2015 Sydney Underground Film Festival

THURSDAY 17 - SUNDAY 20 SEPT 2015 #SUFF2015

suff.com.au A 4 day cinematic adventure with 100+ films, music And masterclasses.

FACTORY THEATRE, 105 victoria rd marrickville

Program at a glance THURSDAY 17 SEPT Doors Open 6.00pm opening night Doors Open 6.00pm

v OPENING NIGHT FILM AND PARTY

WELCOME

FEATURE FILM: LOVE

Dir. Gaspar Noé // FRANCE // 2015 OPENING NIGHT PARTY until 12am Page 8-9

Friday 18 SEPT Doors Open 6.00pm CINEMA 1 Session one 6.30pm 8.00pm Session Two 8.30pm 10.00pm Session Three 10.30pm 12.00am

CINEMA 2

CINEMA 3

CINEMA 4

WHAT LOLA WANTS

REALITY BITES

HELLIONS

NINA FOREVER

KILLSWITCH

KIDS

page 29

page 25

YAKUZA APOCALYPSE page 30

page 57

page 42

page 23

CINEMA 5

KUNG FU ELLIOT

DEEP DARK

HEAVEN KNOWS WHAT

AZTEC BLOOD

LSD FACTORY

I DREAM OF WIRES

page 17

page 43

page 24

page 15

page 22

BLACK PANTHERS page 36

TWISTED FUCKING SISTER page 52

page 55

page 40

Saturday 19 SEPT Doors Open 11.30am CINEMA 1 Session one 12.00pm 1.30pm Session Two 2.00pm 3.30pm Session Three 4.00pm 5.30pm

F

= Features

BACK IN TIME page 35

THE YES MEN ARE REVOLTING page 50

CALL ME LUCKY page 37

D

CINEMA 2 ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD page 34

PRISON SYSTEM 4616 page 45

CINEMA 3

CINEMA 4

PEACE OFFICER

REMAKE, REMIX, RIP-OFF

DRONE WORKSHOP page 60

FASSBINDER - To Love without demands

HOW TO WRITE SCRIPTS THAT DON’T SUCK page 60

page 44

CINEMA 5

page 47

DEEP DARK page 17

page 39

DEEP WEB page 38

= Documentaries

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KUNG FU ELLIOT page 43

= Short Films

O

THEY LOOK LIKE PEOPLE page 28

= Special Events

C

INDIE FILM ALTERNATIVE DISTRIBUTION page 60

= Masterclasses

Program at a glance Saturday 19 SEPT [CONTINUED] CINEMA 1 Session Four 6.00pm 7.30pm Session Five 8.00pm 10.00pm Session Six 10.30pm 12.30am

REALITY page 27

HE NEVER DIED page 20

FASTER, PUSSYCAT! Kill! Kill!

CINEMA 2

CINEMA 3

CINEMA 4

CINEMA 5

page 56

JESUS TOWN, USA

WYRMWOOD: GUERRILLA FILMMAKING page 60

DUDE BRO PARTY Massacre III

TWISTED FUCKING SISTER

BUNNY THE KILLER THING page 16

PHYSICAL SFX AND PYROTECHNICS page 60

HELLIONS

DIGGING UP THE MARROW

LOVE/SICK

KILLSWITCH

SALAD DAYS page 48

page 19

page 23

page 20

OZPLOIT!

page 41

page 52

page 54

page 42

page 18

Sunday 20 SEPT Doors Open 12.30pm CINEMA 1 Session one 1.00pm 2.30pm Session Two

CINEMA 3

CINEMA 4

CINEMA 5

THEORY OF OBSCURITY

THOUGHT CRIMES

PEACE OFFICER

BACK IN TIME

DIRECTING MASTERCLASS page 61

RAIDERS!

