City Hub 5 October 2017

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ENTERTAINMENT QUARTER EXPANSION

HOMELESSNESS CRISIS

The push to change planning controls for the Entertainment Quarter could see visitor accommodation, sporting complexes, and more car parking and entertainment facilities in the parklands.

More people can be seen sleeping on the street, and in parks and squares. In Parliament I asked the Minister for Social Housing for action to help rough sleepers in Woolloomooloo, Belmore Park, Martin Place and Wentworth Park, where homelessness rates seem to be growing. Concerted action to increase low cost

Previous governments promised the former showgrounds site would be used for film and related purposes; that commitment must be honoured and open space protected for the growing adjacent populations.

I told the minister the Moore Park Master Plan must exclude further commercialisation and development before it is finalised.

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Warding off City residents

BY ALEX EUGENE AND ANITA SENARATNA City of Sydney residents could have yet another plebiscite on their hands in the upcoming 2020 local election, if local advocates get their way.

This time it would be to decide if the council should consist of geographical wards with more councillors, instead of being one large, united area as it is now.

Most councils in Australia are broken up into geographical wards, with local councillors from each area elected to make up the larger team.

But in 2004, the Labor Government abolished that system in the City of Sydney. Today, all councillors are equally responsible for the entire council area, instead of separately representing their own communities.

Tony Ericksen, a political campaign consultant, says this means residents are not adequately represented because councillors are stretched across such a large geographical area, instead of focusing on their local communities. He is advocating for wards to be re-introduced into the City of Sydney in the next election, by way of a voter referendum at the time of polling.

“When you have wards you can call a councillor, who has the best knowledge,” he said.

Sandra Blackmore, a resident of Waterloo, says the introduction of wards to the City of Sydney could ‘transform the living experience’ of locals in the area.

“There would be someone to talk to. The councillors of this area might even have a local meeting,” she said, adding that she had never seen any of the current councillors in Waterloo.

“They wouldn’t solve [all the political problems], but they would open up a dialogue, which would lead to an understanding of the problems that exist.

“Then the local ward councillor’s tenure in council would be less secure if they weren’t doing their job,” she added.

Ms. Blackmore said without locally elected councillors in wards, there ended up being more ‘buck passing’ and less accountability.

Photo: Supplied

Mr. Ericksen, who assisted Bayside Council to establish itself after the former City of Botany Bay and Rockdale City councils were merged in 2016, has seen the effects of shrinking local government representation.

He suggests that the 10 City of Sydney villages could be split up into five wards with three councillors each. This would give the council 15 members instead of the current 10.

“It gives a voice to people who want to put their hand up to say ‘I want to be a councillor right now’ -the Sydney council prevents that,” said Mr. Erikson. He estimates that an Independent could run for a ward seat for as little as $5,000, currently impossible in the City of Sydney, because of its huge geographical size.

He pointed to Independent City of Sydney councillor Angela Vithoulkas, who had to finance around 42 poll booths in the last election. But for a single ward, that number could have been as low as eight.

Mr. Eriksen said a ward system that made it more financially viable for independents to run, “allows democracy to work.”

But Cr Vithoulkas, elected twice so far, doesn’t resent being an Independent in a large system.

She says the City of Sydney is unique and, unlike suburban councils, with a different demographic and different needs.

“I don’t resent that it’s hard for me. It’s not simple and easy, and if it were, someone else would have done it already,” she said, adding that the demanding workload helped to attract the right people to the job.

Cr Vithoulkas said that for many people, contact with their local council was rare, but that “the City of Sydney resident is very vocal, very well educated, very connected and very in tune with what’s going on. They’re unlike any other demographic.”

Cr Linda Scott, however, the sole Labor member of the City of Sydney Council, disagrees.

“Independently-determined council wards would allow for better representation of residents, businesses and their needs. As a Labor Councillor, I have always supported the introduction of wards in the City of Sydney and have put words into action, moving to seek Council holds the referendum necessary to reintroduce wards.”

Cr Scott previously moved a motion to hold a referendum on wards during the 2016 election, but was blocked by the Liberals and Lord Mayor Clover Moore’s Independent councillors.

When questioned by City Hub, the Lord Mayor would not be drawn on her personal view about the re-introduction of wards in the next election.

“City of Sydney residents and ratepayers rejected dividing the City of Sydney into wards at a referendum held in conjunction with the 2008 council elections. This result showed the community does not support a ward system.”

But Tony Erickson says the result was very close, and not outrightly rejected. 42% voted in favour of implementing wards, while 58% were against.

He also pointed out that when Clover Moore was the local member for Bligh [Hawkesbury City Council] she made a submission to City of Sydney saying that wards were necessary to represent the people. But after she was elected as the Lord Mayor, she backflipped and has not actively supported introducing wards since.

“She originally wanted five wards. When she got elected she changed her mind,” Mr. Erickson said.

“It does favour a strong party to stay in power if you don’t have wards.”

Cr Vithoulkas said: “If the people want wards, and they think they are better represented by wards then I think that’s exactly what should happen. But we should look at still having a popularly elected Mayor.

“When the Mayor is internally elected [by councillors] it’s not for the right reason,” she said.

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BY ISABELLE BASTIAN The unauthorised demolition of the protected façade of historic Hensley Hall in Kings Cross may have exposed a developer to more than simple repairs.

At the corner of Bayswater Road and Ward Avenue, where the 1912 Edwardian-era Hensley Hall once towered, all that remains of the former grand façade are two thin gables and a pile of rubble.

After a heritage assessment, Singapore-based developer Roxy Pacific was granted approval to demolish all but the Bayswater Road façade of the building as it began work on a proposed eight-storey apartment complex.

However, nearby residents raised the alarm that significant parts of the once-protected façade were destroyed as well.

After launching an investigation into the motives behind the demolition, the City of Sydney Council spokesperson stated, “City of Sydney Health and Building officers attended the site on 31 August 2017.

The inspection found that an engaged column, spandrels and parapets between two gabled ends of the Bayswater Road façade had been demolished without approval.”

City of Sydney insists the developer must rebuild the facade. Before the council announced the investigation, Roxy Pacific said the demolition was necessary to create space for a new entryway. Now the company asserts the section of the façade between the two gables had been made of wood, not stone as previously thought.

They also claim it was dangerously rotten, hence giving them no choice but to tear it down. They plan to rebuild the section using brick.

Yet neither claim explains why Roxy Pacific continued with the demolition without a necessary follow-up assessment and the Council’s approval.

Depending on the outcome of the Council’s investigation, Roxy Pacific may face fines anywhere from a few thousand to a few million dollars.

Compared to the $21 million dollar project, the maximum $6,000 dollar fine for unapproved demolition would hardly affect the large developer.

But if the Council finds that Roxy Pacific caused intentional harm to the environment, the fine could reach up to $5 million.

Hensley Hall after developers destroyed the facade. Photo: Anita Senaratna

According to a City of Sydney spokesperson, “The demolition of the engaged column, spandrels and parapets constitutes unauthorised building work and enforcement action has been taken. The developer has been issued with a penalty notice [of an undisclosed amount].”

