MEET THE FILMMAKERS: MIGUEL BAUTISTA

Part 1 of The Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival IN CONVERSATION Series, hosted by Festival Director and SCREEN-SPACE Managing Editor, Simon Foster.

GRAY (The Philippines; 11.38 mins) Set in a bleak, post-apocalyptic future, Gray, an ex-mercenary, searches for a signal jammer to shield his family from detection by the organization he left behind.

Screening in the INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM SHOWCASE, Saturday November 21. Entry is FREE when you purchase any session ticket.

Director's Statement: "Gray was my thesis film for the Film and Media Arts International Academy. I was 19 years old when I made it, [inspired by] love of visual effects and the sci-fi genre. It was meant to expand the horizons of what filmmakers can do when they are truly passionate about something. In this case, I as a filmmaker, wanted to explore a brand new post-apocalyptic-sci-fi world, which has led to an extensive use of visual effects. With this being one of my first few films, I wanted to see if it truly was possible to make a film that is both entertaining and hopefully inspiring to filmmakers that want to pursue this genre, especially here in the Philippines."

TICKET AND SESSION INFORMATION FOR THE 2020 SCIENCE FICTION FILM FESTIVAL

SIMON: What have been the science-fiction works – books, films, art of any kind – that have inspired your work and forged your love for the genre?

MIGUEL: Growing up, the biggest movie influences for me were definitely the Star Wars originals and prequels. I loved seeing galaxies filled with different adventures and species, technology that blew my mind, and powers that don't exist in the real world. I never really grew out of that love. Video games with futuristic gadgets also played a big part in my love for the genre.

SIMON: How did the original concept for your film take shape? What aspects of your film’s narrative and your protagonist’s journey were most important to you? 

MIGUEL: The original concept for Gray actually just popped up into my head one day. I wanted a post-apocalyptic future where survival wasn't easy and people had to either sacrifice themselves or the ones around them to survive. What was important to me was definitely the sacrifice. I wanted my protagonist to go through tragedy after tragedy for the welfare of those he loves.

SIMON: Does the ‘science-fiction’ genre have deep roots in the art and cultural history of your homeland? Were the resources, facilities and talent pool required to bring your film to life easily sourced?

MIGUEL: Not at all. Coming from the Philippines, sci-fi is either not that well made, or it just takes from what already exists in Hollywood, etc. It was really difficult trying to explain my concept to people; with it being a student short film, very few people would even dare to think about it and actually try to do it. For example, I had to do all the visual effects myself because of the sheer workload of it and with deadlines that moved closer each day. I don't have a giant workhorse pc. I used a laptop with just enough processing power to get me what I wanted.

SIMON: Describe for us the very best day you had in the life cycle of your film…

MIGUEL: I definitely loved the days I had on location with the cast and crew. Cause we had to travel for a few hours just to get there, and when the filming started, it was really fun. It was truly one giant collaboration and we all shared ideas where we could and it was honestly one of the best experiences of my life.

SIMON: Having guided your film from idea to completion, what lessons and advice would you offer a young science-fiction filmmaker about to embark on a similar journey?

MIGUEL: To young filmmakers, I would say NEVER GIVE UP ON YOUR IDEA. It will always go through revisions, it will always have setbacks, but don't let that discourage you. Whatever mountain you encounter, find a way to climb it.

2020 SYDNEY SCIENCE FICTION FILM FESTIVAL: PREVIEW

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA: The inaugural Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival (SSFFF) has announced a line-up which makes its mission goal very clear. The aim is to debut with a truly international event, with a program that presents Sydney genre fans with 10 features and 41 shorts from 20 countries.

Under the patronage of director Alex Proyas (Dark City; I, Robot; Knowing) and Festival Director Simon Foster, the SSFFF is set to run from November 19 to 21 at the state-of-the-art Actors Centre Australia complex in the inner-west suburb of Leichhardt. The 2020 schedule boasts the World Premiere of four Australian works, notably Mark Toia’s MONSTERS OF MAN (pictured, below). Independently shot in Cambodia and best described as ‘Predator-meets-Robocop’, the fierce action/thriller will open the festival, with fan anticipation high in the wake of its trailer going viral on YouTube.

TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE 

Then, on Saturday 21st from 1.00pm, a strand called NORTHERN LIGHTS: QUEENSLAND SCIFI SHOWCASE will feature the first global screenings of Travis Bain’s mini-feature, STARSPAWN: OVERTURE, starring genre icon Vernon Wells (Mad Max 2), and Stephen Osborne’s debut feature, the UFO-themed comedy/thriller, STRANGEVILLE.

The fourth debut will be Richard de Carvalho’s Star Wars fan-fiction actioner, A BLASTER IN THE RIGHT HANDS (trailer, bottom), which will kick-off the AUSTRALIAN SHORT FILM SHOWCASE on Saturday 21st from 10.30am. This homegrown parade of 11 shorts runs the gamut from student pics (Ilana Finocchario’s EXTRA(TERRESTRIAL) and micro-budget indies (Kyle Lacey-Janettzki’s MILK) to cutting edge effects showpieces (Megan Bromberg’s STORAGE) and international festival hits (Adrian Powers’ BROLGA).

The features representing the world of speculative cinema come from Italy (Emanuela Rossi’s DARKNESS); France (Olivier Babinet’s FISH LOVE); Japan (Kousuke Hishinuma’s HIDE & SNIFF); Spain (Juan Gonzalez & Nando Martinez’s THE QUEEN OF THE LIZARDS); and, Russia (Nikita Argunov’s epic fantasy, COMA, the festival’s Closing Night film). 

Also from France is Baptiste Rouveure’s ANONYMOUS ANIMALS (pictured, right), a truly shocking reverse-world look at mankind at the mercy of animals, which will screen as the centrepiece of HORRIFIC FUTURES: SCIFI’S DARKEST VISIONS on Friday November 20 from 9.00pm. Also in this challenging, MA-rated roster is THE HOST (Poland, Dir: Pawel Song No); MIDNIGHT MOVIE: MAGNUM OPUS (Tunisia, Dir: Myriam Khammassi); TRANSFERT (France, Dir: Jonathan Degrelle) and EVENFALL (Australia, Dir: Dean Butler).

A highlight of the first Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival will be the prime Saturday evening session, which has been allocated to two remarkable films from a region rarely represented in genre events. From 6.30pm, the strand SCIENCE FICTION FROM THE MIDDLE EAST will present the psychological thriller THE FABRICATED, the astonishingly assured debut of Iranian brothers Ali and Emad Katmiri, followed by the breathtaking beauty of SCALES, female director Shahad Ameen’s sea-monster/female-empowerment vision, from the U.A.E.

Repping the global short film community will be such acclaimed works as Yuichi Kondo’s RYOKO’S QUBIT SUMMER, an LGBTIQ-themed A.I. romance from Japan that earned Outstanding Film honours at the Berlin Sci-Fi Film Fest; French directors Loris Lamunière and Charles Mercier DAR(k)WIN PROJECT, a mesmerising mock-doc revealing the plastic sea-creatures of the future; U.K. filmmaker Stephen Bookas' lockdown love story, IT'S NOT SAFE OUTSIDE (pictured, top) and, Polish student Dominika Ożarowska’s cerebral thinkpiece SPACE PROBE PASSENGER, a fictional character study of how humans would interpret poetry sent from a free-thinking, deep-space craft.

Women directors are represented by 12 films (23%) in the SSFFF 2020 line-up. In addition to those already mentioned (Shaheed Ammen’s SCALES; Tunisian director Myriam Khammassi’s MAGNUM OPUS; Emanuela Rossi’s DARKNESS, pictured, right), female visions include Canadian Chelsea Jade McEvoy’s PALLIDUS; Spaniards Silvia Conesa’s POLVOTRON 500 and Eva Daoud’s THE LIGHT THIEF; and, American Trish Harnetiaux’s head-scratcher YOU WOULDN’T UNDERSTAND.

FACEBOOK: @SydneyScienceFictionFilmFestival
TWITTER: @SydSciFiFest
INSTAGRAM: @SydSciFiFest
YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8CjNbBJl6ymUJC-dsZBl4A/

All ticketing and session information can be found at the event's FilmFreeway page here. The 2020 SYDNEY SCIENCE FICTION FILM FESTIVAL will run November 19-21 at Actors Centre Australia, Leichhardt.