WTF SHORTS

HEAVEN KNOWS WHAT

BUNNY THE KILLER THING

BLOOD, GORE and HORROR FX WORKSHOP page 61

ALVIN'S HARMONIOUS WORLD

NINA FOREVER

page 49

page 46

3.00pm 4.30pm Session Three

CINEMA 2

page 51

page 58

page 44

page 35

page 22

ONE ON ONE page 26

5.00pm 7.00pm

BLACK PANTHERS page 36

page 14

page 16

WASTELANDER PANDA TRANSMEDIA STORYTELLING page 61

page 25

Sunday 20 SEPT 7.30pm Closing Night

7.30pm

CLOSING NIGHT FILM AND PARTY

F

= Features

D

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S

FINALE

FEATURE FILM: Knock Knock Dir. Eli Roth // CHILE/USA // 2015

CLOSING NIGHT PARTY until 12am Page 10-11

= Short Films

O

= Special Events

C

= Masterclasses

our partners GOLD partner

MAJOR partners

This project was supported by funding from Marrickville Council

Screening and media partners

Food and beverage partners

Dulwich Hill

Supporting partners

welcome Film ​junkies​, it’s SUFF time again – which means that a new cinematic adventure awaits! From documentaries about wannabe​filmmakers in​Raiders! and Kung Fu Elliot, t​ o showcasing ​ cinematic masters like Gaspar Noé (Love), Eli Roth (Knock Knock), Quentin Dupieux (Reality), Kim Ki-duk (One on One), Takashi Miike (Yakuza Apocalypse), Bobcat Goldthwait (Call Me Lucky), Russ Meyer (Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!) and Larry Clark (Kids)​, this year’s roller coaster ride of a program is a ​celebration of everything cinema should be: challenging, intimate, frightening, ​​​playful and fun.

Plus, SUFF 2015 is bigger than ever with cinema #5 opening at The Factory, and with the addition of a two-day masterclass and talks program.

Thanks to everyone involved in bringing the festival to fruition.

Buy the ticket, take the ride!

Festival Directors Katherine Berger and Stefan Popescu

#SUFF2015 twitter.com/SUFFfilmfest facebook.com/SUFFfilmfest instagram.com/SUFFfilmfest YouTube.com/sydneyunderground

CONTENTS Venue Information...............................................6 How to Buy Tickets..............................................7

Special Events Opening Night Film and Party............................8 - Love...................................................................9 Closing Night Film and Party............................10 - Knock Knock....................................................11

FEATURE Films Alvin’s Harmonious World of Opposites...........14 Aztec Blood.......................................................15 Bunny the Killer Thing.......................................16 Deep Dark.........................................................17 Digging Up the Marrow.....................................18 Dude Bro Party Massacre III..............................19 Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!...................................20 He Never Died..................................................21 Heaven Knows What.........................................22 Hellions..............................................................23 Kids....................................................................24 Nina Forever......................................................25 One on One......................................................26 Reality................................................................27 They Look Like People......................................28 What Lola Wants................................................29 Yakuza Apocalypse............................................30

Documentaries All the Time in the World....................................34 Back in Time......................................................35 Black Panthers Vanguard of the Revolution.......36 Call Me Lucky....................................................37 Deep Web.........................................................38 Fassbinder - To Love Without Demands............39 I Dream of Wires................................................40 Jesus Town, USA................................................41 Killswitch.............................................................42 Kung Fu Elliot....................................................43 Peace Officer......................................................44 Prison System 4614............................................45 Raiders!..............................................................46 Remake Remix Rip-off.......................................47 Salad Days.........................................................48 Theory of Obscurity ..........................................49 The Yes Men Are Revolting...............................50 Thought Crimes.................................................51 We Are Twisted Fucking Sister!.........................52

Short films Love/Sick...........................................................54 LSD Factory.......................................................55 Ozploit!..............................................................56 Reality Bites.......................................................57 WTF Shorts........................................................58

MASTERCLASSES Masterclass & Workshops Program...................60

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GETTING THERE

VENUE INFORMATION

• 20 min walk or a 5 min bus ride from Newtown Station.

• 15 min walk from Sydenham and Marrickville railway stations.

• Bicycle racks and limited street parking is also available nearby.