Residents of the Potts Point area are angered by the demolition. Like many other older buildings in the area, Hensley Hall had a rich history.

The building was first used as a boarding house and then more recently as the residence of local personality Barry Minhinnick, who lived in Hensley Hall for 20 years. He was a familiar face in the community, known for riding around on his bike, collecting rubbish from construction sites and dumpsters and repurposing it all in his “Simple Garden”, which he created on the side of the building.

Full of recycled items, the garden was featured in newspapers, magazines and even on television. After Mr Minhinnick was evicted five years ago, the owner of Hensley Hall sold it to the developer. Now the garden will be replaced with the modern glass windows and balconies of the 44 planned apartments and a ground floor. All that remains of the old Hensley Hall are the two gables and the many stories about its past.

President of the Kings Cross Heritage Society Andrew Woodhouse declined to comment. city hub 5 OCTOBER 2017

3

Making Waves in Waverley

BY ANITA SENARATNA The Liberal Party’s reign in Waverley officially ended last Tuesday night as the council elected Labor councillor John Wakefield as Mayor and Greens councillor Dominic Wy Kanak as Deputy Mayor, signifying a new working relationship in which Labor and the Greens now hold a majority on Waverley Council.

Prior to the September 9 local government election, the Liberals held the majority with seven councillors, a number which has since dropped down to five following their controversial Bondi Pavilion proposal and the NSW State Government’s attempts to merge the council with neighbouring Randwick and Woollahra.

Both policies were deeply unpopular with the community, who made their feelings known at the ballot box after their campaigning appeared to fall on deaf ears, as then-mayor Sally Betts pushed ahead with the plans against residents’ wishes.

But Mayor Wakefield is determined to change this. He says fairness and transparency will be the ‘catch-cries’ under the new Labor-Greens council and he wants to ensure everyone who was elected has a say. Having held the mayoralty previously in 2011, he understands the importance of allowing open debate.

“One of the tenets that I hold to is that it’s a chair’s job to create an open environment that all people participate in fairly and eagerly. That means in practice that my role becomes neutral, independent of the political party I was elected to represent,” he said.

“We had the numbers and the right to exclude the Liberals from committees and functions on council, but we didn’t. That hasn’t been done on our council for years. The

Waverley Council. Photo: Supplied

Liberals excluded us from every committee. We weren’t allowed on them!”

Mayor Wakefield also intends to introduce live video streaming of council meetings, and an independent committee of councillors from all parties specifically in charge of planning and development, which means that discussions that might have previously taken place behind closed doors will now happen in public with official records.

With regards to the Bondi Pavilion, he confirmed they would be rejecting the Liberals’ previous plan, in particular the loss of

community space on the building’s top floor.

He said the council was “starting to draw up new ideas for the pavilion which retain its community and cultural use.”

Mayor Wakefield has spoken out against overdevelopment in the Waverley area before, and he intends to use his new role to stand up to developers who might not have the community’s best interests at heart.

“We will be very firm about sticking to our development control plan,” he said.

“The mayor is a significant role and it enables the holder to stand for a community and say

‘No, we will not tolerate this overdevelopment you’re proposing, we will fight you in court.’”

Deputy Mayor Dominic Wy Kanak said he was also committed to “creating an open and transparent council with less secrecy, and having councillors more accessible to constituents.” He sees his role as “helping balance the Mayor and my colleagues towards putting the community first and meeting their trust in us as their elected representatives.”

In addition to reevaluating the Bondi Pavilion upgrade and fighting overdevelopment, Cr Wy Kanak and the rest of the Greens on council want to put issues like climate change and affordable housing on the council’s agenda by supporting renewable energy initiatives and housing assistance schemes for the “poor and vulnerable” in the community. Cr Wy Kanak also intends to advance the council’s Reconciliation Action Plan, focusing on the Bondi Pavilion’s expanding integration of Aboriginal historical values and the Council’s Crown land co-management strategies.

Mayor Wakefield says he is committed to making sure no political party on his council feels they were “badly done by” during the democratic process. He said excluding the voices of opposing parties was ultimately “counterproductive to good governing.”

“Everyone who’s been elected has the right to have a voice. But they might lose some arguments in a democratic process and that’s fair. Good, healthy democratic processes are vital to making everyone feel like they’re involved,” he said.

“If at the end of that involvement they haven’t got exactly what they want, at least they feel happy that it’s been fair to them. That’s what keeps people interested and that’s what keeps people wanting to be involved.”

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5

Mayhem in Marrickville

BY JESSICA DE VERA In June this year, the Inner West Council approved the plans for the rezoning of Victoria Road Precinct in Marrickville, despite community criticism and the decision being made while the council was still in transition.

The plans are now set for forwarding to the Minister for Planning, and if approved, they will become official, clearing the path for a 15-20 year construction project.

An Inner West Council spokesperson confirmed, “The Department and Minister for Planning are considering the matter and are in discussions with Roads and Maritime Services regarding Traffic issues.”

According to the planning proposals available on the Inner West Council website, the new Precinct is anticipated to have approximately 1100 new highand medium-density dwellings with an increased height in buildings to anywhere between three and 14 storeys high, with only 3% of the housing for affordable housing.

The Marrickville Community Planning Collective (MCPC) has criticised lack of parking and high-rise buildings looming over the public school ground.

“The Precinct is in a flood zone, [with] soil not suitable for major development, under the flight path, a security risk to planes, [plus] loss of employment, lands [and] not much mention of affordable housing.”

There are serious concerns over whether the surrounding infrastructure will be able to support the influx of traffic if the Precinct is to begin construction.

A mural within the Victoria Road Precinct area. Photo: Jessica De Vera

The Inner West Council, which approved the plans in June while under the management of an administrator, prior to the Sept 9 Local Council Elections, stated, “the Administrator resolved that Council forward the Planning Proposal to the Minister of Planning indicting its support of the proposal, subject to numerous changes, including resolving objections of Roads and Maritime Services in relation to traffic and road infrastructure upgrades.”

Philip Hardy, local resident, said, “For the residents, it will be more pressure on our already overwhelmed services and infrastructure. We see no investment in these areas, so there is no balance,” he said.

Councillor Pauline Lockie, Independent Member for Inner West Council, said, “I’m deeply concerned that developments such as the Victoria Road Precinct and the Sydenham to Bankstown corridor will result in huge numbers of extra dwellings

in our area, without the extra schools, health services, public and active transport upgrades, green spaces and so on that we’d need to cope.”

Areas like Marrickville are attractive for redevelopment because of their proximity to railway lines and employment hubs. But Colin Hesse, Greens Councillor, said, “This redevelopment won’t decrease, but increase the housing prices.

“If you want to live in a 2-bedroom home, there’ll be less of them so it’s more expensive to buy those. So the choice is to live in a unit and those units themselves will be expensive if they’re near railway lines and jobs.

“The people who are marginal are further marginalised because they are forced to live away from public transport and accessible jobs. In fact, what we’re doing is setting up a city that is more divided between those who

have some kind of stake in the system and those that don’t.”

