The burgeoning online film festival landscape expands further with the launch of the 2020 Virtual Indigenous Film Festival this week. In conjunction with National Reconciliation Week, streaming provider Fanforce TV will present in-home content that speaks directly to the history, culture and society of Australia’s indigenous people.
National Reconciliation Week aims to teach all Australians about our shared histories, cultures and achievements. This year's theme, #InThisTogether, reminds us that we all shape our country’s journey towards an equitable and reconciled nation. National Reconciliation Week is held annually from 27 May to 3 June, as these dates commemorate two significant milestones in the reconciliation journey - respectively, the successful 1967 referendum and the High Court Mabo decision.
The programming of the Virtual Indigenous Film Festival highlights narratives that address the intertwined ancient and contemporary indigenous experience. The six films to screen are Maya Newell’s In My Blood it Runs (pictured, right), a coming-of-age story pitting the traditions of the Arrernte/Garrwa people against state education; Daniel Gordon’s account of footballer Adam Goodes’ journey, The Australian Dream; Paul Williams’ biography of the late singer/songwriter, Gurrumul; Nicholas Wrathall’s Undermined: Tales From the Kimberley, an insight into the industrial exploitation of First Nation’s sacred land; Sera Davies’ chronicle of a family fighting for the return of their patriarch’s legacy, Namatjira Project; and, Aaron Petersen’s moving account of a disenfranchised Aboriginal youth and his rite-of-passage to manhood, Zach’s Ceremony (pictured, top).
"It will be a great opportunity for us to speak directly to people everywhere about our film and its educational programs that have been making a real impact,” says Zach Domadgee (pictured, right), via press release. “This is what Reconciliation Week is about."
“We are hoping that the Festival will inspire lots of discussion with audiences right across Australia and New Zealand.” says Fanforce founder Danny Lachevre. “At most festivals it is difficult or intimidating for the audience to ask questions or join the conversation. This will remove those barriers and enable everyone to join in from the privacy of their homes.”
SCREEN-SPACE acknowledges and pays respect to past, present and future Traditional Custodians and Elders of this nation. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples should be aware that the festival may contain images or names of people who have passed away.
Writer/director Lynn Shelton, one of independent cinema's strongest auteur voices and a leading creative influence within the television sector, passed away from a blood disorder on Friday, at the age of 54.
The Ohio native, who became a prominent advocate for and beloved figure in the Seattle filmmaking scene, was recognised as an innovative storyteller, whose naturalistic dialogue and character-focussed drama made her a critical favourite and indie sector champion. From her introspective debut feature We Go Way Back (2006), which earned her the Slamdance Film Festival Best Director award, and 2008 sophomore effort My Effortless Brilliance (2008) Shelton was lauded as one of the strongest proponents of the ‘mumblecore’ film movement.
Her third feature, Humpday (2009), would prove her breakout festival hit. Labelled by the British Film Institute as, “a fiercely astute, frequently hilarious riff on the ‘bromantic’ comedy sub-genre”, it starred fellow mumblecore figurehead Mark Duplass and Joshua Leonard (pictured, right; with Shelton) as straight friends coerced into a ‘homosexual art project’. A Sundance Jury Prize winner and National Board of Review Top Independent Film honoree, Humpday paved the way for Shelton’s distinctive and adored feature film output, which included Your Sister’s Sister (2011), Touchy Feely (2013), Laggies (2014), Outside In (2017) and Sword of Trust (2019).
Posting a statement on Twitter, Duplass said…
The industry response to Duplass' tweet, from such peers as Olivia Wilde, Josh & Benny Safdie, Greg Mottola, Shawn Levy and Chris O’Dowd, was indicative of Shelton’s standing within the film community.
Between feature films, Lynn Shelton made some of the most critically acclaimed television hours of the last decade. Her unmistakable energy and honesty enlivened episodes of Mad Men, New Girl, The Mindy Project, The Good Place, Santa Clarita Diet, Shameless, Touchy Feely, Dickinson and Fresh Off the Boat. Most recently, she directed Reese Witherspoon (pictured, right; with her director) and Kerry Washington in four episodes of Little Fires Everywhere, streaming service Hulu’s acclaimed adaptation of Celeste Ng's 2017 bestselling book. Witherspoon, who also worked with Shelton on the Apple TV series The Morning Show, took to her social profile on Twitter to express her sadness…
In recent years, she entered into first a creative partnership, then a romantic one, with actor/comedian Marc Maron. Having directed episodes of his debut series Maron, the pair became close. She would direct him in her last feature, Sword of Trust as well as five episodes of his hit Netflix series GLOW, opposite Alison Brie, and two stand-up specials, ‘Too Real’ (2017) and his most recent, ‘End Times Fun’ (2020).