• Go to transportnsw.info for latest transport times.

The venue bars offer confectionery, snacks, and both non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages. Onsite food vans operate during the festival. There is also a SUFF merchandise and info desk (where you can also get a Serendipity Ice-cream fix!).

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The cinemas There are 5 cinemas at The Factory Theatre (They are named Cinema 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5).

Follow the signs or ask SUFF volunteers for directions!

HOW TO BUY TICKETS Buying tickets to the 2015 Sydney Underground Film Festival is easy whether to a single session, or any combination of passes listed below.

ONLINE

suff.com.au

PHONE

FESTIVAL HOTLINE (02) 9550 3666

FESTIVAL PASSES AND TICKET PRICES

In Person

ENMORE THEATRE BOX OFFICE 130 ENMORE RD, NEWTOWN Mon - Fri 9am - 6pm, SAT 10am - 4pm Or FESTIVAL VENUE ON THE NIGHT.

TICKET PRICES (ADULT / CONCESSION) • Festival pass (includes opening and closing night) .......... $145 / 131 • Opening night (includes food and drink)................... $50 / 45 • Closing night film and party..................... $22 / 17 • Friday all-day pass.............. $33 / 30 • Saturday all-day pass.......... $57 / 51 • Sunday all-day pass............ $43 / 39 • Individual session tickets.... $16 / 14 • 4-film pass (excludes opening and closing night films) ..... $47 / 43

• Ticket prices include GST and booking fees.

• A transaction fee may apply per transaction for bookings made over the phone only.

• Seating is limited, therefore early purchases are always recommended. Please arrive at least 15 minutes before the session starts.

• Concessions are available to full-time students, pensioners, seniors, health care card and companion card holders.

Concession cards must be shown.

• All sessions are 18+ unless otherwise noted.

Our session times are film start times, don’t be late!

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THU17

Doors open 6.00pm

vv OPENING NIGHT FILM AND PARTY

Because every film festival should start with a bang, ​SUFF ​has decided to open the 2015 festival with LOVE – the controversial, sexually explicit, semi-autobiographical new film by the ever-provocative writer-director Gaspar Noé. This is one opening night party you will not want to miss. So join us for our night of nights, with a special treat of LOVE in 3D, live performances plus ​devour​​delicious pizza courtesy of CRUST Gourmet Pizza Bar Dulwich Hill, sample our very own collaboration beer (“Underground Ale”) with local brewery YOUNG HENRYS, and enjoy wine thanks to the award-winning KOOKS winery. Music and live performances are also part of the opening night festivities, and everything is included in your ticket price.

Opening night film in 3d

Tickets

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Opening night film official selection

CANNES Film Festival 2015

official selection

MELBOURNE

THU17 7.30pm Cinema 1

INTERNATIONAL Film Festival 2015

Crass, and ridiculous and often uproarious.

A raunchy vaudeville with a surreal streak of despair. That’s entertainment.

The Guardian.

Director Gaspar Noé Year 2015 Country FRANCE Time 130 mins

The latest film from French provocateur Gaspar Noé (Irreversible, Enter the Void), Love set chins wagging at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. From in-yourface money shots to point-of-view penetration, this crazy kaleidoscope of flesh demands to be seen on the big screen in all its 3D glory. It all starts early on January 1st, when filmmaker Murphy wakes up next to his wife and two-year-old child to find a voicemail from his ex-girlfriend’s mother. She’s sick with worry and afraid something bad has happened, which starts Murphy reminiscing about the greatest love affair of his life. Burning with passion and flavoured by promises, games, excesses and mistakes, Love is not merely an exercise in style over substance. Rather than coyly sidestepping the physical expression of its titular emotion, Noé daringly explores the emotional foundation of sex, mirroring Murphy’s ambition of making “a movie that truly depicts sentimental sexuality.”

The film is indeed rather extraordinary. Love contains some of the prettiest shagging scenes in cinematic history.

The Hollywood Reporter.

