SKID ROW MARATHON: THE MARK AND GABRIELE HAYES INTERVIEW

2019 MELBOURNE DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL: The act of running is inherently about striving for a goal; one sets out with a determination to compete, earn a place, achieve a PB. For some, that is a life lesson that needs reinforcing. Judge Craig Mitchell of the Los Angeles Criminal Court runs, and he does so with a group of recovering addicts from the Midnight Mission facility, a bastion of hope located on Skid Row in downtown LA. The journey that the Judge and his runners undertook to run a marathon in Italy while fighting their own demons is the soaring narrative of Skid Row Marathon, from the husband and wife production team of Gabriele and Mark Hayes. “The film is about second chances, about reconnecting with your own dignity,” says Gabriele, who spoke to SCREEN-SPACE with her partner and co-director ahead of the film’s Australian premiere at the 2019 MDFF…

SCREEN-SPACE: Judge Mitchell is the spiritual core of the film; the recovering addicts and homeless are the many hearts. When did the balancing act that is your narrative structure start to take shape?

GABRIELE: After we had shot about 300 hours of footage over three years we started stringing out the material in big segments. We had several rough cuts focusing on our main five characters - Judge Mitchell, David Askew, Ben Shirley, Rafael Cabrera and Rebecca Hayes. We used a big board with index cards to shape the story, which really helped to see where critical scenes were missing. We realized that is wasn’t clear who Judge Mitchell is; his backstory and his family were missing. But Judge Mitchell’s wife, Juliet, made it clear at the beginning that she didn’t want to be part of the documentary. It took us over three years to convince her that she needed to be a part of it. The interview with Juliet and the graduation of Judge Mitchell’s son Jordan were the last things we filmed.

SCREEN-SPACE: Did you envision, and budget for, a production that would take you to Ghana and Italy? Over the course of the shoot, did the unpredictability of a factual film project ever take a toll?

MARK: Our project is about homeless people running marathons. We were often reminded how similar running a marathon is to making a documentary. The first few miles are easy.  It’s around mile fifteen that you have to start digging deep and making sure things don’t fall apart. And just like a marathon, it’s important to go the distance and to finish. (Pictured, above; Mark and Gabriele Hayes)

GABRIELE: We thought it would take about a year, maximum two years, and that the only trip we would need to take was Ghana and we’d end with the LA Marathon in 2014. However, we returned from Ghana (and) Rebecca joined the running club and we felt her story was very compelling. We followed her to Seattle where she had been a heroin addict living in an alley with her three year old son. We realized that Rome had to be the coming together of all the stories. It was a once in a lifetime experience. Rome was the most expensive part of the production but it was all worth it. Then the editing process took over nine months to finish, and good editors are very expensive. We were running out of money and often came close to giving up. Then we thought of all the runners, like Rebecca for example. She was working, going to school, had a five year-old and trained for marathons. We thought if she can do it, so can we. In December 2016 we had a private screening for friends (and) a well-known editing consultant came up to us and said that he liked our film but we needed to make some changes. $50,000 later, we have the film that you will see at the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival.

SCREEN-SPACE: What revelations about the nature of addiction impacted you during the shoot?

GABRIELE: We learnt a lot about addiction during the four years of filming. Initially, we had several runners we would follow but they relapsed and disappeared. It really affected me personally because they seemed on such a good path of getting better and then all of a sudden they relapsed. It happened especially with people who couldn’t handle the stress of getting a job or getting back into school. It was too much for them. It was also very sad to see Mody relapse after he opened his luggage store. We were very proud of him that he was sober for over a year. We asked him why he would do that and he responded, “I am lonely.” Our hearts sunk and we understood. People relapse if they don’t have a very good support system. 

SCREEN-SPACE: Was earning the trust of the Skid Row community, having them allow your cameras into their lives, one of the production's main challenges?

GABRIELE: At the beginning it was very hard to gain the trust of the runners. We read about Judge Mitchell and his running club in March 2013, just before the LA Marathon. The next day we contacted the Judge and pitched the documentary. At the time the running club was still small, maybe 5-8 people. He was on board right away but warned us that the runners may not be interested in being filmed. He suggested that we run with them first. So, we ran with the club for six weeks before we started shooting. We started out filming just the training runs and then slowly asked Rafael, Ben, and David for interviews. We felt their stories were the strongest. Rafael was the most open one and we could follow him around; Ben didn’t trust us at all and it took a long time for him to let us film him. For example, he wouldn’t tell us when he was moving out of the Midnight Mission. What we learnt was that when Mark and I would just film our subjects, in that ‘fly on the wall’ style, they would open up and be themselves. Also, it was very dangerous to film on Skid Row. People threw bottles at us, had knives and ran after us to destroy our cameras. We constantly had to be aware that something could happen. (Pictured, above; Judge Craig Mitchell) 

SCREEN-SPACE: If there is a call-to-action that you hope resonates with audiences, what would that be?  