Maron addressed her shock passing in a public statement that read, in part, “I loved her very much as I know many of you did as well. It’s devastating. I am leveled, heartbroken and in complete shock and don’t really know how to move forward in this moment. She was a beautiful, kind, loving, charismatic artist. Her spirit was pure joy. She made me happy. I made her happy. We were happy. I made her laugh all the time. We laughed a lot. We were starting a life together. I really can’t believe what is happening. This is a horrendous, sad loss.”
Many entertainment industry figures who were touched by her talent have expressed their grief...
(Pictured, above; Brie and her GLOW director Shelton in a pic courtesy of the actress' Instagram page)
The Criterion Channel continues to provide premium viewing options over the isolation period. A jewel in their programming crown is Adventures in Moviegoing, the ‘films that inspire me’ series that has gone one-on-one with such talents as Sofia Coppola, Paul Feig, Guillermo del Toro, Brad Bird and Julie Taymor. This Sunday May 3, presenter Peter Becker goes one-on-two, when he chats with Josh and Benny Safdie, the filmmaking brothers behind such anxiety-inducing thrillers as Uncut Gems (2019), Good Times (2017) and Heaven Knows What (2014).
Ahead of the latest episode, a handful of works that The Safdies will be referencing were announced, allowing fans time to catch up with the films and filmmakers that rev up the already frantic creative impulses of two of Hollywood’s most exciting young directors...
THE NAKED CITY (Dir: Jules Dassin; U.S.A., 1948) Stars: Barry Fitzgerald, Howard Duff (pictured, right) and Dorothy Hart. WINNER - 1949 Academy Awards for Best Cinematography, Best Editing. Plot: Two New York City detectives investigate the death of an attractive young woman. The apparent suicide turns out to be murder. Need to know…: One of the first films to list technical credits at the end of the movie; a young photographer named Stanley Kubrick shot behind-the-scenes stills for Look magazine.
IN A LONELY PLACE (Dir: Nicholas Ray; U.S.A., 1950) Stars: Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Grahame and Frank Lovejoy. Plot: A potentially violent screenwriter is a murder suspect until his lovely neighbor clears him. However, she soon starts to have her doubts. Need to know…: Included in the National Film Registry in 2007; the marriage of star Gloria Grahame and director Nicholas Ray dissolved during filming, the pair keeping it secret from the studio for fear that one of them would be replaced.
CAMERA BUFF (Dir: Krzysztof Kieślowski; Poland, 1979) Stars: Jerzy Stuhr, Malgorzata Zabkowska and Ewa Pokas. WINNER - Golden Prize and FIPRESCI Prize at the 1979 Moscow International Film Festival. Plot: When a young father buys an eight-millimetre movie camera to record his new baby’s growth, he inadvertently becomes the official photographer for the local bureaucracy. His new passion comes with domestic stress and fresh philosophical dilemmas. Need to know…: One of four films shot by Kieślowski in 1979, alongside Seven Women of Different Ages, From a Night Porter’s Point of View, and Kartoteka.
GLORIA (Dir: John Cassavetes; U.S.A., 1980) Stars: Gena Rowlands (pictured, right), Buck Henry and Julie Carmen. WINNER - 1980 Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Plot: When a young boy's family is killed by the mob, their tough neighbor Gloria becomes his reluctant guardian and the pair go on the run in New York. Need to know…: After Faces (1968) and A Woman Under the Influence (1974), this was John Cassavetes’ third film to receive an Academy Award nomination - for his wife Gena Rowlands, for Best Actress.
BLESS THEIR LITTLE HEARTS (Dir: Billy Woodberry, 1984) Stars: Nate Hardman, Kaycee Moore and Angela Burnett. WINNER - Otto Dibelius ‘New Cinema’ Film Award at the 1984 Berlin International Film Festival. Plot: Charlie Banks views his chronic unemployment as a spiritual trial, but he can’t sustain a family of five. While his wife works to support them with dignity, Charlie has an affair that threatens his marriage and family. Need to know…: Included in the 2013 National Film Registry; featured in Thom Andersen’s landmark 2003 collage film, Los Angeles Plays Itself.
MEANTIME (Dir: Mike Leigh, 1984) Stars Marion Bailey, Tim Roth and Phil Daniels. Plot: A working-class family struggles to stay afloat during the recession under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Mother is working, but father and the couple’s two sons are on the dole. Need to know…: Gary Oldman suffered an eye injury when Tim Roth threw a milk bottle into a fluorescent lighting strip, showering Oldman in glass and requiring a hospital stay; was made for British television, though scored theatrical seasons internationally after critical success at home.