THE NEW BLOOD REANIMATING SYDNEY'S ORIGINAL HORROR PARTY

There is something darkly ironic surrounding the resurrection of Sydney’s iconic A Night of Horror International Film Festival (ANOH). After a dormant two years, the brand re-emerges zombie-like into a barren festival landscape, amidst a global pandemic; when it’s 12th iteration launches on September 24, it will be one of the first physical film festivals in a post-COVID Australia. Taking charge in 2020 is longtime festival associate Bryn Tilly, who brings to the Festival Director’s role, in his words, “a taste for the dark stuff, films undeniably nightmarish, yet thrilling.” SCREEN-SPACE spoke with our longtime friend about what it takes to scare au-diences in 2020…

SCREEN-SPACE: The once-strong brand has been stagnant for a couple of years. What were your objectives in relaunching A Night of Horror?

TILLY: The festival’s co-founder Dr. Dean Bertram has been living in the U.S. guiding his festival, Midwest Weird Fest from strength to strength. If A Night of Horror [was] to be resurrected, who better to helm the reboot than a clutch of the festival’s long-standing champions, which included myself and Enzo Tedeschi from Deadhouse Films? We brainstormed a plan of attack during spring of last year. It took awhile to build momentum, and we lost a couple of team members along the way, which prompted us to solidify a new vision for the festival. I feel confident we have shaped the best version we could, all things considered. 

SCREEN-SPACE: ANOH, like every other major Sydney event, was beaten down by COVID-19. Recall for us the emotions and the practicalities you faced as pandemic conditions took hold...  

TILLY: I began viewing the festival’s cold submissions back in October [while] keeping an eye on the international festival circuit. By January, I had a roster of short films and features from Australia and around the world sufficient for a four-day festival. But the event’s traditional home, Dendy Newtown, was no longer available, and subsequent venue options fell through. Then, that pesky pandemic reared its ugly head. We postponed, went into a limbo period, but never [considered] cancellation. Then, Anthony Kierann at Actors Centre Australia reached out to us, a beacon in the darkness. The reality was, due to COVID-19 restrictions, it simply wasn’t viable to hold the festival in the way we had originally intended. It killed me to have to re-structure the program [and] reduce the number of screenings, but we are nightmare warriors, determined to showcase in a festival environment works that capture the atmospheric essence of horror. (Pictured, above; The Other Lambs) 

SCREEN-SPACE: What are we learning about 'Bryn Tilly, Program Director' from this collection of films?

TILLY: I was very keen on pushing the boundaries with the content, spreading the nightmare tendrils a little further afield. The festival has always championed new talent; our awards herald short film and feature screenplays from emerging writers. This is my first year as Head of Programming and it’s been a huge challenge, one that allowed me to fully indulge my nightmare movie palette, while thoughtfully compiling a program that will appeal to both horrorphiles and those that aren’t necessarily horror buffs. I love monsters, the supernatural, and I love special effects; I’ve been a fan of gore gags and creature features since I was a young teen, but I’m also a huge fan of the creeping unknown, and reality-based terror. 

SCREEN-SPACE: The Devil will be in the detail. Get us excited about the 2020 line-up…

TILLY: There’s the supernatural indigenous mystery Diablo Rojo (pictured, above), from Panamanian filmmaker Sol Moreno; shocks and twists in Jeremy Karsten’s American high school hell, The Dead Ones; a disturbing portrait of a serial killer and his young son in Tom Botchii’s Artik; and, the disquieting turmoil, violation, and vengeance of The Other Lamb from Polish director Malgorzata Szumowska. We are opening the festival with Dean Yurke’s nail-biting subterranean thriller Stay Out Stay Alive, and debuting two World Premieres, both proudly Aussie - festival alumni Sam Curtain’s The Slaughterhouse Killer (pictured, below), detailing the dastardly deeds of an obese psychopath and hapless young parolee, and the confronting, heightened reality of Josh Reed’s suburban Sydney snake pit, We’re Not Here To Fuck Spiders. And the local and international shorts, once segregated into their own mini-programs, have been combined this year, showcasing a universally high caliber of horror short-form storytelling.