GABRIELE: So many times we ignore people that are in the streets or abandoned because we are so focused on ourselves. Look around yourself and see if someone is in need.  It doesn’t take much, like Judge Mitchell said, maybe just a phone call on behalf of someone. We hope that after seeing the film the audience will be inspired to take action to get involved in their own community. (Pictured, above; Midnight Mission runner Rebecca Hayes) 

MARK: It became clear that the Judge was a very special individual. Here was a guy whose day job is to send people off to prison for long sentences but in his spare times helps many of the same types of people to get their lives together through running. While making this film, we learned that when it comes to some of the biggest problems facing us as a society, it is better to do something, even if it’s small, and be part of a solution rather than just doing nothing.

SKID ROW MARATHON screens on July 27 at Cinema Nova as part of the 2019 MELBOURNE DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL. Full ticketing and session details can be found at the event's official website.

FORGED FROM FIRE: THE ANDREW GARTON INTERVIEW

Over the weekend of Saturday February 7, 2009, a wall of fire swept through rural Victoria, leaving in its wake 4,500 km² of devastation; over 3,500 buildings were destroyed, countless wild and domesticated animals perished, and 173 people died. From the ashes of what would become known as ‘Black Saturday’, decimated communities began to reform through unifying actions that define the true spirit of Australians. One such endeavor was ‘The Blacksmith’s Tree’, a monument six years in the making, featuring leaves forged from the steel of metal craftsmen from the region. Soon, news of artist and project founder Amanda Gibson’s vision reached blacksmiths the world over; the result - a three tonne, 9.8-metre tall stainless steel and copper gum tree, its canopy comprised of over 3500 leaves forged in 20 different countries.

Director Andrew Garton boarded the project in 2011, assembling footage shot by local Warwick Page since 2009 as well as providing cameras to the welders and volunteers at the forefront of The Tree Project. In February 2019, Garton finished Forged From Fire, a remarkable account of the decade it took to build The Blacksmith’s Tree, and the resurgent spirit that the project inspired. “It's incredible how a tragic event can bring people together,” says the director, who spoke to SCREEN-SPACE ahead of the film’s screening at the 2019 Melbourne Documentary Film Festival. (Photo credit: Deepshika Rameshkumar)

SCREEN-SPACE: Describe your collaboration with Amanda Gibson (pictured, below). What did you see in her that drove her to make this project work?

GARTON: Amanda would call to let me know when there was action at the forge or the Tree Project Factory. I'd turn up with my camera and gradually disappear into the events of the day, or the many evenings for that matter. Amanda and her team trusted that I wouldn't interfere, that I would blend in. And everyone trusted Amanda's judgement and capacity for keeping us all together. We all knew that Amanda had the drive to make this happen, was devoted to it and everyone working on it. It was her capacity to understand the sensitivities out in the community and care she took to modulate every aspect of the Blacksmiths' Tree so that everyone felt involved and, well, together, that was rare and cinematic - Amanda is Forged from Fire's heroine!

SCREEN-SPACE: The eight-year production schedule must have provided hours of footage and interview content. How structured was your narrative and how much did it alter over the course of the shoot/post period?

GARTON: I created a loose structure, a mind map actually, based on a timeline of events, mostly to manage all the assets. Once I had all the interviews transcribed and extensive shot lists spread across index cards, I began work on a post-script. It was reading through all the interviews that a narrative of sorts emerged. But it was one thing referring to transcripts, it was another finding (that) the spoken word often didn't fit the nuanced flow I was looking for. But I had to lock off a script, both to ensure I had a narrative arch to refer back to and to not get lost in all the material we had shot. It was also important that the footage I'd received from other filmmakers honoured their vision but didn't detract from the emotive visual and aural flow of the work. 

SCREEN-SPACE: Your subject matter demands your emotional engagement, and presents daily displays of profound sadness. How does that impact you, the documentarian? Were you able to stay objective? Did you have moments when you needed to 'purge' emotion?