Residents aren’t the only demographic affected by the rezoning plan. Existing businesses, including many local manufacturers, creative businesses and artists, may be forced to pay increased rents in a mixed residential/industrial model, or leave.

“The rezoning proposal is set to push out a number of local businesses,” said Mr. Hardy, “with the loss of local employment. I am all for urban renewal, but the development proposal is for excessive residential overdevelopment. This is not what I want to see in our local community and it offers no value, just a healthier return for the landowner and developer.

“We have already seen the outcome of Wolli Creek and Mascot: soulless wind tunnels.

A spokesperson for the MCPC said, “The precinct should form part of the Sydenham creative precinct. We don’t want Marrickville ending up like Wolli Creek.”

“I know businesses that are struggling to find new local industrial sites for their expanding businesses,” said Mr. Hardy. “This and other proposed developments, like that of the Carrington Road redevelopment, would see industry pushed out from our area. We will see the loss of our diverse community and further sterilization.”

Councillor Hesse added, “The truth of it is, without any hindrance from the Council, creative industries already exist and work there.

“The areas that are around Victoria Road and Carrington Road are places which are full of creative people. They [Council] consistently force these industries out through re-zonings that benefit the big guys and not the little guys.”

“Their proposal of retail outlets is not what we need,” said Mr. Hardy. “We need the continuation and protection of our thriving local industry. There is a claim that industry is reducing. But what I have seen locally is nothing but growth in our area.”

The plans have been rejected by the Department of Planning once before and now that the Council has elected their members, a few Greens Councillors and Independent members are hoping to resurface discussion about the rezoning.

“The Victoria Road Precinct proposal was approved by the unelected Administrator,” said Councillor Lockie, “subject to a number of conditions. This was done against the recommendation of Council staff, which raised a number of very serious concerns about the proposal.

“But I’ll be speaking to Council staff about this over the next week to find out what our options are in this regard,” she added.

Councillor Hesse added, “It’s clearly, in my view, a project that which has been supported by the Labor party with the Liberals and the conservative Independent on the former Marrickville Council, above the interests of the community. It’s my intention to see what we can do. I think it’s a really poor bit of process.”

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7

Balmain Rape Crisis Centre in crisis

By ALEC SMART A rape crisis centre in Balmain will have to undergo multiple staff redundancies and faces likely closure over a dispute on client privacy.

The Rape & Domestic Violence Services Australia (R&DVSA), a not-for-profit NGO in Balmain, provides trauma counsellors for rape victims.

Medibank Health Solutions, Australia’s largest private health insurer, has been managing the 1800RESPECT traumatic help facility since it was introduced in 2010.

In August Medibank announced it would implement changes, which would require R&DVSA to breach client confidentiality by turning over records.

“In early August we announced a new arrangement,” Medibank confirmed, “with a panel of organisations to provide the trauma specialist counselling component of 1800RESPECT (approximately 30% of calls to 1800RESPECT are for trauma specialist counselling). Four not-for-profit sexual assault, domestic and family violence organisations were invited to join the panel.”

However, despite R&DVSA having to lay off staff to implement the changes, they were reluctant to share the very personal information of their clients with the private health provider, compiled over years of trauma counselling.

Medibank was unwilling to allow the confidential documents to remain under the care of R&DVSA. A stalemate ensued, until R&DVSA eventually announced it was severing its relationship with Medibank when its contract expires on October 28.

Karen Willis, Executive Officer of R&DVSA revealed that Medibank would not negotiate on the client privacy issue.

“It’s a done deal.”

When asked how it is likely to impact upon the service, she replied, “That’s the end of our service, so the NSW Rape Crisis Centre [in Balmain] will go. We’re now in the process of making about 70 women redundant.

“We’ve requested funding for the redundancy, because Non-Governmental Organisations are required to not accrue for redundancy. We’ve got leave entitlements, and so on, but not redundancy. We don’t have the close to a million dollars needed to pay those redundancies; as any NGO, you don’t. The government gives you money; you spend it on services; that’s the whole idea.”

Medibank Health Services issued a statement, saying, “We had hoped that R&DVSA would be part of the service but we respect their decision and wish them the very best. We appreciated the opportunity to have worked with them in the past, recognising the critical importance of addressing sexual assault and domestic and family violence in Australia.”

The NSW Minister for Health, Brad Hazzard, was invited to intervene in the privacy issue, but seems reluctant.

“We’ve had discussions with a representative from his office,” Karen Willis of R&DVSA confirmed, “and also Minister Goward [Pru Goward, NSW Minister for Family and Community Services]. I don’t expect them to publicly oppose the Federal Government, that’s not what they’re going to do.

“I did hope that they will make presentations to their colleagues and say, “Hey, come on, these are State-based services that we need to keep in place.”

“Minister Goward was very clear that NSW Rape Crisis must continue to be able to provide services. So we’re hopeful that they will make representations to their federal colleagues.”

“Until October 28, the contract we currently have with 1800RESPECT we will see to the end and continue to provide services.

“After that: Medibank has established a new model where they will do a triage and then they will send clients out to three other providers.

“We were invited to be a part of that, but it would have meant a 75% reduction in funding so we still would have had to make 50 women redundant.

“There were also a number of key things that, from our perspective, were just unethical in the extreme. One was that we would be required to hand over the last six years of counseling notes to a private health insurance company. That’s 77 individuals’ file notes and hundreds of thousands of occasions of service that Medibank just expected us to hand over to them and there was no way we were going to do that.

“There was also the counseling model that they were proposing. They said the counselors would have to abide by it, and when we said

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‘Can we have a copy of it?’, it turns out is hasn’t been written yet!

“They were giving themselves four weeks to write a trauma counseling manual. It took us two years to write our first one and then we’ve revised it since, and each time it’s taken a year. It has been internationally recognized as best practice in providing telephone trauma counseling, but Medibank can do it in four weeks.

“We have grave concerns for the quality of that document.

“The 1800RESPECT will continue, it will just be a different model with different providers so people will still be able to ring the service.

“But things like handing over the file notes: when women contact us – mostly women, although about 17% of our calls are from men – our view is that they trust us with their information and we have an absolute responsibility to protect that, come hell or high water, and that’s exactly what we’ll be doing.”

“All records relating to a call can potentially be subpoenaed,” Medibank confirmed, “including the written file notes which all counsellors working on the service (including the specialist trauma counsellors at R&DVSA) are required to maintain.”

R&DVSA countered, “We have a commitment that if a defence lawyer subpoenas those files, we will always use communications privilege to oppose that. On the other hand, if one of our clients makes a complaint to police, we will provide a police statement, not the file notes, with the relevant information.

“Firstly, there’s that inherent trust that we’ll be breaching, and secondly, there’s also some legal ramifications we’d be breaching as well. We believe we have an absolute ethical responsibility to abide by and we believe it is part of the client-counsellor relationship.”

Kim Jackson and Scott Farquhar

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city hub 5 OCTOBER 2017

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Line in the sand for Adani

BY ANITA SENARATNA On Saturday October 7, thousands of Australians will be donning red and black and forming human signs saying ‘STOP ADANI’ on beaches and parks across the country to protest the Indian mining conglomerate’s proposed coal mine in Queensland’s Galilee Basin.