CLOSE-UP (Dir: Abbas Kiarostami, 1990; pictured, right) Stars Hossain Sabzian, Mohsen Makhmalbaf and Abolfazl Ahankhah. NOMINEE - Cahiers du Cinéma Top 10 Films of 1991 (5th place) Plot: Pretending to be filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf, a conman enters a middle class home in Tehran, offering a prominent part in a next movie. The actual people involved in the incident re-enact the events that followed. Need to know…: Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider.
HERO (Dir: Stephen Frears; U.S.A., 1992) Stars Dustin Hoffman, Geena Davis and Andy Garcia. Plot: A down-on-his-luck thief tops of a bad day when he loses a shoe while rescuing passengers of a plane crash. Celebrity beckons for the petty crook and he plans to take advantage, but then someone else claims credit for it. Need to know…: Mariah Carey originally recorded her hit single, "Hero", for this movie, Sony Records did not think the power ballad was a good fit; Chevy Chase appears uncredited in the Columbia Pictures release because of contractual obligations he had with Warner Bros at the time.
THE MIRROR (Dir: Jafar Panahi; Iran, 1997) Stars Mina Mohammad Khani, Aida Mohammadkhani and Kazem Mojdehi. WINNER - Golden Leopard at the 1997 Locarno International Film Festival. Plot: When a young girl becomes lost in the hustle and bustle of Tehran, her journey turns into a dazzling exercise on the nature of film itself. Need to know…: Panahi has said that the film was meant to show how "reality and the imagination are intertwined, they are very similar".
ADVENTURES IN MOVIEGOING with JOSH and BEN SAFDIE will have its international premiere on Sunday May 3 via The Criterion Channel.
Cinematographer Allen Daviau, the five-time Oscar nominee whose collaborations with such directors as Steven Spielberg, Albert Brooks, Peter Weir and Barry Levinson would earn him the American Society of Cinematographers’ Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007, passed away in Hollywood on Wednesday, aged 77.
His final hours were spent at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, his home for the last eight years. It is understood his death is Coronavirus related, making him the fourth resident of the facility to succumb to the virus.
Born John Allen Daviau on June 14 1942, the Louisiana native became enamoured with the moving image in the early days of colour television. In a 2004 interview with Moviehole, Daviau said, “I was 12 years old. I said, ‘I have to find out how that works’. The more I learned about photography, the more fascinated I was with the cinematographer, the director of photography and what that job was.”
Daviau was mentored by fellow Loyola High School graduate and University of Southern California Cinema Department student Bob Epstein. “Epstein introduced me to filmmakers like De Sica, Fellini, Bergman, Bresson, Ozu, and Kurosawa,” Daviau recounted in an interview with MovieMaker magazine. At the age of 16, Daviau gained access to the set of One-Eyed Jacks, the directorial debut of Marlon Brando, and watched as cinematographer Charles Lang lit an enormous sound stage. “I thought to myself that this man has the very best job in the history of the world,” said Daviau.
By the mid 1960s, with a 16mm Beaulieu camera by his side, Daviau became a sought-after cameraman in the music industry (he shot concert footage of The Animals and Jimi Hendrix) and the advertising sector. In 1968, the 25 year-old Daviau teamed with a young director named Steven Spielberg to shoot the now iconic short film, Amblin’. When Spielberg (pictured, above; with Daviau, right) was first contracted to Universal, he tried to bring his friend on board, and the studio sought to sign Daviau.
But the deal was struck down by the International Photographers’ Guild, the hardline cinematographers’ union that oversaw the sector at the time. Daviau recalled, “Back then the union was nepotistic and, if you didn't have a close personal contact, you just did not get in. It literally took me, and a handful of other now-prominent DP's - Caleb Deschanel, Tak Fujimoto, Andy Davis and others - a decade to gain entrance into the International Photographer's Guild. And, we finally had to file suit to get in.”
While Spielberg conquered the world, Allen Daviau spent the best part of the next decade shooting documentaries (including the Oscar-nominated Say Goodbye, in 1971) and made-for-television movies. He lensed three features - Richard Erdman’s western comedy The Brothers O’Toole (1973), Bob Hammer’s martial arts documentary New Gladiators (1973) and the Bruce Dern western, Harry Tracy, Desperado (1981) for William A. Graham - but honed his art and craft on short form work, including commercials and music videos.
