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In this issue...
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Some pics...
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Jack Sargeant, Stefan Popescu, Matthew Newton, Chris Murray and Gracie Otto - SUFF Launch
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The Vanguard, Launch venue
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 Festival Designer Liz Berger with volunteers - SUFF Launch
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Stefan and Barry Otto
Matthew Newton, Chris Murray and Publicity Coordinator Sam Findley
Festival Administrator Pam Otto and friends
SUFF engraved dog tag
Image from Rosebery 7470
Image from Third Eye Open
SUFF T-Shirt
Filmmaker Michael Bates
Image from The Projectionist
Image from The Projectionist
SUFF Launch, Beat Girls
SUFF Launch, Underlapper
Michelle Berger, SUFF Events Coordinator
Siouxzi, Festival Coordinator, distributing Programmes
Inland Empire
Inland Empire
Inland Empire
Inland Empire
Christina Conrad
Stefan with some of the UBU folk at a recent interview
Stefan, Jack and The Beat Girls
Daz from 2SER and friends
Stefan and Jack
Stefan and Katherine, Festival Directors
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The final final final deadline for entries for the festival has now passed and the MySpace comp we were running to find a subversive 5 minute short to open the festival
has also now passed. Selections for the competitive section of the program have begun in a frenzy (we can't believe how many talented filmmakers there are out there!) and curation of films screening out of competition has also now been finalized. I have now witnessed the Selection Panel bleeding from the eyes. That heady mix of the exhaustion
and exhilaration of watching films back to back for days and weeks on end is a killer!
The SUFF team would like to thank all 250 of you who came down to celebrate the Launch of the 2007 Festival with us at the Vanguard in Newtown on July 31st...all Launch pics courtesy of Tony Consentino... a rundown of the Launch included little later!
The SUFF program will be hitting the streets and the website by mid August. It’s bursting at the seams with details on all the program strands which include RECYCLED CINEMA, [X] NARRATIVE, MATERIAL AFFECTS, RE:ANIMATION, LOVE/SICK, MANAFACTURING DISSENT, DESIRE & LACK plus all the details on the massive opening and closing nights, and also on the SUFF lecture series which is taking place from 11th – 14th September and include lectures by Arthur and Corinne Cantrill, Megan Spencer, Jack Sargeant and Jaimie and Aspasia Leonarder from the Mu Meson Archives! It’s going to be huge!
Preparations are also underway for an Organisers' Screening on August 23rd. This will comprise of a selection of works made by organisers of SUFF: we say that we are a festival run by filmmakers so here is our chance to prove that we're not just all talk. It will be held at the beautiful The Last Bastion of Civilisation. More on this later…
Keep an eye on the SUFF website – more updates on the Festival and the new hilarious SUFF trailer by Dan Jameison and Illegally Parked Vehicle Productions will be uploaded soon.
For those of you in Australia, don't forget to tune in to TVS for regular programs of SUFF films (check www.tvs.org.au). SUFF also has regular coverage now on 2SER (107.3fm) and FBi Radio (97.5fm).
Keep in touch via email: siouxzi@suff.com.au
Love from the Sydney Underground Film Festival team.
P.S We succumbed to the global conglomerate that is myspace: so let’s be friends at: www.myspace.com/sydneyundergroundfilmfest
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FESTIVAL LAUNCH: SUFF MAKES SOME NOISE!!
THE OFFICIAL LAUNCH OF THE 2007 SYDNEY UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL
Date: Tuesday July 31st 2007
Venue: The Vanguard (King Street, Newtown)
The Launch was huge – even bigger than either we or the venue were anticipating. There were lines out the door!
Around 250 guests turned out, including filmmakers, (both veteran and emerging), actors, media, sponsors, supporters, friends and family.
The Festival Directors said a few words, we distributed the teaser program and screened some quite ‘arousing’ excerpts from the films, both from the competitive and non-competitive strands. Thanks to the Beat Girls and Underlapper as well as the 2SER DJ’s for entertainment all night.
Thanks to all of you who came down - we greatly appreciate your support of the festival. Hope to see you again soon in September!
Thanks to:
The Vanguard (www.thevanguard.com.au),
Brewtopia (www.brewtopia.com.au) and
Inspire Products (www.inspireproducts.com), our wonderful venue, drinks and food sponsors!
As a special to all the SUFF folks, Brewtopia are offering a $10.00 limited discount on their custom beer - just head to http://www.brewtopia.com.au/nab/index.php
FESTIVAL PASSES - YEP, WE'RE STILL SELLING THEM
If you haven't already taken the plunge, Festival Passes are still on sale for $60 ($55 concession). In addition to the festival pass, you also receive a limited edition festival pack, which includes a unique engraved collector dog tag on chain, a SUFF badge and SUFF collector cards) for each pass purchased...