In Sydney, the local branch of the Stop Adani campaign have organised events in Bondi and Newtown.

The proposed Carmichael mine will be the biggest of its kind in the world. QLD Premier Anastasia Palaszczuk is defending the project on the grounds that it will create over 10,000 jobs for regional Queenslanders, a figure that has since been revealed to be realistically closer to 1500.

But the Adani group are notorious in India for openly defying local environmental laws, bribing officials for legal protection and sending money through tax havens like the Virgin Islands and Mauritius, to avoid paying local taxes.

The event follows a damning Four Corners‘ report on the Adani group, which aired on October 2. Reporter Stephen Long and producer Wayne Harley travelled to various mining towns and ports across India where

groups in Australia are concerned about the effect the Carmichael mine will have on the area’s natural resources. Local farmers with land near the Galilee Basin are worried about the impact on water quality, particularly cattle farmers whose livelihood is connected to having drinkable water available for cattle.

According to Stop Adani’s Facebook page, the aim of the event is, “To place an unprecedented amount of heat on our politicians to rule out giving $1 billion loan of taxpayers money to Adani.”

At last count, over 1000 people had shown interest in each event on Facebook.

The day of action will kick off at 9am sharp on Bondi Beach, an Australian landmark in Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s electorate of Wentworth.

“1000 of us are going to spell it out for Turnbull. He won’t be able to ignore us,” says the Bondi event’s Facebook page.

The protest will shift to Newtown’s A Stop Adani protest in Melbourne this year. Photo: Julian Meehan Camperdown Memorial Rest Park at 2pm. Like Adani was mining coal. They spoke to local

by Indian police showing up at their hotel and the Bondi event, this location was a deliberate families about the impact the mines had on their questioning the journalists on and off for about choice as it borders the electorates of two more health and witnessed the devastation caused to five hours before eventually letting them leave with Federal MPs, Labor’s Tanya Plibersek and landscapes. their footage.

Anthony Albanese. Both politicians had been But most interestingly, the story was cut short Given Adani’s record overseas, environmental invited to the events, but declined to attend.

MEET the locals

Aboriginal art for a good cause

BY JADE MORELLINI Annandale Interiors are hosting an exhibition to raise money for the Motoca Art Bank Project on Wednesday 11th October at 6pm to 9pm. They will be showcasing the incredible artworks of Aboriginal artist Robyn Bulunu Mununggurr, with a limited number of her paintings for purchase. Full of beauty and colour, her paintings reflect her country, clan and the totems of her Northeast Arnhem Land homelands.

The art is phenomenal, but the cause is even better with the proceedings from the exhibition going straight to a remote family, Robyn and her husband David in Arnhem Land. This will aid them in reconditioning an old, but extremely essential motor vehicle. The car will assist them in staying connected to their land, culture and community, while also providing access to their basic needs of education, food and employment.

The ownership of a well-functioning car is absolutely essential in remote areas, especially with the harsh road conditions they face on a daily basis.

Robyn has immediate family living in Garrthalala and the distance from her home in Yirrkala is 250km away. The roads are unsealed and not in very good condition as they are only graded once per year. This makes travelling very difficult as for most of the year

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city hub 5 OCTOBER 2017

Bukumarra and Birritpirrit with crocodile and magpie geese painting. Photo: Supplied

it is profoundly uneven and there may be dangerous washaways and bogs. During the wetter seasons, this makes it nearly impossible to cross as it can become quite unsafe.

Since the car’s last reconditioning in December 2016, it has done 75,000km and has cost them $9,500 in repairs, with 1km being equivalent to 3-4km driven in the city. Recognising how fundamental a car was to the family, Robyn received a loan from adopted relatives Suzanne and Greg to purchase and maintain a repaired Toyota HiLux twin cab. Without a car they were severely disadvantaged, so with the help of a local mechanic they serviced a 2005 HiLux for $15,000.

It is a taxi, ambulance, bus, tractor, courier vehicle and delivery truck all in one.

The Art Bank Project enables them to store and sell art, aiding them in repaying the loan. The local community is encouraged to attend and join in celebrating an indigenous evening of drinks, cultural diversity and art. Robyn’s granddaughter Guruwa will be at the art exhibition, representing her family as she speaks about her homeland, grandmother and art. Suzanne will also share her research on the community benefits of projects like the Art Bank Motoca Project. To RSVP, contact Kim Thompson on 02 9565 1275 or Trish Carroll on 02 9516 3888.

FEATURE

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OAF has managed to avoid pretence and cliques and “does a good job of making people feel like they’re welcome.”

He chose to launch his debut album, Perfume Nightmare at OAF because he knew people outside his friendship and fan base would come along. That’s the kind of “open to anything” crowd OAF attracts.

Moore has experienced much of his performing career within the confines of the lockout laws, but has managed to remain pragmatic: “As an artist, I can always flourish in any environment.”

He believes Sydney has produced some great music in recent years and feels the lockout laws force people to be more creative and find a work around.

Moore will be playing with his band, Big White at OAFs 10th Anniversary party.

James Spink is a promoter and the creator of Volumes, a multivenue festival that takes place on Oxford St. He began working at Beach Slang.

OAF as a bar and operations manager, keen to learn about the Photo: Minutes To Midnight industry so that he could create his own festival.

When he shared his aspiration with Gerber and booker Tom The half hour concessions selectively granted by the government Byrnes, they were both encouraging and helped him with may indicate their intent - or at least desire - to roll back the laws. organising and logistics.Volumes is influenced by what Spink The City of Sydney is offering a grant encouraging diverse culture experienced at OAF, and includes live music, installations and art. and entertainment between 6pm and 6am in the precinct, so Like others, Spink believes the lockout laws require an inventive there is a light of hope. response: Whether or not the laws do change, Gerber is resolute.

“You have to create something innovative and do something new “It feels fantastic to still be here after 10 years and I certainly that sparks attention. It’s made it difficult but it’s definitely pushed intend to be here for another 10 years.” for more quality events, rather than just quantity…”

One of OAF’s proteges is musician Cody Munro Moore, who Part of that inventiveness is changing the conventional moved to Sydney from the country seven years ago as a budding programming of events.Volumes schedules its main headliner at artist looking for a stage. OAF was one of the first venues he 7pm and has a second headliner at 11pm or 12am. stumbled into and within a week of making contact he played his Like the rest of Sydney, Spink would like to see the “dickheads first gig. that are out there starting fights and causing problems” gone so As well as playing shows, Moore got a job working on the door that people can go out into the night to “enrich and enliven their and became part of the team at OAF. He attributes its success to lives as only art and music can.” a willingness to be malleable and stay current: The Volumes DJ will be playing at OAF’s Anniversary party.

“A lot of venues get pigeon holed into an era…they always seem to get stuck in nostalgia a bit whereas, for me OAF - well so far 10 Years of Oxford Art Factory. Oct 14, 7pm has kind of stayed outside of nostalgia and been able to be kind of FREE, RSVP essential (NB: Entry is on first come basis) present the whole time.”