GARTON: I don't ever purge emotion, but there were times I'd put the camera down. If people were unable to talk to Amanda many would turn to me. There were times when all sorts of people would want to share their fire story with me. Being with the Blacksmiths' Tree, no matter what stage of the process it was in, their connection to it would create a safe space in which stories would be shared. I didn't film these interactions. There's a time when one documents and there's a time one connects without a camera. Of course when it comes to post you have to make tough decisions. I think you have to remain objective and balance one's emotions simultaneously. After all, as a filmmaker one's stories to be communicated well, to reach people, to connect with people and this is a huge responsibility.

Forged from Fire - Trailer from Andrew Garton on Vimeo.

SCREEN-SPACE: The Tree proved a cathartic, unifying work of art. Does your film have a similar affect when you watch it with people from the region?

GARTON: It doesn't matter where (we screen) the film, whether in the region or elsewhere, so many emotions emerge. Some years ago, an earlier shorter version of the film was screened at a human rights event in Barcelona. Everyone in the audience appeared touched by the film. Some mentioned how similar we are... It's incredible how a tragic event can bring people together, that their humanity can to be recognised by those who are watching the film. The film brings out all sorts of stories in people. It seems to create a safe space in which people both listen, share deeply moving stories and feel comfortable to do so. 

SCREEN-SPACE: What is your lasting, most impactful memory of the production's history?

GARTON: The most memorable moment was the first day of shooting that our incredible D.O.P. Mike Wilkins (pictured, right) and I did together, back in December 2013, when I interviewed most of the men and women involved in the creation of the Blacksmiths' Tree. In spite of the many who had been directly affected by Black Saturday they found solace, they found comfort and inspiration in each other, in being together, in creating something no one had ever done before, that they were part of this. To both listen to their stories and that they felt comfortable to share them with me, in front of a camera and everything else we had going, was a tremendous gift. These people, their testimonies, their trust, the quality of their character and the essence of the voice, these were what kept me going when the going got tough and it often did. I think we are better together than apart.

FORGED FROM FIRE will screen on July 22 at the Backlot Cinemas as part of the 2019 MELBOURNE DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL. Full session and ticketing information can be found at the official website.

FORM, BEAUTY, AMBITION CELEBRATED IN MELBOURNE DESIGN WEEK FILM FESTIVAL

The third annual Melbourne Design Week will this year examine how cinema and design co-exist as art forms with a screening program of films celebrating vision, invention and ambition. The unique festival-within-a-festival has been constructed by Richard Sowada, a programmer whose status as one of our best curatorial minds was honed overseeing Perth’s Revelation and Sydney’s American Essentials seasons. “There's some real spirituality in many of the titles and they're filled with beautiful clean lines and wonderful philosophy,” he told SCREEN-SPACE, ahead of the 10-day schedule set to unfurl in Australia’s first UNESCO City of Design…

“The brief for this program was ‘experimentation’ and that's precisely what these films are about,” says Sowada (pictured, below), who has chosen films from such fields as architecture, photography, industrial and product innovation, futurism, urban planning and the history of design, as well as the aesthetics of the natural world. “They're about experimentation with space, philosophy, mechanics, texture, people, psychology and colour. With those parameters, cinema and design exist in the same space and place.”

Among the 11 films that will screen as part of the Melbourne Design Week Film Festival are Adrian McCarthy’s Portrait of a Gallery, an all-access insight into The National Gallery of Ireland’s enormous refurbishment project; Rob Lindsay’s Relics of the Future, photographer Toni Hafkenscheid’s study of iconic 1960s architectural structures once considered ‘futuristic’; Mies on Scene. Barcelona in Two Acts, a stirring account of the history of the iconic Barcelona Pavillon from directors Xavi Camprecios and Pep Martin; and, Chad Friedrich’s The Experimental City, which explores the plans to construct a full-size eco-friendly city from scratch in the isolated woods of northern Minnesota.

“The films have a different kind of character to other documentaries and they by and large marry style and content very well,” says Sowada. “They are works of art/design in their own right, filled with light, space and texture.” He points to two examples in particular as most synonymous with his programming objectives – Mark Lewis’ Inventions, a whirling tour of cityscapes that pays homage to the City Symphony films of the 1920s; and, Homo Sapiens (pictured, top), a breathtaking, heartbreaking testament to forgotten structures from Austrian visualist Nikolaus Geyrhalter. “No dialogue, true symphonic pieces that demand to be seen on the big screen in the highest fidelity,” he say, noting, “This is one of the things I think films in this genre embrace - scale.”