SCREEN-SPACE: How do you think horror filmmakers will react to the year that has been 2020? Pandemic panic, democracy in tatters, western society divided - do we need horror films anymore?

TILLY: We will never not need horror movies. Humans have an innate need to confront their fears, and the horror movie is the perfect platform to do that. In many respects, the more heightened the insanity in the outside world, the more hungry the audience becomes for escape. Audiences will seek out horror movies as a way of processing the nightmare scenario that exists outside their door, or within their home. Horror movies are often oneiric, dreamlike, surreal, even the ones that look and feel ultra-realistic. This is the most expressionistic of all film genres, allowing the viewer to absorb many elements, using them as psychological tools to better deal with the real world. Next year’s cold submissions will be riddled with themes of isolation, insanity, desolation, and disease. The apocalypse will be nigh. 

SCREEN-SPACE: It's the Closing Night party and you say to yourself, "Well, I think that was a success." What will have happened that readies you to do it again in 2021?

TILLY: I hope people hang around after the Awards Ceremony for a drink or three, to chat and rave about the films; the parallels, the contrasts, the shocks, the connections. Actors Centre is laid out in such a way that festival goers will be able to socialize and still be COVID-safe. We need to push through that pandemic psychological barrier, to come out and watch a movie with a bunch of other people. Trust in your nightmare warriors! I feel confident that this year’s A Night of Horror will bring back that community vibe. As for the future, Enzo and I share a vision of what we want the festival to evolve into; post-September, we will debrief and make new, devious, diabolical plans. Keep your eyes peeled!

A NIGHT OF HORROR INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL will run September 24-26 at the Actors Centre Australia, Leichhardt. Full session and ticketing details can be found at the event’s official website.

FIVE MUST-SEE MIFF MOVIES

The 2020 Melbourne International Film Festival is not letting Stage 4 restrictions in its home state of Victoria and a nation coping with COVID-19 to get in the way of presenting one of the most diversely curated programs on the Australian calendar. MIFF 68½ will offer 60 feature films and bundles of short works via their digital platform from August 6 through 23, leading off with Kelly Reichardt's First Cow and wrapping up with Pablo Larraín’s Ema. SCREEN-SPACE offers up five features that are on our Must-See list; capacity is limited, so jump on the Official Website without delay....

ROSE PLAYS JULIE (100m • Directed by Christine Molloy, Joe Lawlor • English • Ireland, UK • Australian Premiere) 
From the MIFF Program: “Rose, an Irish veterinary student, tracks down her birth mother, successful actress Ellen. When they meet, however, Rose learns something terrible about her biological father, celebrity archaeologist Peter (played by Game of Thrones’ Aidan Gillen). Methodically, she decides to approach him ‘in character’ using the name Ellen gave her at birth, Julie – but, as she soon discovers, she’s playing a dangerous game.” 

THE GO-GO’S (97m • Directed by Alison Ellwood • English • UK, USA • Australian Premiere) 
From the MIFF Program: “They sprang, fierce and fresh, from the Los Angeles punk scene, determined to make music their way. Their 1981 debut album spent six weeks at number one, and they’re still the bestselling all-female band of all time. Belinda Carlisle, Charlotte Caffey, Jane Wiedlin, Gina Schock and Kathy Valentine are the Go-Go’s, and they got the beat!”

WENDY (1h 51m • Directed by Benh Zeitlin • English • USA • Australian Premiere) 
From the MIFF Program: “In this reimagining of Peter Pan, Wendy hails from a rural town in the American South. One day, she catches a boy hopping onto a train and, lured by mystery and a chance to escape her monotonous life, she jumps aboard, her two brothers in tow. Soon enough, she meets Peter and his island of verdant foliage, forever-young mischief-makers and a glimmering, gigantic underwater creature called ‘Mother’.”

SHIVA BABY (76m • Directed by Emma Seligman • English • USA • Australian Premiere) 
From the MIFF Program: “For twentysomething student Danielle (played by comedian and performer Rachel Sennott), funeral customs and courtesies are a minefield. But when her older lover and an ex-girlfriend-turned-frenemy both turn up to the shiva, too, the screwball stakes are raised. To get out of this alive, Danielle has to survive neurotic parents, nosy relatives, passive-aggressive jibes with her ex, and the baby for whom her sugar daddy is an actual daddy.”