38-46 Oxford St, Darlinghurst, www.oxfordartfactory.com In spite of its appeal to more discerning tastes, Moore believes

7 Days QUICK SERVICE SYDNEY’S CHEAPEST RUBBISH REMOVAL

By Rita Bratovich Since the NSW government introduced Lockout Laws in February 2014, dozens of businesses in the CBD, Darlinghurst and Kings Cross have experienced significant revenue loss, and venues that had been fixtures in Sydney’s nocturnal landscape for decades have boarded up their doors.

Oxford Art Factory (OAF) is one of the few venues in the lockout zone that has thrived, celebrating its 10th Anniversary this year and showing no signs of weakness. It’s been able to adapt and survive thanks to a dynamic range of offerings, broad appeal and an open door, open floor policy.

“I’ve always had a desire to develop and to create new atmospheres for people to walk into” says Mark Gerber, founder and chief of OAF. The perennial entrepreneur - responsible for Q-Bar, Spectrum, 34B Burlesque and Vegas Lounge - had long envisioned a Parisian influenced creative gathering place in Sydney - something like Andy Warhol’s The Factory with a Bohemian influence.

Born in Holland to liberal-minded parents, Gerber was exposed to a variety of art and culture at an early age and developed an eclectic taste. His first job - in a bakery before he was even 10 years old - teed off a career with many iterations: model, actor, musician, DJ, producer, re-inventor. All these experiences - acting and modelling in particular - prepared him for his later forays into nightclub concept development.

“You get taught about rejection; you get taught about cold calling; you get taught about presenting the best foot forward always; and being able to change yourself into what you think [it is they’re looking for]”, Gerber explains.

OAF quickly established itself as a hub, helping to launch many careers and hosting an impressive list of names.

“We’ve seen the likes of The Jezebels,The Preachers,The Rubens, King Gizzards, Glitoris - and Tame Impala at one of the earliest shows at the venue,” says Gerber. OAF has also hosted book launches by Brett Easton Ellis and Paul Kelly. Lady Gaga performed her first show there and recently Dave Grohl played with Chevy Metal.

While OAF has managed to maintain a presence in the after hours scene, Gerber says it is an ongoing challenge: “It is more difficult with the lockouts. They are changing the face of - not just the nightlife of Sydney, but I think the entire culture and mentality of Sydney.”

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Bill Nye Live In Australia

2 One Another

Created in 2012 and having travelled across the globe, the highly acclaimed, multi-award-winning show, 2 One Another, is coming home to Sydney for its 100th Anniversary.

Audiences are drawn into a new world created on stage, exploring human interaction and relationships.

Choreographer Rafael Bonachela said, “If I look at the title 2 One Another, I have my own three interpretations of it – 2: a couple, One: the individual and Another: a group… that’s one of my thinking’s in the work and how all of those arrangements interact with each other. There’s also the idea of how we as people relate to one another and my third one is the

journey from one world to another…”

Bonachela incorporated poetry into his work, adding another dimension to the performance to take the audience on an emotional journey.The stage design reflects with a LED screen covering the entire back stage with the effects and colours progressing as the performance goes on.

“When I talk about moving from one world to another… there is beautiful imagery happening as the choreography happens… the show in the first 45 minutes is very monotone in colour, almost black and white.Then during the last quarter of the work, we enter and discover this world of

REVIEW: Ghosts He looks like he could be the next Dr Who, but this eccentric, bow-tie attired scientist was born in Washington DC and probably hasn’t done any time-travelling - although, with Bill Nye, you can never be sure. However, we do know that his visit to Australia next month will be his first to this continent.

Known as The Science Guy, Nye is a celebrity scientist whose level of energy and enthusiasm, as well as a knack for simplifying complex ideas, has won him fans all over the world.

He began his working life as an engineer, but an irrepressible sense of humour and need to entertain lured him into moonlighting as a stand-up comedian. His talent was obvious and it wasn’t long before he had his own TV series, Bill Nye The Science Guy (1993-1998) which became a huge hit and established Nye as both an accomplished entertainer and respected academic.The show garnered 18 Emmy Awards over its lifespan, with Nye personally picking up seven of those for writing, performing and producing.

After debating creationist Ken Ham in 2014, Nye wrote the book Undeniable: Evolution And The Science of Creation which was followed by Unstoppable: Harnessing Science To Change The World - a guide to being sustainable and Earth friendly.

Nye has also written five simplified science books for children and is working on a sixth about space exploration.

It is Bill Nye’s quest to make science palatable and fun as a way of educating and changing behaviour for the wider good. His live shows use video, photos and amazing experiments, presented with frenetic humour, and guarantee to leave audiences smiling and thinking. (RB) Oct 8. Sydney Opera House, Benelong Point. $71.30-91.70+b.f.Tickets & Info: www.sydneyoperahouse.com

Photo: Brett Boardman

Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts is a historical melodrama, written in 1881, which tackles some issues that were highly taboo at the time of writing.

city hub 5 OCTOBER 2017

Ghosts portrays a closed household community with local Pastor Manders an integral and influential part of the Alving estate.

It was a devout religious world then with the Catholic and Lutheran churches very prominent.

The main character Mrs Helene Alving keeps a lot of secrets. She has unconditional love for her son Oswald, so much so she sacrifices his childhood and sends him away because she doesn’t want him learning the habits of his father, who liked to have affairs and party.

There’s love in many forms - family love, romantic love and incestuous love.

It’s a dialogue driven play with intense discussions about social fabric, convention, morality, ideals, motherly and wifely duties using some wonderful old fashioned literary language that give us a glimpse into the world of the 19th Century. The views about marriage and the position of women are antiquated but then there are a lot of elements outside of what the

Church considered a normal marriage; syphilis, incest, domestic violence and debauchery. That’s what made the play so scandalous.

Director Eamon Flack has done a delightful job in bringing this masterpiece alive. This production isn’t set in 1881 but rather set in a world where nothing has changed since 1881.

“I’ve tried to find ways for the play to feel like the past while still talking directly to us…This adaptation is an attempt to come up with a fairly direct rendering of Ibsen’s play into a language that makes sense to us but still retains the feeling of the past – which still pulls us into the murky otherworld of Ibsen’s 1881,” said Flack. (MS) Until Oct 22. Belvoir (Upstairs Theatre), 8 & 25 Belvoir St, Surry Hills. $37-$72.Tickets & Info: www.belvoir.com.au or Ph. (02) 9699 3444

Hannah Gadsby - Nannette Australian award winning comedian Hannah Gadsby gained a well earned reputation in stand-up comedy by making multiple appearances on TV and performing in many local and international festivals. At 39 she has announced her retirement from the stand up circuit and is doing her final swan-song tour with the show, Nannette.

Nannette won best comedy show at the Edinburgh Festival where Gadsby was the first-joint winner with John Robbins. The show is humorous but also delves into a very personal account of her life and explores her thoughts on discrimination towards the LGBTIQ+ community and the ugly side of patriarchy.

a&e

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colour and warmth and lusciousness,” Bonachela said.