A festival pass gets you in to every session of the festival (saves having to make decisions about which films to see – just see them all!) including the Opening and Closing Nights. In case we haven’t enticed you yet, there is free food, beer, wine and spirits at the Opening Night, care of Inspire Products, Brewtopia, and Lark Distillery. Your support
helps us run the festival without government assistance.
Please visit:
http://www.sydneyundergroundfilmfestival.com/tickets.html
FESTIVAL ORGANISERS' SCREENING
Now that the Launch is over, the next SUFF event to add to your calendar is the SUFF Organisers’ Screening - a free screening of works by the organisers of the festival.
It will be held at The Last Bastion of Civilisation in Surry Hills. If you haven’t already had the delight of visiting this venue, the name says it all really: one of the final refuges left in inner urban Sydney for exhibiting and celebrating film, music, installations… run by the lovely Sam Lim, it is a unique, warmly inviting space. The Last Bastion of Civilisation hosts the NOW now sessions every Monday night.
DETAILS:
This is a film festival run by filmmakers and artists - we invite you to view a short collection of our work.
DATE: Thursday August 23rd
TIME: 7:30pm
VENUE: The Last Bastion of Civilisation, suite 202, 267-271 cleveland street. Surry Hills
RSVP: contact siouxzi@suff.com.au
ENTRY: FREE
Featuring: Rosebery 7470, the devastating debut feature by Festival Director Stefan Popescu, music videos by Rachael Brown and Pamelah Otto, an experimental short by Festival Director Katherine Berger, an experimental piece called dyswis by Samantha Findley and two shorts (Third Eye Open and Jet Black) by Siouxzi Connor.
Festival Passes, Merchandise and the Festival Programme will be available on the night. We will also be screening the new festival trailer!
Hope to see you there!
SUFF MERCHANDISE
SUFF MERCHANDISE
Here is a short, shameless plug for SUFF T-Shirts - now on sale for $15 plus $5 postage. You can have a look at http://www.sydneyundergroundfilmfestival.com
/merchandise.html
It features the classic eye-slicing image from Buñuel’s Un Chien Andalou…
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AN INTERVIEW WITH MICHAEL BATES, FILMMAKER, PHOTOGRAPHER AND FILM LECTURER
Michael Bates is an award–winning experimental filmmaker based in Sydney who manages to maintain the balance between creating his own thought-provoking films (such as the Projectionist – which won an AFI for cinematography) and securing sought after positions in educational institutions such as the prestigious Australian Film TV and Radio School. Michael is an inspiring teacher and I think almost any filmmaker could learn from his seemingly endless fountain of filmmaking wisdom...
S: When working through your ideas for a new project, do you ever find yourself censoring what comes out? (to suit, for example, an intended audience?) Or is the process more stream-of-consciousness?
M: I censor all the time. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't. But this is not about how the audience might react. Rather, it is how my mind works. I'm probably censoring because of my primary school teacher or how my parents might have reacted, as much as how people might respond now. It comes from having a 'good' Catholic education. By the same token, I will write provocative, shocking and quite graphic work for exactly the same reason, as a reaction to that upbringing.
S: Do you draw inspiration mainly from other filmmakers or does your inspiration go wider?
M: I actually rarely draw inspiration from other filmmakers. Of course, I study the masters - anyone from Eisenstein to Zhang Yimou (perhaps the last master of true cinema, in my opinion). But much of my inspiration comes from music, primarily and partly theatre and literature.
The most flexible and original filmmakers have been influenced by some other art form; literature, fine arts, music etc. I think film and television does not expand and enrich by simply looking inward. It's why US television took a nose dive for a long time and only came out of the doldrums around the late '90s (this could be said for many film industries, at the moment). Culture feeding on itself simply creates an ever downward spiral.
S: Now more specifically about the film school experience - do you find that AFTRS encourages experimental/ avant-garde filmmaking?
M: AFTRS is a training institution. It trains people in craft areas and gives them the skills to go out and do their thing. What they do, they do very well indeed. Which is why the technology intensive areas are so well served there, graduating particularly good editors, animators and cinematographers. I think like any good school they focus on students learning the rules in order to break them. I guess there is always a danger there, that once you absorb the rules, it's harder to break them.
S: Do you see the experimental/ avant-garde film scene in Australia and around the world as healthy at this point?
M: Really, one day I'm going to write a book called 'How to Be Experimental in Ten Easy to Follow Steps'. It feels, at times, like it's all been done before. The avante-garde is not particularly healthy at the moment but that may be symptomatic of filmmaking generally in Australia. Certainly experimentation in short filmmaking it has been abandoned for the sake of the creating audition pieces for directors. Perhaps we've lost the courage, rather than the ability to experiment. We've forgotten that, like poetry, short films can be both epic and deeply moving.