NO HARD FEELINGS (92m • Directed by Faraz Shariat • German, Farsi, with English subtitles • Germany • Australian Premiere)
From the MIFF Program: “Parvis spends his nights hitting the clubs or hooking up with Grindr randoms. But his hedonism – and his shame around his Iranian heritage – is challenged when petty theft sentences him to community service in a refugee shelter. There, he meets Iranian refugee Amon and his sister Banafshe, and as love blossoms between the two young men, a renewed love for their shared origins likewise grows.”

PREVIEW: 2020 SCIFI FILM FESTIVAL

The organising body of the 8th SciFi Film Festival has held firm to the event dates announced prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, despite moments of introspection and careful consideration as to the fate of the 2020 festival. Currently set to roll out August 28-31 at the Event Cinemas George Street complex in Sydney, the festival has announced a program of films culled from a record number of submissions and representing science-fiction visionaries from 21 countries.

The 2020 Opening Night honours have been bestowed upon Jeremy LaLonde’s time-travel comedy James vs His Future Self, featuring Jonas Chernick as a young man facing off against a cynical, hard-bitten future version of himself, in the form of a terrific Daniel Stern (Home Alone, 1990; City Slickers, 1991; pictured, top). The darkly funny romp, co-starring Australian actress Cleopatra Coleman, scored the Best SciFi Film at Toronto’s After Dark Film Festival. It will be paired with the World Premiere of the Australian short A Blaster in the Right Hands, a Star Wars fan-fiction film helmed by Richard de Carvallho.

Seven other features will fill out the program, each one an Australian Premiere. In addition to the previously announced Cargo, the moving, funny Hindi-language Indian production from director Arati Kadav, the SciFi Film Festival has scored three titles from the vibrant Canadian film sector - Guarav Seth’s Entangled (pictured, right), a twisted psychological drama in which a Flatliners-like quantum physics experiment turns friends against each other; Eric Schultz’s Minor Premise, starring Sathya Sridharan as the neuroscientist facing off against his own split consciousness; and, in the Closing Night slot, Erin Berry’s M.A.J.I.C., a post-X-Files conspiracy theory deep-dive involving alien abduction and men in black mythology that snared Best Film kudos at this years’ Berlin SciFi Film Festival.

Also slated are the U.S. features To Your Last Death, an ultra-violent animated pic from director Jason Axinn featuring the voices of William Shatner, Morena Baccarin and Ray Wise, and the lo-fi, hi-energy American SciFi, an 80s-inspired teen adventure from director Chris McElroy. The lone Australian feature to have made the cut is Colm O’Murchu’s Tabernacle 101, an afterlife thriller starring David Hov and Mikaela Franco.

The short-film roster boasts a mammoth 36 entrants, spanning 20 countries. Highlights include Japan’s Ryoko’s Qubit Summer, an A.I./LGBTIQ-themed romance from director Yuichi Kondo, a Best Film award winner from the Berlin SciFi Film Festival; from Yemen, Hashim Hashim’s spiritual journey story, A Homeland Bird (pictured, right); Gábor Osváth’s Best Game Ever, a crowdpleaser from Hungary; and, from Bahrain, Eva Daoud’s ‘battle of the genders’ horror pic, The Light Thief.

The shorts will screen both ahead of the feature sessions and under their own strands. On Saturday 27th at 10.30am, eight short films will be presented under ‘Students of SciFi’, including the Australian production Alyssa from teenage filmmaker, Shania Anderson; at 3.30pm, the slightly risque strand ‘Love, Sex and Science Fiction’ will screen MA-rated shorts from nations including The Netherlands (Tommie Geraedts’ Zwart; Gideon van Eeden’s God Glitch), Poland (Pawel Son Ngo’s The Host) and China (Linq Kim’s A.N.N.I.); and, on Sunday 30th at 1.00pm, the ‘Women in SciFi’ strand, supported by Women in Film & Television (WIFT) NSW, will highlight genre works by women filmmakers.

The SCIFI FILM FESTIVAL will be held August 28-30 at Event Cinema George Street. For full program information, visit the festival’s official website or Facebook page.