Shirley Barett's new film, South Solitary. She directed Love Serenade which I watched earlier this semester.
Candy Darling also stands out for me.
And also, A Woman Under the Influence. One of the few 'retrospective' films. A John Cassavettes film.
It's great the government has pumped some money in the SFF.
I have seen at least five films for the last four or five years now and have really noticed the decline in audiences and in the films shown.
I'm not sure if the money promised will affect this year's festival, but hopefully from next year on, the festival just gets better.
Unfortunately, just like the SBS, there has been a decline in film content that I will enjoy from this film festival.
I have loved some of the old retrospective programmes. But they have diminished in the last couple of years.
I was a regular at Cinemateque at the Chauvel (learnt where that name came from during this semester) on a Monday evening, but it's a bit hard to back up after the tute to go at the moment.
A few months ago the 'curator' was fired, and since then the programme has improved significantly. The films are now not so experimental, and are more 'canonical'. Kurosawa, Sirk, Truffaut, Godard, etc.
The SFF is an interesting case study in terms of some of the issues that have come up in tutorial discussions in the last month or so.
This is an event which, until this promise from the government, was really dependent on market forces. Programme directors had to pick films that would attract crowds, yet still aimed to create challenging schedules that would cater for niche markets as well.
A balance must be struck; and now, with the government funding, the SFF will be able to really extend their creative vision. Great news. Thank god Howard's gone.
For those playing at home...
http://sff.org.au/cms/
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