I think the only way to be experimental is to forget yourself. I never really think I'm experimenting. To me it is always the natural way to go. It's a little like acting. The more you try to impress the audience or show that you can act, the less effective you become. The focus should be on 'being'.
S: What are some of the most common mistakes or misgivings you see from student filmmakers?
M: Perhaps failing to recognise that we are, as filmmakers, stimulated and inspired by the work of others, and that it is important to find your voice, while acknowledging that you are building on the work of others that inspire you.
Mistakes? Purely from a technical point of view, the one craft area that is often lacking and signposts a work as low budget film is often in design. Cinematography we are excellent at (this is true of the industry generally) but our production design is often false and makeshift.
Anthony Jennings rightly won an AFI award for his cinematography on 'The Projectionist'. But people often do not see, or fail to recognise, the richness of Jennie Tate's design.
I'd add we should try to understand the acting process a little more. Rather than collaborating with actors and getting to know their needs, we often try to manipulate or even trick them. Alternatively we shy away from them and hide behind the technology. But then we miss something very special about the creative process and working with human beings.
S: Anything you can disclose on your next project?!
Yes. It is a short feature called 'Loose Oranges'. It is live-action drama, different from my pixilation films, but I think people will still see me in the work. It's about the moments we could make a difference, even in small ways, but something holds us back. Many dark moments there but I hope many moments of celebration also. Again, music will play an important part in the film.
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SIOUXZI'S PICK OF THE MONTH: INLAND EMPIRE (DAVID LYNCH'S LATEST)
Inland Empire, perhaps even more so than other Lynch films, divides and eventually conquers its audience. It is the masterful weaving of what feels like a 'subconsious narrative' with difficult to watch, visceral imagery that ultimately either delights or ignites viewers.
Personally, from the initial arresting moment of the opening shot, then persisting throughout its weighty, headache inducing three hours, my heart kept screaming 'this is the best film I have ever seen.'
I reached such moments of simultaneous fiery hysteria and familiarity during the film that I now wholeheartedly believe in the collective unconscious - I have seen these visions before - somewhere, somehow... (actually on second thoughts I could be alone in thinking this - there were mass walk outs and continual awkward shrieks at my screening...hmmm).
More so than any other Lynch film, I became completely immersed in the Inland Empire world and didn't want to leave (except maybe during the chorus girl/ white trash dance sessions - those moments really threw me.) I convinced myself that everyone watching this film must have at least felt the same intensity - even if they didn't enjoy the trip as much as I did.
I decided to gauge the opinion of another Lynch fan (and filmmaker) Nick Narcisco (www.electricvertigo.com) to find out if I am alone in these feelings...
1. What was your first impression of Inland Empire – from the very first few moments?
N: It left me lost for it's entirety. When it was over, I had mixed feelings. It sucked me in immediately, no doubt. I loved it for what it was and I didn't touch it. But, believe it or not, a part of me felt a bit angry about the film, even though it became one of my favorite films of all time (as weird as that sounds) and raised some serious opinions.
As an independent filmmaker (-a true independent filmmaker, as in one's own doing, independently, without relying on external resources, i.e. StudioCanal), I felt that if anyone else like me, or even I myself did a film like
INLAND EMPIRE, running at 3 Hours, shot on DV, using mostly ambient light and on camera mics here and there, random ideas and how he included Rabbits, using aminal costumes in a dark and dramatic way, the use of a .5x wide angle aux lens on almost every close up- and actually took this film to festivals, I would be constantly critiqued, denied and rejected, and would continue to be no matter where I'd bring the film. As an organized festival, I wonder if you'd agree.
You have these die hard "Lynchians" (who also refuse to let their OWN imagination wonder, digging, searching and demanding an answer) reading into every little detail - to the point where they are examining the placement of Laura Dern's hair, shot by shot... and I know it's because David Lynch created the film, and I know there were some big names in the film... but again, if I did something like that, which I had planned to do 5 years ago (making a feature based on collected mixed ideas) without the big names, I would have been laughed at and called pretentious.
S: Did you find yourself being immersed in the world of the film? If so, did you like being there?
N: Yes, definitely.. It was like a dream I did not want to wake up from. I thought the film was too short for me my first time around, personally.
S: How does it compare to your experience of other Lynch films?
N: To me, it does and it doesn't in many ways... but at the same time, Lynch claimed to have complete and total creative control of the film, which had a lot to do with
it. I'm not at all one to 'dissect' a film. I take it in, as is, absorb it, and keep it personal. It becomes almost like a secret that you don't want to let out....
I also feel that way about my own work. The voices we hear, our subconscience and imagination, are speaking much louder than speaking verbally.
S: Do you feel like you ‘got it’? Even esoterically..?