Further emphasizing the theme of scale and mankind’s relationship to both the natural world and landscapes of our own creation are Jennifer Baichwal’s Watermark, a visual essay on our often tenuous co-existence with water, as shot by the great photographer Edward Burtynsky; Mark Noonan’s biographical feature on arguably America’s greatest living structuralist, Kevin Roche: The Quiet Architect; and, In Between the Mountains and The Oceans (trailer, below), a chronicle of the building of the great Japanese temple Ise Jingu as captured by acclaimed photographer Masa-aki Miyazawa. (Pictured, above; a still from Rob Lindsay's Relics of the Future)

Richard Sowada hopes that his line-up of films will strengthen and more clearly define the common bond between cinema and design construction. “Ultimately, they're about emotion and connection with the viewer/user,” he says. “If they're to have a lasting effect they need to come from an authentic place and have a reason to be. These deeper connections cut across time and borders - they are understandable in a universal way. They’re so clean and pure but also are filled with drama and challenge.”

The MELBOURNE DESIGN WEEK FILM FESTIVAL will run from March 14-24 at the Lido Cinemas, Hawthorn, and Classic Cinemas, Elsternwick. Full session and ticketing details can be fount at the official website.

SISTERS FOR SALE: THE BEN RANDALL INTERVIEW

In 2018, the U.S. Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report stated that, “The Government of Vietnam does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.” It has only been 12 months since Vietnamese penal code amendments criminalized all forms of labor trafficking took affect, yet they are changes that still fall short of outlawing all forms of child sex trafficking. For Ben Randall, the reality of the State Department findings motivate his every waking hour; the 2011 abduction and illegal trafficking into China of two of his young friends inspired the Australian filmmaker to make Sisters for Sale, a heartbreaking documentary that follows his attempts to not only find his missing friends, but also understand the social and political context in which such horrible acts can continue to occur.

Ahead of the film’s Australian Premiere at the 2019 Screenwave International Film Festival, Randall (pictured, above; in China's Guangdong province) spoke with SCREEN-SPACE about the extraordinary lives of May and Pang, the young women at the centre of his documentary; the nature of his relationship with the Hmong community of North Vietnam; and, the formation of his anti-trafficking organization, The Human, Earth Project…

SCREEN-SPACE: How did this become your crusade? Where were you in your life when you decided that engaging with the girl’s plight was your mission?

RANDALL: In 2012, I went through a very difficult time in my life. I found myself suddenly and unexpectedly with no home, no money, and no job in a city where I couldn't speak the language. A few people helped me get back on my feet, and I understood what a difference a good friend could make - not just in a material sense, but just knowing that someone cared. I wanted to pay that forward. My Hmong friend May had been kidnapped from Vietnam a few months earlier. I hadn't done anything because it didn't seem like there was anything much I could do. The trail had gone cold, and there was only a one-in-a-million chance of ever finding her - but I decided to give it my best shot. So I launched The Human, Earth Project. (Pictured, above; a street kidnapping in progress, from the film Sisters for Sale). 

SCREEN-SPACE: It is coming up on a decade since your English teaching assignment in Hmong became a lesson in the local custom of marriage-via-abduction. How altered was your life path and goals by the kidnapping of your friends in 2011-12?

RANDALL: The decision to return to Asia to search for May and Pang changed my life completely. The life I've lived over the past six years since the beginning of the project has been a difficult and occasionally dangerous one, with a huge amount of work and very little money - but I've been working towards something that's deeply important to me, which has given my life a real sense of meaning and purpose. I'd rather have that than be drifting through an easy, meaningless life, as I have been in the past. I've learned a lot about myself, what I'm capable of, and where my limitations lie, and my entire outlook on life has changed. (Pictured, left; Randall with Pang, centre, and her mother in Sapa, October 2014) 

SCREEN-SPACE: Much of the film is pure guerrilla-filmmaking, capturing what you can we you can in often very tense situations. Did local officials or the trafficking industry ever compromise the shoot?  

RANDALL: Sisters for Sale was shot in regions where there is a large and profitable industry in human lives. While it was never our intention to criticise Vietnam or China, both countries are highly sensitive to foreign media. In a sense, we were caught between the law and the outlaws, and it was critical to hide our investigation from both. We were living a strange double life. We relied on private contributions to continue the investigation, so while we were being extremely secretive about our work in person, we were publicising it online. It was risky work; we'll never know how close we were to being caught, but we were certainly lucky at times. 