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SUN20 Doors open 7.00pm

CLOSING NIGHT FILM AND PARTY

Film from 7.30pm Party after ‘til 12am All good things must come to an end, so SUFF 2015 is going to finish as fearlessly as it started. Enter the theatre for closing night, complimentary Serendipity Ice cream in hand, and be taken on a sick, sexy and twisted ride courtesy of Eli Roth’s latest thriller, KNOCK KNOCK. Starring Keanu Reeves, the film is dark and trashy in all the best ways – perfect for a Sunday night movie! Afterwards, you’ll be treated to Young Henry’s great new tinnie range (including Real Ale, Hop Ale, Natural Lager and Cloudy Cider) and Jay Katz and Miss Death spinning some diabolical tunes (what TOHO NIGHTS is becoming known for) as we farewell this year’s festival!

SUFF “Dead Oscar” awards will be presented at the closing night film.

Tickets

$22 ($17 concession) #SUFF2015

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opening night

Thanks to

Mark n spoo Wother

(Sydney-based Glass Artist) for creating the coveted SUFF Dead Oscar awards!

official selection

SXSW

Film Festival 2015 official selection

SUNDANCE Film Festival 2015

KNOCK KNOCK

If Knock Knock’s no more than a sick joke, it’s been very shrewdly constructed.

The Guardian.

AUSTRALIAN premiere All hail Eli Roth and the glorious return of the sexploitation genre in Knock Knock, a Funny Games meets Fatal Attraction thriller for the digital age. Cast perfectly against type, Keanu Reeves stars as Evan, a likable suburban dad whose work commitments prevent him joining his wife and kids on a weekend away. Late at night, two beautiful femmes fatales — Bel (Ana de Armas) and Genesis (Lorenza Izzo) — ring the doorbell, claiming to be lost. After some initial flirting, the scene is set for a raunchy game of cat and mouse, with Reeves as the adorably incredulous prey and Roth trading gore for suspense as playful seduction leads to anarchistic acts of rebellion and destruction.

SUN20 7.30pm Cinema 1

Director Eli Roth Year 2014 Country CHILE/ USA Time 99 mins A taboo thriller that will put Fifty Shades of Grey to shame.

Bloody Disgusting.

CLOSING night

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FEATURE FILMS PAGE

Alvin’s Harmonious World of Opposites 14 AZTEC BLOOD 15 Bunny the Killer thing 16 Deep Dark 17 Digging Up the Marrow 18 Dude Bro Party Massacre III 19 Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! 20 He never Died 21 HEAVEN Knows What 22 Hellions 23 KIDS 24 Nina Forever 25 One on One 26 Reality 27 They Look Like People 28 What Lola Wants 29 Yakuza Apocalypse 30

FEATURES

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SUN20 5.00pm Cinema 3

Director Platon Theodoris Year 2015 Country Australia/ Indonesia Time 73 mins official selection

Alvin’s Harmonious World of Opposites Alvin spends his days working as a Japanese translator, carefully creating the illusion of everyday normalcy for his friends, colleagues and those around him. But then there are the panda toys, the good-looking girl downstairs that Alvin spies on but can’t summon the courage to approach, the crazed and angry neighbour across the corridor, and the matter of something strange happening to his apartment. With tensions in his life and home steadily building, Alvin must either accept the stains that permeate his sheltered existence or finally make a break for it. In Alvin’s Harmonious World of Opposites, local first-time feature director Platon Theodoris has produced a film that is simultaneously intriguing and enjoyable, surreal and funny. Imbued with magical realism that recalls whimsy and verve of Michel Gondry as well as the creative imagination of Spike Jonze, all while depicting a world that is seems familiar yet somehow very, different, this is one of the most striking and original films to come out of Australia in years.

REVELATION Film Festival 2015

The Director and Lead Actor in attendance

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FEATUREs

jack sargeant presents

AZTEC BLOOD

Somewhere in the barren desert of the American southwest, a crew of archaeology students unearths an ancient burial ground.

