICORNS
An evocative coming of age / road movie that follows teenager Davina and her boyfriend Sterling as they hit the road, taking a trip through rural California. Davina is anxious to escape from the pressures of her life – that include looking after her handicapped mother – in fantasy and the idea of romance, but as the film develops it becomes clear that brooding Sterling has his own issues.
There is a sense that the film is truly personal, I Believe In Unicorn’s focus on Davina, on her relationships, her fantasies and dreams, creates an evocative movie that captures the complex moments between youth and adulthood exploring the raw vulnerability of its protagonists.
LAST CAB TO DARWIN
Film Director Jeremy Sims & stars Michael Caton, Nigali Lawford & Mark Coles Smith will particiapte in a Q&A prior to non-Opening Night screenings.
Rex (Michael Caton) is a cab driver from Broken Hill. On the surface he appears as a simple man whose days are spent driving miners to the airport, whose evenings are spent drinking a beer with a handful of old mates and whose mornings pass by as he has tea with his neighbour Polly (Ningali Lawford). But underneath the apparent simplicity of his daily life Rex is in poor health. Now, facing bad news he understands that he wants to control his final moments, meanwhile in Darwin Dr Farmer (Jacki Weaver) may have the perfect solution. Rex just needs to drive there.
A uniquely Australian road movie, director Jeremy Sims delivers what will undoubtedly become a classic, based on a script by Reg Cribb and Jeremy Sims – the film is the product of a Perth dream team whose resumes include 2006’s Last Train To Freo.
DOCUMENTARIES
DARK STAR: HR GIGER’S WELT
Best known to film fans as the designer behind the revolutionary look of Ridely Scott’s Alien, HR Giger’s visionary art human flesh appeared to mutate erupt and transform, demonic figures merged with people, genitals transformed into figures both erotic and monstrous, bloated baby-like creatures merged into landscapes.
In his unsettling work all things seems to be fleshy, moist and endlessly alive, even if they are normally inanimate objects. Giger’s dark art drew deeply on surrealism, infusing his paintings with sex, horror, the uncanny, nightmares and – again and again – transforming biomorphic bodies. Best known for designing the Xenomorph, the space jokey, the planet and crashed spacecraft in the cult science-fiction horror movie Alien, Giger’s imagination terrified and inspired audiences across the globe and earned the Swiss artist an Oscar.
THE LOOK OF SILENCE
The Look of Silence sees director Joshua Oppenheimer return to Indonesia to continue his examination of the events that transpired in 1965. In many ways it forms a companion piece to the director’s multi-award winning and Oscar nominated documentary The Act of Killing (Revelation 2013), however it is also a documentary work in its own right, and as a film it is far more traditional work than its predecessor.
The Look of Silence follows local optometrist Adi as he talks to people who were once involved in the killings, including the execution of his brother Ramli.
Through Adi’s powerfully stoic onscreen appearance the film appears as a more directly personal work than The Act of Killing. Moreover Adi and his family live in the very communities where the killers live, giving the film an occasionally vertiginous perspective, as both subject and filmmakers uncover horrors from the almost casual comments dropped into conversation. The film maintains the raw power of its predecessor and makes for compulsive, essential viewing.
THE HUNTING GROUND
According to some reports as many as one in five female students at American universities have suffered a sexual assault, yet the punishments against the accused perpetrators appear as almost non-existent. Instead, female students have often been largely ignored or shamed and many have remained silent.
In Kirby Dick’s powerful new film the director explores and exposes the phenomena of campus sexual assault, focusing on the struggle to be heard and taken seriously that many women face, and on those women who have decided to fight back. Occasionally harrowing, The Hunting Ground has helped to place the issue of campus rape on the news agenda.
Multi-award winning director Kirby Dick’s credits include Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flannigan, Supermasochist, Derrida, Outrage and The Invisible War, and The Hunting Ground is a powerful addition to his ouvre.
PARKERVILLE AMPHITHEATRE: SETS, BUGS AND ROCK N ROLL
Those of you of early Rev vintage will fondly remember the Parkerville Ampitheatre regularly appearing in live performance and gig guides in Perth for many years. You’ll also remember the four quarters of Perth music and arts culture: City/Northbridge, Fremantle, Scarborough and the Hills. Each had their own feel and culture and each was a trek…but hey…maybe it’s still the same!
Closing in 2001 (4 years after Rev’s sticky carpet beginnings) but opening in 1971, the Parkerville Ampitheatre was the brainchild of artistic visionary John Joseph Jones who dedicated the space to providing a platform for alternative art, music and performance in Perth – and it rocked!
A haven for blues and boogie as well as providing the launch-pad for Perth theatre writers, directors and performers, the ampitheatre was a wholly unique but now all but forgotten phenomenon. Now overgrown and derelict, this documentary brings this Perth icon back to life by exploring the personalities that inhabited this special place nestled in Perth’s foothills.
With intimate interviews with Perth’s theatre legends and those in the know, this simple film might be low-fi in nature but the message is resonant – especially for everyone ever involved in Rev or in the encouragement of alternative arts and opinions in WA.
For us there’s a kindred spirit here – and a continuum. Come and be part of it.
GAMELOADING – RISE OF THE INDIES
GameLoading – Rise of the Indies charts the emerging global culture of indie game developers.
Through interviews with independent game designers and members of the community GameLoading explores the emergence and role of these indie autuers who find their self expression in games.
This wide-ranging documentary features interviews with the likes of Rami Ismail, Davey Wreden, Nina Freeman, Zoe Quinn and Christine Love, among many others. With parallels to everything from punk and grunge to the French New Wave, GameLoading captures the cultural shift that has enabled indie game developers to achieve their artistic vision.
GameLoading – Rise of the Indies offers a state-of-play of the indie game. For those who may be less familiar with gaming the film offers a unique opportunity to see the development of inspirational gaming subcultures and game designers whose work explores areas both unique and personal.
So there you have it, our picks for the upcoming Revelation Film Festival! The festival takes place from July 2-12 you can click here for ticket info and session times.
