Films+Events
Filmspeak Forums + Lectures
Filmspeak is free and open to the public, so join us to meet filmmakers and other commentators and discuss issues being debated within the film community. Forums are presented on weekdays in the WORLD MOVIES Festival Lounge at the State Theatre from 2.30pm to 4.30pm.
Visit our News section for the Latest Announcements on Filmspeak Forums.
TUESDAY 13 JUNE:
Where are the stories of Islamic people on our screens?
The Festival is screening a strong program of films from the Middle East and North Africa, but you can bet that few will make it into commercial release or onto television screens. Does the film and TV industry have an anti-Islamic bias, or do they merely reflect the fears and prejudices of their audiences? The challenge is to go beyond the stereotypes, behind terror and the hiyab. There are filmmakers whose work provides alternatives to the images we see in the mainstream media, who investigate real lives and rich cultures, but how hard is it to make a film which takes an alternative view, how complicated is it to navigate the cultural, political, and religious sensitivities in making their films? And what does the Muslim community think about the way it is portrayed, both in the mainstream media and in fi lms that take an alternative view? Panellists include Tom Zubrycki, Jane Jeffes, Enda Murray, Kuranda Seyit.
WEDNESDAY 14 JUNE:
Television at 50 - growing old disgracefully, or is the best yet to come?
THE 26TH IAN MCPHERSON MEMORIAL LECTURE GIVEN BY JOHN HARTLEY
John Hartley is an internationally renowned educator, author and commentator on the content, history and cultural impact of television, journalism and new media. Television is 50 years old in Australia. This year's McPherson Lecture uses the occasion to look back over the broadcast era and forward to a digital future. Right now is a fascinating time in television history, a tipping point between established players and new energies. At the centre of everyone's attention is that previously lowly figure, the consumer. Once renowned only for the extent to which her/his behaviour could be manipulated, the consumer has emerged as a dynamo of the knowledge economy, whose actions drive innovation. Is there something practical that can be done to combine the easy appeal of television with the hustle and turbulence of user-led digital creativity? You bet there is.
Ian McPherson helped found the Sydney Film Festival in 1954. He served on the Festival Board until 1977. He died in August 1980. Previous McPherson lectures have been given by John Gillett, Lindsay Anderson, Joseph Skrzynski, Ulrich Gregor, Susan Dermody, Moya Wood, Peter Watkins, Kim Williams, Peter Sainsbury, George Miller, Dennis O'Rourke, Donald Richie, David Robinson, John Flaus, Liz Jacka, David Stratton, Ian David, Professor Marcia Langton, David Marr, Professor Tom O'Regan, Bob Connolly, Nik Powell, Dr. David McKnight, Brian Rosen and Bird Runningwater.
Please note, this is a free event on at DENDY OPERA QUAYS 5.45pm
THURSDAY 15 JUNE:
The disappearing director - is there a place in the digital interactive world?
The director's role is becoming less defined, not only in relation to conventional screen production, but even more in relation to new media spaces. Can someone really be called a director without the creative and aesthetic control of an entire work? In the emerging digital/interactive world, the idea of a ‘directed' work is a very different proposition to that of traditional film, and even there the whole production methodology is changing. Is there a demand for people with traditional film skills, who understand narrative, can work with creative collaborators to ensure that the project's look and feel is consistent? Essentially, is there a place for a director in the interactive world? The panel includes ASDA's Richard Harris and David Vadiveloo, director of UsMob.
FRIDAY 16 JUNE:
'You can't say that here!' - are our filmmakers under threat from sedition laws?
Are our freedoms being whittled away? As changes to existing sedition laws and to the Office of Film and Literature Classification are introduced, questions are being raised as to whether they encroach on what we can film, say, see and hear. Many who believe that the ability of filmmakers to make films with a direct political message is an essential part of the democratic process see Australia's sedition laws posing an unreasonable threat to our freedom of speech and expression. Meanwhile the OFLC is being abolished, with its policy and administrative functions brought back into the Attorney General's Department; a change that is concerning to some in the film community. Panellists: Richard Neville, Raena Lee-Shannon, Richard Harris, Margaret Pomeranz.
MONDAY 19 JUNE:
Style and sensibility in the cinematic underworld of Jean-Pierre Melville
Melville, the subject of this year's retrospective, had as his formative influences existentialism, surrealism, poetic realism, Herman Melville (from whom he took his name), and his wartime experiences as a Resistance fighter. His early work influenced the French Nouvelle Vague, he was influenced by classic American cinema, and in turn his elegant gangster films had a definite affect on post-1960s crime cinema. To discuss his romantic, tough and rigorous films, his ineffable style, his distinctive filmmaking practice, and the many connections that surround his work, will be season curator Dr. Adrian Danks, Dr. Hamish Ford, UNSW, and Dan Edwards, Managing Editor, AFC Communications Branch.
TUESDAY 20 JUNE:
Is there a future for Australian TV drama?
Neighbours may be celebrating its twentieth year, and McLeod's Daughters renewed for a seventh season, but Blue Heelers is soon to end its run, while a recent raft of cancellations has caused much concern. The Surgeon, Young Lions, White Collar Blue, The Alice, CrashBurn, The Cooks, Last Man Standing, Marshall Law, MDA, Fireflies and Fat Cow Motel have all left our screens after relatively short lives. Love My Way may be winning great critical acclaim - but its audience on pay TV is small. Everyone knows there is a problem, but opinions differ widely as to what has brought it about and how it can be solved. Does the solution involve content, structures, audiences, financing, technological change, or even all of these? Panellists include Graham Thorburn, Faith Martin, Lyn Gailey, Roger Simpson and Ruth Richie.
WEDNESDAY 21 JUNE
A shift in perception? High definition, digital filmmaking and the aesthetics of cinema
Digital technology has not only made dramatic changes to the way films are made, it has dramatically changed the way we see them. While the mainstream industry tries to make digital work indistinguishable from film by mimicking the resolution, tonal range and depth of field of celluloid, other filmmakers enjoy working with the way digital technology alters the image. The massive change in the way movies are shot and edited makes rapid impressionist cutting far simpler, and distances much work from the classical notions of linear time and unified space. How does this affect the way in which practitioners and audiences actually perceive film? Does it change the actual aesthetics of cinema? Panellists include director, cinematographer and editor Ray Argall, Ian Jones (DOP, Ten Canoes), Ian Brown and Oscar Hillerstrom.
THURSDAY 22 JUNE:
Creative independence and how to keep it
While the independent film revolution gives filmmakers the chance to make their own creative choices, they often have to make compromises and economies in time, budget and quality, which may affect that creative independence. Is working outside the system the best way to achieve their creative ends? The panel will include some who work outside the system, some who stay outside, and some who go back and forth, and includes Australian filmmakers Matt Zeremes (Burke and Wills), Margot Nash (Call Me Mum), and US filmmaker Danny Lerner (Frozen Days).
FRIDAY 23 JUNE:
Unfolding Florence: unfolding design
Director Gillian Armstrong and Writer Katherine Thomson pushed for a brave style that has produced a vibrant and unconventional film. Learn more about Florence Broadhurst’s role in Australian design and how her work inspired the creative process of the film. Join Katherine Thomson, Producer Sue Clothier, Post Production Designer and Animation Supervisor Tim Richter and David Lennie of Signature Prints, the company that has restored and catalogued Florence’s work, in a forum chaired by Jon Rohde, Head of Design AFTRS. Presented by Women in Film and Television NSW.