SCREEN-SPACE: Has Sisters For Sale screened in Vietnam? Have the people of the village seen the film? 

RANDALL: As a filmmaker, I feel it's extremely important to spend time with your subject and do everything you can to understand it. Otherwise you're only passing on your own prejudices. I spent 15 months in Vietnam and China; Sapa, the primary location, was my home, the subjects of the film were my friends, and I was working closely with local people throughout production. Some of my friends from Sapa have seen the film and been extremely supportive of it. A planned screening in the capital city, Hanoi, fell through last month. We haven't yet made any other plans to screen in Vietnam, but will do so in the new year. (Pictured, above; young Hmong women in Sapa, from Sisters for Sale) 

SCREEN-SPACE: Are organisations such as your The Human, Earth Project and the similarly motivated Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation backed by western government dollars?

RANDALL: Blue Dragon Children's Foundation is a larger and longer-running organisation, which receives support from governments, organisations and individuals around the world. Our own project, The Human, Earth Project, is yet to acquire any major funding, and relies on the support of individuals. The Australian government has had no direct involvement with our work in Vietnam, and I'm not aware of their involvement in the region. Over the past six years, our work has been supported by thousands of people from over 70 countries. We're aware that there's always more we can be doing to raise awareness of human trafficking.

SCREEN-SPACE: This has been a long journey – for you, the girls, and the film; in every sense, it has proven a mammoth undertaking. What are the tangible benefits of the project’s existence? And what role does it need to play into the future?

RANDALL: It has been a long, strange journey for all of us, and it's fantastic to finally be sharing Sisters for Sale with the world. In making the film, I've been very careful not to oversimplify the human trafficking crisis in terms of "good guys" and "bad guys", as it is often presented in the media. It's a very complex issue, and I've worked hard to understand all points of view. The first step in solving any problem is awareness, and that's our goal. Our work has already reached millions of people around the world, even before the film's release. Many people have been surprised by the depth and nuance in the story. It has already sparked countless discussions around human trafficking and women's rights, and encouraged many people to support anti-trafficking efforts. The film itself will be used to raise awareness and support for Blue Dragon Children's Foundation, Alliance Anti-Trafic, and our own ongoing work. We're making plans to tour the film, and have been approached by a major publisher interested to develop the story as a book, which I'm writing now. Sisters for Sale is a fascinating and unique story, one that can make a real difference in the fight against the global human trafficking crisis. We'll keep working to get it out there. (Pictured, above; Hmong women from the Sapa valley in North Vietnam, as seen in Sisters for Sale)

SISTERS FOR SALE will screen Wednesday January 16 at the Screenwave International Film Festival. Full ticketing and session details can be found at the event's official website.

SCREEN-SPACE supports the efforts of The Human, Earth Project. The organization requires the generosity of donors to continue its work. Please follow this link to contribute to their mission.

PREVIEW: 2019 SCREENWAVE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

The strengthening of Coffs Harbour as a thriving film culture hub continues on January 10 when the 2019 Screenwave International Film Festival (SWIFF) rolls out the sandy red carpet. One of New South Wales’ most prestigious yet relaxed screening events, SWIFF has crafted a rigorously challenging roster, both artistically and intellectually, with bold new works from such fearless filmmakers as Lars Von Trier, Michael Moore, Lynne Ramsay and Gaspar Noé.

The two-pronged festival directing team of Dave Horsley and Kate Howat signal this year’s direction from Opening Night, with the hot-button social satire Terror Nullius kicking off the 16-day festival. A coarse, canny and brutally funny skewering of racism, patriarchy and social injustice, it is the work of Melbourne creative team Soda Jerk (pictured, below; Soda Jerk's Dan and Dominique Angeloro) who employ montage technique to rework classic Australian film scenes into fresh contemporary commentary. Closing Night honours have been bestowed upon Julian Schnabel’s At Eternity’s Gate, featuring a Golden Globe nominated Willem Dafoe as painter Vincent van Gogh.

The 2019 program statistics are impressive -60 films from 20 countries, including 14 Australian works and 30 films from women directors. Female identity and gender politics are addressed in the strand ‘Women of Action’, which highlights five films shot through the lens of women filmmakers. These include ¡Las Sandanistas!, documentarian Jenny Murray’s account of Nicaraguan warrior women; Stephanie Wang-Breal’s Blowin’ Up, an insider’s perspective of the lawyers fighting for the rights of sex workers in America’s broken justice system; and, Maysaloun Hamoud’s In Between, an Israeli-French co-production examining the clash of old and new cultures for three Palestinian women.