Each audience member will take their own meaning away from the performance, being prompted to experience and connect with the performance in their own unique way.

“I never make work where I’m telling people what to think and what to feel… that’s the wonderful thing about contemporary dance, it’s not a prescribed journey but it’s a work of art, it’s a performance that you can experience... to be able to bring it back to our home in Sydney is a very beautiful journey.” Bonachela said. (JM) Oct 5-14. Roslyn Packer Theatre, 22 Hickson Road,Walsh Bay. $20-$94+b.f.Tickets & Info: www.sydneydancecompany.com

12 STAGE 13 Sounds 14 SCENE 15 SCREEN

Nannette is a timely show especially when Australia is voting on marriage equality.

Gadsby’s 10-year run in stand-up comedy has given her fans plenty to laugh about and while some might think it is too soon for her to retire at the height of a fantastic career, it is a personal choice and one that she thinks is right for her at this time. She will be leaving the stage with a final bang, entertaining audiences with her raw comedy but also shinning a light on important issues that are affecting society at large. (DJ) Until Oct 8. Sydney Opera House, Bennelong Point, Sydney. $49.90– $59.90+b.f.Tickets & Info: www.comedy.com.au

Arts Editor: Jamie Apps For more A&E stories go to www.altmedia.net.au and don’t forget to join the conversation on Twitter at @CityHubSyd

Contributors: Alannah Maher, Alicia Sim, Athina Mallis, Barbara Karpinski, Caitlin Burns, Chantal Walsh, Craig Coventry, Daniel Jaramillo, Emily Shen, Georgia Fullerton, Greg Webster, Irina Dunn, Jade Morellini, James Harkness, Joseph Rana, Leann Richards, Lisa Seltzer, Mark Morellini, Mel Somerville, Olga Azar, Peter Urquhart, Rita Bratovich, Rocio Belinda Mendez, Sarah Pritchard, Shon Ho, Zeiya Speede, Jade Morellini, Alex Eugene, Manuel Gonzalez, Tommy Boutros, Riley Hooper & Taylor Martin.

REVIEW: Diving For Pearls

REVIEW: Puntila/Matti

forgotten after the uncompromising and unflinching drama that unfolds as the play nears its conclusion.

Jack Finsterer as Den’s brother-in-law is especially compelling as a man caught in an intense moral struggle while newcomer, Ebony Vargulans shines sweetly as Verge, Barbara’s daughter living with cerebral palsy.

With so many ‘locations’ packed into one play, Sydney’s notoriously intimate Griffin Theatre seems an odd choice but James Brown’s spectacular handcranked staging and clever use of traditionally offstage areas is dazzling for its use of space. Max Diving for Pearls is a heartbreaking tale of trying Lambert and Roger Lock’s sound design is subtle to transcend but ultimately failing due to forces but paired with the brilliance of Benjamin wildly out of individual control. Ursula Yovich leads Brockman’s evocative lighting choices; Griffin as Barbara, a feisty middle-aged woman attempting Theatre becomes coastal NSW in the 1980s. to rise above her working-class status. Brash and While set in the past, the simultaneous feelings of unwilling to yield from her dream of being a hotel hope and anguish still resonate deeply with hostess, Barbara aggressively navigates her complex contemporary audiences. In a particularly personal relationships against the backdrop of a analogous scene midway through the play, Den and manufacturing town morphing into tourism central. his brother-in-law unsuccessfully attempt to fish in Fundamental to this is her relationship with Den an area once rich with catch.Angrily grasping onto (Steve Rodgers), a softly spoken and unassuming the results of the past, the characters of Diving for labourer who is pushed to his emotional limits Pearls have not yet caught on that the times are during the play’s tragic climax. a-changing – and for them, not for the better. (ES) Indeed, the moments of humour in the Until Oct 28. Griffin Theatre, 13 Craigend interactions between Barbara and her sister Marj St, Darlinghurst. $35-$55+b.f.Tickets & Info: (Michelle Doake) peppering the first act are quickly www.griffintheatre.com.au

Puntila/Matti never had any pretensions at entertainment, co-director Dr Tom Payne admits this in the show’s blog.

However even in this age of background, foreground and current ground, audience members should not have to research why and how it harks back to Brechtian theatre.

Whatever its references, it should stand alone.

And Puntila/Matti does not.

It’s 90 minutes of planned chaos, audience insults and warnings of flashing lights, smoke and nudity. It’s a titillating gimmick: although Grace Lauer (Matti, and whomever else she plays) prances about in cotton, Tobias MandersonGalvin (Puntila, and whomever else he plays), appears halfway through with a wrapped penis, numerous catheters protruding, and wearing a plastic bull-head mask. The production seems proud of bullying its audience. MandersonGalvin recruits women in the audience to be his possible wives (do ask) then tells them to “fuck off.” It’s not funny. Worse, should someone decide to leave, they are certain to be followed by an invective.

It seems offence is the objective of this show, and there is no denying the presence of the actors, it has succeeded. As I was leaving Manderson-Galvin, still in character, slapped me

Live Music Guide LIVE WIRE Sydney

By Jamie Apps

Kevin Purdy: A multiinstrumentalist musician, composer, producer whose music catalogue, dating back to the late 70’s, is enormous. His musical journey has led to him creating his own individual musical style which he will showcase tonight as he launches his new album, In Transit.

Thu, Oct 5, Radio Free Alice Alex Lahey: Announced herself to the world in 2016 with her debut EP B-Grade University.

The EP saw the Melbourne singer songwriter catapulted into popularity with fans and critics alike. Tomorrow Alex will continue her journey as she launches debut album, I Love You Like A Brother.

Fri, Oct 6, Oxford Art Factory Boo Seeka: The bonafide touring veterans will be taking to the road this month and it all kicks off in Sydney tomorrow. With a freshly developed sound and an impressive live show to follow 2017 will look to cement the duo as a force to be reckoned with.

Fri, Oct 6, Manning Bar Mercury Sky: Sydney’s Mercury Sky are back with new music - and though the single is called Nausea - it won’t make you nauseous. The new single summarises the band’s intentions in creating a piece of work that is more diverse and more intense than they have done before. Support them as they launch their EP tomorrow night.

Fri, Oct 6,The Factory Theatre Emmanuel Pahud: Fourteen years after his debut with the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) the world’s greatest living flute player will return to Australia for a national concert tour with the ACO. Sat, Oct 7, City Recital Hall

The Kite String Tangle: Following the release of his chart topping album in July and standout live performance at Splendour In The Grass The Kite String Tangle is now set to take the show on the road.

Sun, Oct 8, Oxford At Factory Girls In The Band: To celebrate the announcement of the Sixth Sydney International Women’s Jazz Festival readers of the City Hub are invited to a free screening of US filmmaker Judy Chaikin’s multi award winning documentary. The full length feature tells the poignant, untold stories of female jazz/big band instrumentalists and their fascinating, groundbreaking journeys from the late 30s to the present day. Be sure to reserve your FREE tickets online today.