He reunited with his friend Steven Spielberg briefly mid-decade, when he shot the ‘Gobi Desert’ sequence of Close Encounters of The Third Kind for one of his idols, the film’s cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond. But it would be 1981 when Spielberg and Daviau’s first feature film collaboration came together. Working from Melissa Mathison’s script, then titled ‘E.T. and Me’, Spielberg convinced a sceptical Universal he could make the film for US$10million. Recalls Daviau, in an interview for Henderson’s Film Industries, “I was lucky that it was such a low budget, because he was looking for someone who was fast and inexpensive, and there I was.” (Pictured, above; Daviau, with Spielberg, shooting E.T.)
E.T. The Extra-terrestrial (1982) became the most successful film of all time and Daviau, with his first Oscar nomination under his belt, gained entry into the top-tier of Hollywood cinematographers. Of Daviau’s contribution to the alien’s lifelike appearance, Spielberg told American Cinematographer magazine in January 1983, “It took a lot more time to light E.T. than to light any of the human beings, and I think Allen spent his best days and his most talented hours in giving E.T. more expressions than perhaps (inventor) Carlo Rambaldi and I had envisioned. He found by moving a light, by moving the source of the key from half-light to top-light, E.T.’s 40 expressions were suddenly 80.”
His working relationship with his lifetime friend continued for another 15 years, with Daviau shooting the Spielberg-directed works ‘Kick the Can’ for Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983; he also shot Dr George Miller’s segment, ‘Nightmare at 20,000 Feet’); the Amazing Stories episode, ‘Ghost Train’; The Color Purple (1985), for which he earned his second Oscar nomination; and, Empire of the Sun (1987; pictured, below, with actor Christian Bale), again deemed Academy Award standard and for which he won the BAFTA Best Cinematography prize.
He also shot the Spielberg-produced adventures Harry and The Hendersons (1987) for director William Dear, and Congo (1995) for longtime Spielberg producer Alan Marshall. In 1985, he teamed with veteran director John Schlesinger for the politically-charged true story, The Falcon and The Snowman.
Allen Daviau’s mastery of source light and ethereal imagery came to the fore in three of the most beautifully shot films of the 1990s. He would earn his fourth Oscar nomination for his first collaboration with director Barry Levinson, on the director’s autobiographical drama Avalon (1990), and his fifth for Levinson’s gangster drama, Bugsy (1991), with Warren Beatty. In 1993, Australian director Peter Weir perfectly utilised Daviau’s visionary eye on what many consider his finest work, the PTSD drama Fearless, with Jeff Bridges. “We agreed that image clarity was the critical issue,” Daviau told the Cinephilia Beyond website. “I like images that are open and that speak very clearly photographically. This film is often a study of faces and eyes. Peter is very respectful of the power of close-ups. He speaks about that topic very eloquently, stating that even painters can’t equal the power of the motion picture close-up. We often came in a lot tighter than you normally see on close-ups, often using Jeff’s eyes to pull the audience into scenes.”
His diverse talent was utilised by writer/director Albert Brooks for the afterlife comedy Defending Your Life (1991) and by filmmaker Rand Ravich for the thriller The Astronaut’s Wife (1999), starring Johnny Depp and Charlize Theron. His final feature would be Stephen Sommer’s horror/adventure Van Helsing (2004), with Hugh Jackman.
In the wake of Daviau’s passing, Steven Spielberg released a short statement via his production company Amblin. “In 1968, Allen and I started our careers side by side. Allen was a wonderful artist but his warmth and humanity were as powerful as his lens. He was a singular talent and a beautiful human being.”
Vanity Fair overnight revealed exclusive first-look images from Denis Villeneuve’s forthcoming adaptation of Frank Herbert’s iconic 1965 science-fiction novel, Dune. The director’s first film since Blade Runner 2049 will unfold in two parts, the first of which is scheduled to premiere December 18. “I would not agree to make this adaptation of the book with one single movie,” Villeneuve told VF writer Anthony Breznican. “The world is too complex. It’s a world that takes its power in details.” (All photo credits: Chiabella James)
(Above: Timothée Chalamet, as Paul Atreides, and Rebecca Ferguson, as Lady Jessica Atreides)
The French-Canadian director, who co-wrote the script with Jon Spaihts (Prometheus; Doctor Strange; Passengers) and Oscar-winner Eric Roth (Forrest Gump; Munich; A Star is Born), shot the film in several countries to capture the landscapes imagined in Herbert's series of books. Exteriors were lensed in Jordan, Norway, Slovakia and the U.A.E., while mammoth studio sets were constructed on the Origo Film Studio lot in Budapest, Hungary.