Deep inside a cave they discover what appears to be an ancient mummified corpse. While most of the crew celebrates what could be the excavation of the century, one member, Carmen, has secret, more sinister plans in mind. Carmen performs a ritual that brings the spirit of the mummy back to life, but after centuries of being confined between worlds, Aztec God Tezcatlipoca is pissed and thirsty for blood. In his first film in 18 years, cult director Charles Pinion draws upon his background on skate punk splatter underground hit Twisted Issues, cult hallucinogenic sci-fi horror We Await and the transgressive feature Red Spirit Lake. A wickedly fresh spin on horror conventions, Aztec Blood is a fun thrill ride jam-packed with ancient Tenochtitlan mythology and blood splattering gore.

Supersaturated with eyeball kicks and a non-mainstream aesthetic, psychedelic splatterpunk is one way to describe the underground films of low-budget auteur Charles Pinion. Consensus reality just gives up after a certain point and the nudity, madness, sacrilege and gore—lots of gore—spills all over the floor, slithers up your legs and eats your brain.

Spectacle Theatre.

FRI18 8.30pm Cinema 5

Director Charles Pinion Year 2014 Country USA Time 82 mins official selection

REVELATION Film Festival 2014

official selection

MACABRO

Film Festival 2014

FEATURES

15

official selection

FANTASIA 2015

Completely insane. Gory, disgusting, and offensive.

Dread Central.

SAT19 8.00pm Cinema 4

SUN20 3.00pm Cinema 4

Director Joonas Makkonen Year 2015 Country FINLAND Time 88 mins

Bunny The Killer Thing A secluded cabin in the Finnish backwoods, a few cases of hard liquor and eight European twenty-somethings – what could possibly go wrong? What is meant to be a weekend of hard partying soon turns into a game of life and death when a strange creature resembling a demonic bunny rabbit emerges from the forest to wreak havoc on this group of unsuspecting tourists. This is Bunny the Killer Thing but unlike most creatures of his kind, Bunny doesn’t just have a taste for blood – instead, he craves anything that resembles female genitals. Bunny the Killer Thing is a riotous horror-comedy destined for cult-classic status. An homage to the ridiculously camp, bad-guy-in-monster-suit slashers of the 80s, with his feature length debut, Finnish director Joonas Makkonen offers up one sexed-up, blood-splattered hell of a good time.

Ever wanted to see a giant bunny murder a shit ton of people?

Well now you’re in luck.

Bunny the Killer Thing is now . . . a thing.

Gores Truly.

AUSTRALIAN premiere

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FEATUREs

AUSTRALIAN premiere

Winner – Best Actor (Sean McGrath) – Montreal HorrorFest 2015 official selection

SCI-FI LONDON Film Festival 2015

Deep Dark official selection

FANTASPOA 2015

BEST ACTOR

MONTREAL HORRORFEST 2015

Deep Dark stands out primarily for its sheer oddness, but as far as unsettling and original storytelling goes, it’s absolutely the real deal.

Fri18 6.30pm Cinema 5

Celluloid

It’s a question asked countless times across the history of art, from Faust to The Portrait of Dorian Gray to Robert Johnson: what price would you pay to possess the thing that means the most to you?

It’s the very question that confronts Hermann in Michael Medaglia’s debut horror feature, a macabre yet darkly humorous odyssey about the importance of maintaining artistic integrity. Hermann is a young sculptor who loves the art form with a passion but lacks the talent to succeed. Living with this nagging mother and listening to her insistence that he get a real job, he realises that he’s quickly running out of chances to make it. In an attempt to find inspiration, Hermann moves into his uncle’s apartment, where he comes into contact with a talking hole in the wall. It promises to make his wishes come true, but when the bodies start to pile up, just how far is Hermann willing to go to keep the dream alive?

SAT19 2.00pm Cinema 3

Director Michael Medaglia Year 2015 Country USA Time 79 mins

Magnificently shot and edited, Deep Dark is a surreal, gripping tale of what one man will do for success and how partnerships aren’t without consequence. Dark, twisted and utterly captivating, Michael Medaglia proves he has the skills to create something so beautiful yet terrifying at the same time.