Mon, Oct 9, Foundry 616 Songs Of My Country: Gondwana Indigenous Children’s Choir (GICC) and the Vienna Boys’ Choir (VBC/Wiener Sängerknaben) will come together for a world-first collaboration in Sydney early next week.The event will be a mesmerising coming together of one of the oldest continuously performing institutions in Europe and Gondwana Indigenous Children’s Choir, which proudly represents one of the oldest continuous cultures on Earth.

Tue, Oct 10, Sydney Opera House Michael Ball & Alfie Boe: Musical theatre legends Ball and Boy are set to bring their Together tour to Sydney mid-week. Together is an unprecedented vocal and musical treat and features some of the biggest hits of all-time, a cherry-picked selection of personal favourites from film, theatre, the Great American Songbook and even pop.

Wed, Out 11, State Theatre

By Jamie Apps The story behind Kim Churchill’s latest record Weight_Falls is utterly compelling not just in regard to its creation but for the insight into creative processes which it provides.

The creation of Weight_Falls initially sounds like a complete disaster with Churchill scrapping 18 months of work on the record at the very last minute in order to start over. When Churchill explained his reasoning to City Hub though it became clear that was the only decision he could have made.

“I probably could have stopped work on that album after two weeks but I’d put a lot of money and time into writing the material before even starting the 18 month recording process. So naturally I was insisting that it was right and that it was good and that it was what I was meant to be doing. If anything I just gently told myself to work harder and ignore the little doubts that I was having, which was what I did for 18 months. When I did realise scrapping it was the right decision it was incredibly easy and oddly liberating because when you’ve worked on something for so

Winston Surfshirt Sponge Cake

Tobias & Tom. Photo: Wilson Liew

on the back, none too gently. “It was a great show!” he shouted. (OA) Until Oct 14. Kings Cross Theatre (KXT),244–248 William St, Kings Cross. $10$35.Tickets & Info: www.kingsxtheatre.com

Kim Churchill Photo: Steve Baccon

long that it’s become dry and dead to cast it out of your life is kind of nice.”

Making such a drastic decision late into the records production cycle meant that Churchill was then under a much more condensed timeline in order to meet his deadlines but he believes this actually helped with the creative process.

The debut record from Sydney group Winston Surfshirt is a little bit pop and a little bit hip-hop with just a touch of West Coast rap adding the icing on the cake.

Throughout the 16 track offering the group serve up bright, airy songs which are perfect for a lazy summer afternoon listen but the waters edge. Whilst the tracks are primarily built from pop and hip-hop elements the occasional surprise jazz influence peeks through.

Out of context incorporating brass instruments such as trombone into these songs may seem odd but when listening to the record as a whole it works ever so smoothly.

Don’t sleep on this record as it is sure to be a big one this coming summer. (JA) WWW1/2

“What can really fuck with good art is having too much time to think about it and over analyse it.

You’re ego starts infiltrating the art which makes you reconsider things that naturally felt right so you lose track of the process.” he explained, “That odd quasiliberated mind frame that I had when I made the decision to

rewrite the record was perfect because there wasn’t enough time to think about it.”

Over-thinking can be the bane of many a creatives existence which is why Churchill says doing some of the simplest of tasks such as “washing the dishes can be so rewarding for an artist because when you do the dishes they’re clean and they’re done so you know you’ve done them right because they’re clean.”

Having completed the record Churchill didn’t rest on his laurels though as he then set about reinventing his live show entirely.

“The new live show has two drummers on either side of me as well as my stuff. It’s taken a lot of work to get this show up and running. I always liken it to three people trying to walk in a horse costume because everybody has percussive elements, harmonic elements and melodic elements.

Now that it’s all up and running it’s pretty exciting, it’s just a sense of bring on the shows.”

Oct 20. Factory Theatre, 105 Victoria Rd, Marrickville. $30+b.f.Tickets & Info: www.kimchurchill.com

Walter Trout – We’re All In This Together

Walter Trout’s We’re All In This Together is a promise and a prophecy.

This high energy album brings together a long list of high class musicians and when they play they make listeners want to get inside the resultant toe tapping, shoulder shaking, hip swinging beats.

The high level of talent is incorporated into the genius of Walter Trout, each inspiring a track and imbibing it with their individual capabilities.

The work is a mood shift after Trout’s recent soul-searching pieces, this album is about fun and collaboration, rising out of a more intense time period. This is a high energy romp, a rhythm generating dance fest that it’d be hard not to move to. We’re All In This Together plays on in the blues tradition, with feeling and with sass. (SP) WWWW city hub 5 OCTOBER 2017

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THE NAKED CITY

TRANE LIVES! With Coffin Ed One of the most positive upshots of the current world wide vinyl revival is the rediscovery of some truly classic albums by a younger generation.

Ironically the CD versions have been available for many years, but it’s the tactile vinyl reissue that takes the listener back to that exciting time when the music was first created.

Right up there with some of the top selling albums of the current renaissance is John Coltrane’s classic 1958 Blue Note release, Blue Train.

Not only does it feature one of the

Word Travels’ Story-Fest

Pharoah Sanders. He would begin every Sunday morning by blasting the album (a vinyl copy of course) at a lease breaking volume reaching a crescendo during the extended Rashied Ali drum solo.

Some years ago I had the unique experience of visiting the Saint Coltrane Church in San Francisco, a storefront ministry that promotes spirituality, meditation and outreach to the poor through the music of John Coltrane. The Church, which has recently relocated to a new address from its original Fillmore location, features a regular jazz mass with live music and a belief that “God is never

Poetry and writing give people an incredible amount of catharsis and empowerment especially when performing their works in front of an audience. Word Travels’ Story-Fest is a unique writers festival dedicated to the art of spoken word and it includes forums, workshops, comedy and poetry slams.

Starting from humble beginnings as a small open mic event in Leichhardt and later evolving into the Australian National Poetry Slam, bringing some of the finest poets from different regions around the country (whose voices were often marginalised) onto the stage of the NSW State Library and the Sydney Opera House.

This art form originated in Chicago and has now become a global phenomenon. Poet and storyteller Miles Merill is from the city that birthed slam poetry and instead of staying there to pursue his artistic practice, he decided to start the first national slam in Australia by creating Word Travels,

a non-for-profit art association in 2007.

City Hub spoke to Miles about what makes the poetry slam such a spectacle for audiences.

“It’s a poetry reading but because there is an artifice of competition you get the audience interacting with a number of techniques that will keep them engaged. We choose five judges randomly from the audience and they put up draw cards and give a rating out of 10 for the performances. The audience also gets to decide which poet will perform first by pulling the participants name from a hat so it keeps the night flowing and keeps the audience constantly engaged.”

Story-Fest will unleash your imagination and will expose you to the many diverse voices coming from this country. You won’t want to miss out on this special weekend festival. (DJ) Oct 13-15. Various Venues. FREE-$54+b.f.

Tickets & Info: www.wordtravels.info

Exploring the PostSoviet Novel most engaging Blue Note covers of all time, with Coltrane at his contemplative best, but the title track is a bona fide jazz masterpiece.

