2015

Michelle Carey
Artistic Director
Welcome to the 64th MIFF, our largest ever!
Putting a film festival together can be like making a film: after the early planning, the floodgates open (looking at you: big international film festivals!), the films flow through and the journey begins. Add a dash of alchemy, a much thumbed-through book of contacts and LOTS of viewing – and out of all this comes this MIFF Program Guide.
This year MIFF pays tribute to two men who have contributed so much to Australian film culture: Paul Cox and David Gulpilil. The former, the Melbourne-based director who boasts one of Australia’s most personal bodies of work, opens our festival with his latest film, Force of Destiny. The latter, the iconic actor/dancer/ filmmaker/artist, is the subject of a retrospective featuring classic films and lesser-seen treasures.
New Australian talent includes impressive debut features from Grant Scicluna and Nicole Ma (as part of the always-diverse MIFF Premiere Fund) and the extraordinary tales of the Northern Territory’s Karrabing Film Collective.
We also highlight recent overseas talent: distinctive young filmmaking siblings Joshua and Benny Safdie first knocked me out at Cannes 2008 with the raw human energy they captured on film. And while Sebastián Silva’s films have screened in Australia, what better time than now to showcase them all together, including his latest Nasty Baby.
We also invite you to immerse yourself in some brain-melting Psychedelic cinema, stranger-than-fiction True Crime docs, new Sports films and foodie films. Plus the most exciting new films from all over the globe – see them all first at MIFF!
Don’t forget our two special events: the expanded cinema performance Breaching Transmissions, and the new perspectives of Vertical Cinema. And after a successful first edition last year, Critics Campus returns, with eight emerging film critics participating in a whirlwind of viewing, mentoring, workshops and writing.
Geoffrey Rush
MIFF Patron
Hi MIFF fans, m’friends,
As the Coen Brothers announced at Cannes earlier this year: “How do we feel about people watching Lawrence of Arabia on their iPhone? There’s something special about sitting in a cinema with a big crowd of people watching a movie on that big 80-foot screen. Nothing can compete with that and that’s something that film festivals like this keep alive.”
And a few months ago Spike Lee said “I know I’m a dinosaur but there’s still something for me actually being in a movie theatre and seeing film with a group of people.” He was taken aback by the notion that some people might watch West Side Story or Star Wars or Apocalypse Now on a smartphone screen, imploring “as filmmakers we kill ourselves with editing. With lighting. With sound. It’s heartbreaking.”
By the time you’re reading this in your MIFF brochure you could choose to watch films on your watch. However every year MIFF acolytes increase thrillingly and exponentially – no hint of dinosaurism there! – despite the plethora of new and inevitable technologies.
Cinema for a century has always aimed for a connection with an audience on a big, or at least biggish, screen.
Perhaps there’s an interesting and useful analogy in the world of music from baroque to romantic: “Historically Informed Performance” (HIP) adheres to the aesthetic criteria of the period of a work’s creation – rediscovering the primal vitality of the art’s intention in style and technique, re-awakening the fundamental form and essential syntax of the medium. Big is always better!
So welcome to MIFF – another season of vigorous global vanguard cinema honouring every filmmaker’s secret dream: ‘live’ audiences that are emotional, communal and relishing the sense of a focused event, rather than micro-surfing and skimming on the hop.
MIFF. It’s HIP… (and Spikey)
Films

100 Years Show, The

1001 GRAMS

3½ MINUTES TEN BULLETS

3 Postcards

3 Year 3 Month Retreat

43

600 MILES

7 CHINESE BROTHERS

808

99 HOMES

Abandoned Goods

ACCELERATOR 1

ACCELERATOR 2

Acquaintances of a Lonely John

Acting Masterclass Kerry Fox

ACTRESS

AD 1363 the End of Chivalry

Adrian Wootton BETTE DAVIS

Adrian Wootton DAVID NIVEN

Adrian Wootton FRED ASTAIRE

Adrian Wootton JOHN HUSTON

AFERIM

Albert

ALIVE

AN

ANCIENT SKIES

ANGELS OF REVOLUTION

ANIMATION SHORTS

ANOTHER COUNTRY

ARABIAN NIGHTS VOL 1 THE RESTLESS ONE

ARABIAN NIGHTS VOL 2 THE DESOLATE ONE

ARABIAN NIGHTS VOL 3 THE ENCHANTED ONE

ASSASSIN, The

AUSTRALIAN SHORTS

B MOVIE LUST SOUND IN WEST BERLIN

Baby, The

Back of Her Head, The

Backyard

BATTLES WITHOUT HONOUR AND HUMANITY

BEING 14

BEING EVEL

Bella Gaia

BELLUSCONE A SICILIAN STORY

BEST MIFF SHORTS SCREENING

BEST OF ENEMIES

Best Way To Kill Your Mother, The

BIKES VS CARS

Black Balloon, The

Blood Below the Skin

Bluey

BODY

BORING LIFE OF JACQUELINE, The

Born to be Mild

BRAND A SECOND COMING

Breaching Transmissions

BREAKING A MONSTER

Bring Me the Head of Henri Chr tien

BURROUGHS THE MOVIE

Bush Mechanics

Caravan

CARTEL LAND

CEMETERY OF SPLENDOUR

CENTREPIECE GALA HOLDING THE MAN

CHARLIE S COUNTRY

CHASUKE S JOURNEY

Cherokee

CHOSEN ONES, The

Chrome

CHRONIC

Cinematography Realising Vision

CITY OF GOLD

Clan

CLOSING NIGHT GALA MISTRESS AMERICA

CLUB, The

Cobsmacked by Cobs Popcorn

COFFIN IN THE MOUNTAIN, The

COIN LOCKER GIRL

COLIN HAY WAITING FOR MY REAL LIFE

Color Neutral
Colterrain

Composing David Hirschfelder

COOKING UP A TRIBUTE

COOKING UP A TRIBUTE TASTING SESSION

Coral

CORN ISLAND

COURT

Crocodile Dreaming

CRYSTAL FAIRY AND THE MAGIC CACTUS

CULT OF JT LEROY, The

DAISIES

DALMAS

DANNY SAYS

DARK AGE

DAUGHTER, The


DEAREST

Death In Bloom

DEATHGASM

Deep Space

DEEP WEB

DEMOCRATS
Deorbit

DIARY OF A TEENAGE GIRL, The

Disappearance of Willie Bingham, The

DO I SOUND GAY

DOCUMENTARY SHORTS 1

DOCUMENTARY SHORTS 2

DON T TELL ME THE BOY WAS MAD

DOPE

DOWNRIVER

Dream on DJ A Psychedelic Disco

DREAMCATCHER

DRUNK STONED BRILLIANT DEAD THE STORY OF THE NATIONAL LAMPOON

DUKE OF BURGUNDY, The

EARLY WINTER