N: I really think there wasn't much to get.. besides the obvious. I'm sure, like every other Lynch film, there are cryptic meanings and links embedded into them, but I
avoid that path because it destroys it for me. In my opinion, a film is a personal experience.. I'm not talking about about a typical Hollywood film because I never
watch those. I refuse to. I'm talking about a 'mind film' like Inland Empire and Mulholland Dr. There is a story going on inside of the obvious... it's there and might there might be more than one... but sometimes it's better to ignore it- you
begin to see it, and make your own. That, to me, is when a film has been absorbed into a viewer. That makes a good film good.
S: As a filmmaker, is there anything you would have done differently?
N: I would have done nothing differently because Inland Empire was David Lynch's film. That's why I am a filmmaker.
Thanks Nick! Looking forward to your next project!
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FOCUS ON AN UNDERGROUND FILMMAKER: CHRISTINA CONRAD
Christina Conrad talks to Siouxzi Connor about her new film, Jelly’s Placenta, and the mad act of flinging oneself into chaos…
S: Your film, Jelly’s Placenta, is not ‘typical’ in any sense and is particularly not ‘typical’ of Australian films. In fact I was extremely surprised to find out that your film was actually made in Sydney. Was this a self-conscious decision (i.e. a reaction against Australian films), or did your style develop more organically?
C: Siouxzi, it was not a self-conscious decision, or a reaction against Australian film; I did not develop a style. As one of the obsessed I live to birth ideas, recognising there is creative life in a stick, a crumb, a thread, the lip of a jug, a crack… in an old floor, the croak of a bullfrog… One flings oneself into a whirlpool of energy. The mad act of flinging oneself into chaos without proof of the results acts as a catalyst on one’s creative presumptions, beliefs, memories, knowledge, dreams, nightmares. One becomes a conductor of the visible and invisible, of voices, howls, entreaties of those who intend to interfere with the birth of a legend. One listens to the voices of those who died without a name, without justice. One crouches inside the legend, stuck, choking on the stuff of the legend. One must give birth to the legend or it shall devour one.
The legend wrapped in the white bark of a fallen memory splits open. One must not eye the fruit of the legend or suck, smell or swallow the golden seeds. Lifting them up in a cradle of invisible hands one carries them to the island where souls are stacked higher than plight at her highest pitch. In this way, obsession, parading as an hermaphrodite, gives birth to legend.
S: Please tell us about the casting process for this film – was it difficult to find the right actors for these very specific roles?
C: Siouxzi, the casting for Jelly’s Placenta was long, arduous. The eyes fell in and out, ears deafened by trumpeting of white elephants. In the broken courtyard, actors came, went, through rippling doors, past two monkey masks. For many moons I cried out for a Jelly John, a Leith Law, a Hart Sommerstein. Slowly, slowly, they came upon the fruit of the legend, as if in a dream. They counted the invisible seeds. Their voices, penetrating rose-lacquered throats, words floating on the fine skin of a legend, deciphering the language of the white bark. I worked longer with the lady, Leith Law (Marc Carlis), stretching his voice through the heliotrope sheath of an ancient caul.
S: Your work as a sculptor is a great asset to the mise-en-scene and the overall atmosphere of the film. Were you a sculptor before a filmmaker? If so, what was it about filmmaking that appealed to you as an artist?
C: For most of my life I have created, woven the bloody thread of legends as a painter, sculptor, poet, destroyer, builder, hammering on that mad anvil of life and death, pierced by ego’s thorns. Jelly’s Placenta is my first movie. I am obsessed with the medium of film.
S: How did this particular story evolve? It seems to be steeped in fable and even tribal mythology.
C: The story of Jelly’s Placenta evolved from a vision of the universal plight of male and female in their mad, subversive quest for love whilst the hermaphroditic potential slumbers. In the rampant male desire to return to the womb, to mount the blood red throne (the cunt), my lovers become huge, angry, enchanted babies, howling for the eternal mother, rocking in cradles. They bang huge pink seed rattles, erected on a collapsible pinnacle of desire, lunging for the holy bosom, spurting in a fountain of poisonous milk. Ah, the plight of men and woman, gyrating on that collapsible stage of life – death! The bloody curtains parting, closing, the hand of fate throttling, manipulating life after life, self upon self, pleading for union, unable to unify.
S: What helps you to maintain this fearlessness in your filmmaking?
C: Rampant fear! Fear creates fearlessness! One must be prepared to lose everything. One must not pin the legend down. One must let it float out.
S: Any tips for other filmmakers trying to crawl out of their ‘creative shell’!?
C: One must be prepared to wear the hat of the fool.
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AND FINALLY...
Please keep checking out the website as more prizes, guests, jury, films, sponsors, sound bytes, photos, and bits of random info are added!
www.sydneyundergroundfilmfestival.com
Next issue: AN INTERVIEW WITH JACK SARGEANT AND A FEATURE ON DOCO LLIK YOUR IDOLS
Thanks for reading!
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