I first discovered it many decades ago on the old vinyl juke box at the Piccolo Bar in Kings Cross. The nine minute long track was split onto two sides of a 45RPM disc and with years of continual play the joke was that it began playing both sides at once. My regular evening ritual was to order a plate of Vittorio’s legendary lentil soup and punch in Trane on the jukebox. The two became almost synonymous and today, even when I open a can of mass produced lentil soup, I can hear Blue Train in the back of my head.

Whilst Blue Train remains my personal favourite there are other Coltrane fans who would quickly nominate Giant Steps or A Love Supreme as their all time fave. I once shared an apartment with a jazz fan who was obsessed with Coltrane’s frenetic 1966 album Live In Japan – a milestone in his exploration of the avant garde along with wife Alice and 14

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without a witness - with St. John Coltrane as that witness for this time and this age.” Whether you hold traditional religious beliefs or not the Church is both a welcoming and uplifting experience that endorses both the musical artistry and universal message of Coltrane’s A Love Supreme.

With the resurgence of interest in Coltrane’s recording legacy it’s great to see Groovescooter and the MCA screening John Scheinfeld’s much acclaimed doco Chasing Trane for the the Antenna International Documentary Film Festival. Produced with the full co-operation of the Coltrane family and narrated by Denzel Washington, it’s a beautifully researched biography of one of the titans of the music scene – an artist who died all too young at the age of 40 but left an incredible legacy.

Chasing Trane screens at the MCA on Wednesday October 11 (7pm) and Sunday October 15 (1pm) with bookings essential.

Tickets: www.antennafestival.org

Lovers of Russian novels know Tolstoy and Dostoevsky from the nineteenth century, and Pasternak and Solzhenitsyn from the twentieth, but what have Russian writers produced since the fall of Communism in 1991?

In a series of lectures at the Art Gallery in October and November, Irina Dunn will introduce you to exciting new Russian novelists whose work is available in English translation. She will pair each new writer with one familiar to Australian readers.

Thus, in her first lecture, she will pair Tolstoy, the author of Anna Karenina and War and Peace, with his great-grandniece Tatiana Tolstoya, who follows in her uncle’s footsteps in being a major author and also a stringent critic of her society.

Other lectures will cover: • Crime Russian Style, pairing Dostoevsky with bestselling writer Boris Akunin.

• The Russian Epic Novel, linking the author of Dr Zhivago with Vasily Aksyonov.

• The Russian Short Story, linking Chekhov with two of Russia’s best short story authors, Ludmilla Petrushevskaya and Ludmila Ulitskaya.

• The Satiric Voice in Russian Fiction, in which Mikhail Bulgakov (The Master and Margarita) is linked with rebel writer Victor Pelevin.

The writers Irina has selected for these lectures represent some of the best in post-Soviet writing.

Although they each bring their unique style and subject matter to their fiction, what unites them is an intense love of language and its power to challenge accepted ideas, to move the spirit, and to open the imagination to new possibilities of human existence.

Leo Tolstoy

Until Nov 25. Art Gallery NSW, Art Gallery Rd, Sydney. Single Sessions: $35-$45, Full Series: $290-$400. Tickets & Info: www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au

Bad Blood

Final Portrait Vincent, a successful American author, and Carrie, his besotted girlfriend, seem like they have a perfect existence together. But when Vincent starts receiving strange phone calls and a private investigator comes calling, Carrie learns that his ex-wife was viciously murdered and he’s still under suspicion. Vincent’s character may not be what he seems…

The premise of Bad Blood is intriguing, with plot twists coming at you in quick succession.

There’s a constant creepy

atmosphere that keeps you on edge from the start, and the sense of foreboding increases dramatically when the loving couple escapes for the weekend to the country.

Things take on a nightmarish quality at the country property, leaving you on the edge of your seat until the final thrilling conclusion.

This is a beautifully shot film, the camera work is stunning and the music enhances the atmosphere.

An impressive Australian production with a strong plot. (LS) WWW1/2

This small but remarkable film which concerns world renowned Swiss painter and sculptor Albert Giacometti should have art enthusiasts flocking to cinemas.

Set in Paris 1964, the story centres on the intimate friendship which flourishes when Alberto Giacometti (Geoffrey Rush) invites American writer and art-lover James Lord (Armie Hammer) to sit for a portrait.

Giacometti initially states the sitting may “take two or three hours or one afternoon at most”, but the session transpires into several weeks as he disapprovingly reminds Lord that there’s no question of the portrait ever being finished.

The film explores the artist’s persona, his neurotic behaviour and obsession for perfection, his self-doubt and lack of scruples.

Rush shines in the titular role and is supported by a reputable cast who deliver impeccable performances in this stylishly orchestrated production.

The artist’s unorthodox behaviour while at work provides a distinctive wit, as he delivers offensively funny lines such as, “You have the head of a brute – you look like a thug!”

This pleasurable exploration of friendship is a performance driven film which also offers a detailed look into the excruciatingly long process involved in painting a portrait.

(MMo) WWW1/2

Flatliners

Mystery of the afterlife is explored in this adequate remake of the 1990 science fiction classic which starred Julia Roberts and Keifer Sutherland in the pivotal roles.

Instead of sustaining life, five medical students take it in turns to stop their hearts for short periods of time, recording their near death experiences. Upon resuscitation, they see dead people and experience hauntings which makes them question whether they have opened the doors to the spiritual world.

Ellen Page delivers a good performance, heading a relatively unknown young cast as Courtney, the leader of the nutty medical team while

Keifer Sutherland makes a surprise appearance as the medical trainer.

Momentum builds quickly and there are enough scary scenes to keep lovers of this genre of film at the edge of their seats throughout.

This is clearly one of the more tolerable “C” grade science fiction flicks in recent times, but unfortunately it clearly resonates that filmmakers should concentrate on original ideas instead of regurgitating old film scripts.

Ultimately, is there an afterlife?

Of course there is and flatliners don’t only return with increased intelligence, but hysterically with an enhanced libido! (MMo) WW1/2

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OCT & NOV HIGHLIGHTS

LAUNCH DAY!

RECORDS & REGGAE

Five big exhibitions launching on one big day.

A day long celebration of all things reggae with a custom built sound system.

SAT 7 OCT 1- 4PM

SUN 15 OCT 11AM -11PM

WENDY HARMER EXHIBITION

SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL PRESENTS

Launch An exhibition curated

by Wendy Harmer from our 5,000+ collection.

KEDI

SAT 4 NOV 1-4PM

SAT 4 NOV 4PM

6 GALLERIES

2 THEATRES

A sweet-natured documentary celebrating the street cats of Istanbul.

1 RESTAURANT

JOSEPH TAWADROS TRIO

This brilliant musician returns to Casula with his joyous style of performance.

SAT 28 OCT 7PM

MIL-PRA AECG EXHIBITION

Celebrating Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander culture.

25 NOV - 24 DEC

2.2KM OF RIVERFRONT TO EXPLORE

WWW.CASULAPOWERHOUSE.COM OPEN 10AM – 5PM DAILY 1 POWERHOUSE RD, CASULA • TEL 02 9824 1121 • GALLERY ENTRY IS FREE! 16

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