(Above: Villeneuve, left, on-set with star Javier Bardem, as Stilgar)
Protagonist Paul Atreides is played by Oscar nominee Timothée Chalamet, who recalls the sandstone valley locations in remote southern Jordan which served as the otherwordly landscape of the planet Arrakis. “There are these Goliath landscapes, which you may imagine existing on planets in our universe, but not on Earth," the actor told Vanity Fair. "I remember going out of my room at 2 a.m., and it being probably 100 degrees. The shooting temperature was sometimes 120 degrees. They put a cap on it out there; if it gets too hot, you can’t keep working.”
(Above: The House Atreides, Left to Right: Timothée Chalamet, Stephen Mckinley Henderson, Oscar Isaac, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin and Jason Momoa)
Cast announcements ignited the internet, with the rabid fanbase weighing in on every production development. Alongside Chalamet will be Oscar Isaac as his father, Duke Leto Atreides, and Rebecca Ferguson as Lady Jessica, Paul’s mother and member of the mystical Bene Gesserit sect. Other cast members include Jason Momoa as Duncan Idaho, Zendaya as Chani, Javier Bardem as Stilgar, Charlotte Rampling as Gaius Helen Mohiam, Dave Bautista as Glossu Rabban, David Dastmalchian as Piter De Vries, Chang Chen as Dr. Wellington Yueh, Stellan Skarsgård as the villainous Baron Harkonnen, and Josh Brolin as Gurney Halleck.
(Above: Zendaya, as Chani)
In 2017, Villeneuve told Variety that the opportunity to direct an adaptaion of Dune was too good an opportunity to let pass. "Since I was 12 years old, there was a book I read, which is Dune, which is my favorite book," he said. "After Prisoners, the producer [at] Alcon asked me what I would like to do next. I said, ‘Dune, if anyone could get me the rights for Dune’. And I knew it was very difficult to get those rights. I have images that I am haunted by for 35 years."
(Above: Sharon Duncan-Brewster as Liet Kynes)
Though a devotee of Herbert's novel, Villeneuve understood a 2020 adaptation of a 1965 story would need to be made contemporary, regardless of how visionary the source material had been. As Lady Jessica Atreides, Rebecca Ferguson had her part expanded considerably. "She’s a mother, she’s a concubine, she’s a soldier,” says Ferguson. “Denis was very respectful of Frank’s work, [but] the quality of the arcs for much of the women have been brought up to a new level." Arrakis ecologist Liet Kynes has been gender-swapped entirely, with Sharon Duncan-Brewster playing the part written as a white man. "This human being manages to basically keep the peace amongst many people," says the actress. "Women are very good at that, so why can’t Kynes be a woman? Why shouldn’t Kynes be a woman?"
(Above: Jason Momoa as Duncan Idaho)
Key contributors to the production include composer Hans Zimmer (Dunkirk; Interstellar; Crimson Tide); director of photography, Australian Greig Fraser (Lion; Vice; Rogue One; Zero Dark Thirty); editor and longtime Villeneuve collaborator Joe Walker (Arrival; Sicario; 12 Years a Slave); and, production designer Patrice Vermette (Vice; The Mountain Between Us; Cafe de Flore). Crucial to the production are veteran costumers Bob Morgan (Three Kings; The Lord of War; Inceptions) and Jacqueline West (The Revenant; Argo; The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), who supervised the construction of the functional desert-wear known as 'stillsuits'.
(Above, from left: Josh Brolin as Gurney Halleck; Rebecca Ferguson as Lady Jessica Atreides; Oscar Isaac as Duke Leto Atreides)
ALL PHOTO CREDITS: CHIABELLA JAMES. First published by Vanity Fair on April 15, 2020.
Monday, May 25, 2020 at 2:27PM 
The programming of the Virtual Indigenous Film Festival highlights narratives that address the intertwined ancient and contemporary indigenous experience. The six films to screen are Maya Newell’s In My Blood it Runs (pictured, right), a coming-of-age story pitting the traditions of the Arrernte/Garrwa people against state education; Daniel Gordon’s account of footballer Adam Goodes’ journey, The Australian Dream; Paul Williams’ biography of the late singer/songwriter, Gurrumul; Nicholas Wrathall’s Undermined: Tales From the Kimberley, an insight into the industrial exploitation of First Nation’s sacred land; Sera Davies’ chronicle of a family fighting for the return of their patriarch’s legacy, Namatjira Project; and, Aaron Petersen’s moving account of a disenfranchised Aboriginal youth and his rite-of-passage to manhood, Zach’s Ceremony (pictured, top).
"It will be a great opportunity for us to speak directly to people everywhere about our film and its educational programs that have been making a real impact,” says Zach Domadgee (pictured, right), via press release. “This is what Reconciliation Week is about."