Horror Cult Films

FEATURES

17

Smart, witty and genuinely scary in places… an intriguing curiosity for any viewer, and genre fans will find it a delight.

Eye for Film.

AUSTRALIAN premiere

SAT19

Digging Up the Marrow

10.30pm Cinema 3

Why do monsters fascinate us so? While making a documentary about genre-based monster art, film director Adam Green (Hatchet) receives a mysterious tape from a strange man (Ray Wise) claiming that he possesses evidence that conclusively proves the existence of monsters. Is a hoax? Is this man insane?

Or are there really monsters lurking deep within the Californian backwoods? In full meta-mode, Green carves up a self-reflexive and intelligent twist on the mockumentary and found-footage genres. Featuring cameos from horror legends such as Lloyd Kaufman, Tom Holland (Fright Night, Child’s Play), Don Conscarelli (Phantasm), Tony Todd (Candyman) and Kane Hodder (the Friday the 13th series), Digging Up the Marrow is a wryly humorous, frightfully fun adventure chock-full of hidden scares while paying tribute to some of the best monster art committed to screen in recent memory.

Director Adam Green Year 2014 Country USA Time 99 mins official selection

FRIGHTFEST LONDON 2014

Digging Up The Marrow is a tense, confident, and gorgeously terrifying monster movie that turns Alex Pardee’s artistry into vibrant, eye-catching horrors.

We Got This Covered.

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FEATUREs

AUSTRALIAN premiere

Not only is the comedy aces, but Dude Bro Party Massacre III gaushes gore like a punctured beer right before a proper shotgun.

We Got This Covered.

Dude Bro PartY Massacre III From online comedy troupe 5-Second Films, Dude Bro Party Massacre III’s hysterical, blood-splattered twist on the 1980s slasher flick will shatter your brain and disappoint your mother. The only surviving VHS copy of the reviled horror franchise’s third and final installment follows loner Brent Chirino, who must infiltrate the ranks of a popular fraternity to investigate his twin brother’s murder at the hands of serial killer Motherface.

As dude bros are picked off one by one, Brent must confront the terrifying reality that his twice-killed foe has returned from the grave yet again, and is hellbent on the destruction of the Delta Bis. Dude Bro Party Massacre III has all the ingredients of a cult classic: weird nudity, random celebrity appearances from the likes of Andrew W.K., Larry King, The Room’s Greg Sestero and Patton Oswalt, frat mockery, ass smacking, human glory holes, ghostbutt-humping, and a slew of other gory surprises for the bros of Delta Bi Theta.

SAT19 8.00pm Cinema 2 PLUS SHORT FILM Kung Fury

Dir. David Sandberg // USA // 2015 // 31 mins // AUSTRALIAN FESTIVAL Premiere In 1985, Kung Fury, the toughest martial artist cop in Miami goes back in time to kill the worst criminal of all time – Kung Fuhrer Hitler.

It’s a wicked impressive debut film and chances are you’ll see this gutbuster popping up on Best Of lists at the end of the year.

Bloody Disgusting.

Directors Tomm Jacobsen, Michael Rousselet, Jon Salmon Year 2015 Country USA Time 93 mins official selection

LOS ANGELES Film Festival 2015

FEATURES

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Beyond a doubt, the best movie ever made. It is possibly better than any film that will be made in the future.

John Waters.

SAT19 10.30pm Cinema 1

Director Russ Meyer Year 1965 Country USA Time 83 mins

Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!

Russ Meyer’s seminal, proto-feminist, sexploitation classic turns 50, and it sure looks great for its age. Three go-go dancers – Varla, her lover, Rosie and young wild girl Billie – dance by night and revel in crime by day. The trio terrorizes the Nevada desert in their supercharged sports car, wreaking havoc on the unsuspecting but deserving men who have the misfortune of crossing their path. Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! is a gleefully sordid, violent and hilarious exploitation masterpiece from Russ Meyer, the thinking person’s skin-flick director. With sumptuous black and white cinematography, a furious jazz score, biting dialogue and over-thetop melodramatics, this is the ultimate expression of the American cinema’s greatest fetishes – aka kick-ass heroines, fast cars and sudden death – confirming it as of the great pieces of cinema to come out of the 1960s.

