The 60th anniversary of the iconic Sydney Film Festival (SFF) is, naturally, all about the films. 190 of them, to be exact, including 19 world premieres and representing international cinema from 55 countries. That's why very often, it is law of the jungle when buying tickets and many sessions are already sold out. But the modern film festival also offers a vast landscape of sidebar attractions, art installations, retro-themed celebrations and live chats, and SFF 2013 is no different. SCREEN-SPACE looks at 10 events from this years festival calendar that you really should consider….
1. SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL 1954 TO NOW: A LIVING ARCHIVE
On this, the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the SFF, a troop of the nation’s most respected film scholars, past festival directors and industry journalists were asked to contribute to a vast online retrospective of the Festival’s key moments (including, pictured above, then-director David Stratton being farewelled in 1983 by directors Dr George Miller and Peter Weir and producer Patricia Lovell). The result – 86 pages of content, rich with photos, anecdotes, interviews and links to a myriad of historical content. Visit the Archive at http://online.sffarchive.org.au .
2. SCREEN: BLACK
SFF organisers have established an official partnership with Screen Australia’s Indigenous Department to ensure cinema that explores the culture and history of Aboriginal Australia is given the exposure and support it requires to thrive. Long a supporter of indigenous-themed works and native Australian filmmakers (in 1979, Aboriginal woman Essie Coffey presented her documentary short My Survival as an Aboriginal Woman), this year’s programme includes Ivan Sen’s Opening Night world premiere, Mystery Road (pictured, right); a restored print of Ned lander’s landmark work Wrong Side of the Road; and, Steven McGregor’s profile of The Warumpi Band, Big Name No Blanket.
3. THE BEFORE…TRILOGY
Spanning almost 20 years, the love affair between Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) began as angst-ridden Gen-Existential flirtation in 1995’s Before Sunrise and continued on the streets of Paris with 2004’s melancholy Before Sunset. The stars, along with director Richard Linklater, reunite with their creations in the latest instalment, Before Midnight, having its Australian premiere at the Festival. Enjoy a day of romantic chemistry when all three screen Saturday, June 8.
4. FINAL CUT: LADIES AND GENTLEMAN
Arguably no film screening at the SFF will hold greater joy for the average Sydney film buff than Hungarian auteur György Pálfi’s Final Cut – Ladies and Gentlemen. Crafting a romantic narrative from over 450 seemingly random movie clips, the Taxidermia director has created a vivid, unique and surprisingly emotional experience that could well emerge as the talking point of the festival. How many of the films can you name…?
5. VHS PARTY!
In honour of the little black plastic box that changed the way the world was able to watch movies, the SFF presents a celebration of VHS (from Victor Home System, after the patented inventors of the format) at the Festival Hub under Sydney’s Town Hall. Recalling the thrilling highs of watching what you want, when you want and the dreaded lows of tape spoilage, the event will be a stroll down memory lane for those who can remember what ‘tracking’ and ‘please rewind’ mean.
6. JULIE AND THE DIRECTORS
One of Australia’s most respected film journalists, Julie Rigg (pictured, right), engages with several generations of past SFF directors to recollect on the first 60 years of the Festival. David Donaldson (1954-57), David Stratton (1966-83) and the current fest head Nashen Moodley will be amongst those recalling the challenges and foibles of mounting one of the world’s most respected film programmes.
7. HELL DRIVERS
‘Rainy Sundays Stormy Mondays’ is the retrospective side-bar featuring 13 of the very best British Noir thrillers. Brighton Rock, They Made Me a Fugitive and The Siege at Pinchgut rate highly, though the pick of them may by Cy Endfield’s tough-guy trucking classic Hell Drivers, featuring Patrick McGoohan as the brutal alpha-male Red and a support cast including Sid James, Herbert Lom, Stanley Baker and Sean Connery.
8.MEET THE FILMMAKERS: HAIFAA AL MANSOUR
Having earned her Masters in Film Studies from the University of Sydney, Saudi Arabian director Haifaa Al Mansour (pictured, left) took her craft back to her homeland and made Wadjda, screening in competition this year. It was the first feature film to be shot in The Kingdom, where cinemas are banned. As Saudi Arabia’s first woman film director, her journey was an incredible, at times daunting and dangerous one. She relates the tale at Sydney’s Apple Store on Saturday, June 8.
9. THE BOX SET: BURNING BUSH
Acclaimed Polish filmmaker Agniezska Holland’s 4 hour drama, shot for HBO Europe, follows the aftermath of one of the most pivotal moments in the political history of Czechoslavakia – the self-immolation and subsequent death of Jan Palach in January 1969, who was protesting Soviet occupation of the territory. Another small-screen gem getting a bigscreen run in SFF is Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa's mini-series Penance, a generational study in grief that played Venice and Toronto to high praise.
10. …AND SEX.
Never a gathering to shy away from the pleasures and pitfalls of flesh on film, SFF 2013 presents a vast array of programme choices to delight, arouse and, possibly, disturb you. Burlesque darling Beth B explores the NYC underground in Exposed; Jeffery Schwartz tries to define the immortal allure of Harris Glenn Milstead in I am Divine; Amanda Seyfriend bares all in the biopic, Lovelace; Steve Coogan plays pornography game-changer Paul Raymond in Michael Winterbottom’s The Look of Love; and new-agers do it for the trees in the offbeat enviro-doco, F**k For Forest. One casualty, though: Christina Voros’ no-holds-barred look at fetish practices, Kink, has already been pulled from the programme.
Full details of all the screenings and events at the 2013 Sydney Film Festival can be found here.