The vast World Cinema line-up fully justifies SWIFF’s standing on the international festival circuit, with 21 films set to unspool. Arriving uncut after inspiring shocked walkouts at its Cannes screening is Lars Von Trier’s serial killer saga, The House That Jack Built; bad boy Gaspar Noé captures a drug-addled descent into dance-party hell in Climax (pictured, top); and, the enigmatic Lynne Ramsay explores the nature of violence with leading man Joaquin Phoenix in her hitman thriller, You Were Never Really Here.

Some of the most acclaimed films from our global region will screen in World Cinema, with Ana Urushadze’s Scary Mother (Georgia/Estonia), Hirokazu Koreeda’s Palme d’Or winner Shoplifters (Japan) and Nadine Labaki’s Capernaum (Lebanon) all earning kudos from the Asia Pacific Screen Academy’s award body. Other countries represented include The Netherlands (Lukas Dhont’s Cannes FIPRESCI prize winner, Girl); Kenya (Wanuri Kahiu’s Rafiki; pictured, right); Bulgaria (Milko lazarov’s Aga); and, Poland (Spoor, from the directing team of Agnieszka Holland and Kasia Adamik).

Of course, Australian filmmakers are at the fore with strands covering fiction and non-fiction features. Heath Davis’ crowd-pleaser Book Week, Jason Raftopoulos’ father/son drama West of Sunshine starring the late Damian Hill, and Ted Wilson’s Tassie-set drama Under The Cover of Cloud are set to screen. The documentary sector will be represented by such acclaimed works as Ben Lawrence’s riveting Ghosthunter, Gabrielle Brady’s heartbreaking Island of The Hungry Ghosts, and Ben Randall’s teen-girl trafficking expose, Sisters For Sale, as well as the World Premiere of local filmmaker Ian Thompson’s Becoming Colleen.

International factual films will be presented under the banner ‘Pop Docs’, including Fahrenheit 11/9, the latest from political agitator Michael Moore, and Daniel J Clark’s flat-earther think piece, Behind the Curve. Mixing up fact and fiction will be the always popular ‘Music and The Makers’ line-up, which this year features Brett Haley’s feel-good hit Hearts Beat Loud, with Nick Offerman; Mantangi/Maya/M.I.A, Stephen Loveridge’s fly-on-the-wall coverage of the controversial UK rap sensation; and, Stephen Schible’s mesmerizing profile on the great Ryuichi Sakamoto, Coda.

SWIFF understand the breadth of its local audience and has ensured upmarket film festival types and the North Coast cool kids will be able to connect through the program. The surf film strand ‘Call of The Surf’ features the latest in ocean-themed cinema, including the late Rob Stewart’s final shark industry exposé Sharkwater Extinction and The Zimbalist Brothers profile of the Hawaiian surfing ‘new wave’ of the 1990s, Momentum Generation (pictured, right). And the amusingly-titled skater line-up, ‘Make America Skate Again’, will present three films including Bing Lui’s universally acclaimed Minding the Gap, a look at three friends who bond over their boards in America’s rust belt interior.

Two retrospective special presentations will delight cinema purists. The Coen Brothers’ cult classic O Brother, Where Art Thou? will screen accompanied by live music supplied by renowned local musos The Mid North Damn; and, in honour of the 130^th birthday of the late master of cinema Charlie Chaplin, SWIFF with screen his timeless political satire The Great Dictator.

Indicative of the festival’s commitment to regional cinema and support of young filmmakers, SWIFF will screen the work of the 20 finalists in the Nextwave youth filmmaking contest. A year-long statewide high-school and community initiative which has seen 50 workshops held in 11 New South Wales’ regions will culminate with the award ceremony on January 18 at the C.ex Coffs Auditorium, where $40,000 prize money will be distributed amongst the next generation of Australian filmmaking talent. (Pictured, right; SWIFF festival director Dave Horsley)

Read the SCREEN-SPACE interview with Scary Mother director Ana Urushadze and star Nato Murvandze here.

Read the SCREEN-SPACE review of Book Week here.

The 2019 Screenwave International Film Festival will run January 10-25 at two locations, The Jetty Memorial Theatre in Coffs Harbour and the Bellingen Memorial Hall. Full session and ticket information can be found at the official SWIFF website.