Russ Meyer’s fetishistic vision of powerful bisexual amazons of mixed nationalities engaged in criminal super action exists in a cartoonish world of black and white humor where anything is possible.

The sex is intended to arouse, the violence to excite, and the combination enables Faster Pussycat’s status as an absolute masterpiece of subversion.

Daily Radar.

Not Coming to a Theatre Near You.

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FEATUREs

A bloody, hilarious and smart slice of supernatural noir.

Film School Rejects.

He Never Died

SAT19

Maybe living forever isn’t everything it’s cracked up to be. That’s what Jack (Henry Rollins) starts to find, his crappy apartment becoming his crypt, and the mind-numbing tedium of everyday life only making him more disdainful of the mortal world. Then there’s his taste for human flesh, which sometimes sees him supping on bad people and unleashing his inner beast. Seeing the human race as little more than meat with a pulse, Jack has no interest to bond with anyone – and there’s little point in making friends with someone he’d eventually eat or outlive by more than a millennia.

After centuries of the same, the jaded immortal’s world is turned upside down by the arrival of his estranged teenage daughter, violent thugs and the promise of what could be true love. Aided by a stunningly understated performance by punk icon and raconteur extraordinaire Rollins, writer/director Jason Krawczyk crafts a captivating character study, effortlessly straddling noir, pitch-black comedy and blood-soaked horror.

8.00pm Cinema 1

Director Jason Krawczyk Year 2015 Country USA Time 99 mins official selection

SXSW

Film Festival 2015 official selection

A virtually hypnotic combination of film noir, character study, crime story, and surprisingly effective horror.

FANTASIA Film Festival 2015

official selection

MELBOURNE

INTERNATIONAL Film Festival 2015

Nerdist.

FEATURES

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An exciting, creative and exhilarating jolt of cinema, and one of the more perfect ‘small gems’ to arrive for some time.

The Guardian.

Heaven knows what

FRI18 8.30pm Cinema 4

SUN20 3.00pm Cinema 3

Director Ben & Joshua Safdie Year 2014

official selection

Country USA Time 94 mins official selection

NEW YORK Film Festival 2014

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Harley loves Ilya. He gives her life purpose and sets her passion ablaze. So when he asks her to prove her devotion by slitting her wrists, she obliges with only mild hesitation, possibly due to the other all-consuming object of her affections: heroin. Directed by celebrated independent filmmakers Josh and Benny Safdie, Heaven Knows What blends fiction, formalism and raw vérité as it follows a young heroin addict who finds mad love in the streets of New York.

While researching another feature, the Safdie brothers came across Arielle Holmes and encouraged her to write her story down – and it is this tale (the soon-to-be-published Mad Love in New York City) they turn into a striking, revelatory film. Here, Holmes plays a version of herself that simmers with an intense, unparalleled sense of authenticity. Through her story, Heaven Knows What provides a powerful and alarmingly realistic insight into a subculture rarely encountered in contemporary cinema.

With its stripped-bare, psycho-sonic melodrama, the film elevates both real and staged to a sort of euphoric, symphonic rawness that mimics the brutal theatricality of the streets. This is no formal exercise, but an exaggerated reality about deep emotional truths.

Sight and Sound.

FEATUREs

official selection

TORONTO

INTERNATIONAL Film Festival 2014

SXSW

Film Festival 2015

BEST DIRECTOR

TOKYO Film Festival 2014

official selection

MELBOURNE

INTERNATIONAL Film Festival 2015

official selection

SUNDANCE

Film Festival 2015 official selection

EDINBURGH

INTERNATIONAL Film Festival 2015

AUSTRALIAN premiere

HELLIONS

FRI18

One of the most buzzed about midnight movies at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, Hellions tells the story of a pregnant teenager trying to survive a Halloween night from hell. When malevolent trick-or-treaters come knocking at Dora Vogel’s door, she gives them candy – but these hellions want more than yummy treats, and will use any means necessary to abscond with her unborn child. Alone and under siege, she must protect herself and her baby from their predatory, violent advances. From director Bruce McDonald of Pontypool fame and starring Terminator 2: Judgment Day’s Robert Patrick as the grizzled small town sheriff, Hellions is a sensory experience that pushes the visual and audio landscape of Halloween horror iconography to frightening new realms of terror.

A psychedelic thrill ride of insanity.

Geek Tyrant.

6.30pm Cinema 3

SAT19 10.30pm Cinema 2

Director Bruce McDonald Year 2015 Country CANADA Time 80 mins

FEATURES

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Just as pertinent now as it was upon its 1995 release, Larry Clark’s (Ken Park, Bully, The Smell of Us) indie debut offers a gritty, unapologetic look at Gen-X youth culture in New York City. Reckless teen Telly (Leo Fitzpatrick) has made it his goal to de-flower as many virgins as possible; however his litany of lovers are unaware that he’s HIV positive. While hunting for his latest conquest, Telly and his best friend, Casper (Justin Pierce), skate, smoke pot and steal from shops around the five buroughs. Meanwhile, Jenny (Chloë Sevigny), one of Telly’s early victims, makes it her mission to alert other innocent girls to his nefarious intentions – but before she has a chance to confront him at a party, everything goes horribly wrong. Featuring real youths playing versions of themselves, Kids is as disturbingly today as it was two decades ago. Penned by a nineteen-year-old Harmony Korine (Gummo, Trash Humpers, Spring Breakers), who Clark met while photographing New York skate culture, it’s more than art reflecting life; it’s a movie made on the street by those who’ve been there and lived it.

KIDS

FRI18 8.30pm Cinema 3

Director Larry Clark Year 1995 Country USA Time 91 mins

An emotional sucker punch, a raw, dirty, disturbing piece of cinéma vérité filmmaking that simultaneously hooks and repulses you from its opening scenes.

The Austin Chronicle.

24

FEATUREs

A superb horror movie in every respect.

Collider.

AUSTRALIAN premiere A dark, smart, sobering, anti-romantic horror story that the producers happily describe as ‘a fucked-up fairy tale’.

THE HORROR SHOW.

official selection

FANTASY

NINA Forever The problem with romance films is that they’re just not terrifying enough.

That’s not the case in Nina Forever, an exploration of love and loss for horror fans with a heart and for romantic audiences with a dark side. Grieving grocery store clerk Rob is struggling to move on from the sudden and tragic death of his girlfriend Nina, but is drawn to his morbidly curious co-worker Holly. The first time they’re in bed together, so is Nina – as a tangled, bloody mess of broken limbs, and very much dead, but still talking and angry. Holly doesn’t freak out and run, resolving to be the one who heals Rob’s wounds. She can deal with the dead girl sharing their bed, if it’s what Rob needs, in a film that digs up your skeletons, lays them out beside you, and dares you snuggle up with them.

FANTASIA FILM FESTIVAL 2015

8.30pm Cinema 1

SUN20 5.00pm Cinema 4

Directors Chris and Ben Blaine Year 2015 Country UK Time 99 mins official selection

SXSW

Film Festival 2015

FILM FESTIVAL 2015 official selection

FRI18

official selection

FRIGHTFEST LONDON 2015

FEATURES

25

AUSTRALIAN premiere

SUN20 5.00pm Cinema 1

Director Kim Ki-Duk Year 2014 Country SOUTH KOREA Time 122 mins official selection

VENICE Film Festival 2014

one on one Enfant terrible Kim Ki-Duk returns with his 20th feature, a brutal, blood-soaked revenge classic that opened the 2014 Venice Days sidebar. After a high-school girl is abducted and murdered for unknown reasons, a clandestine left-wing vigilante group forms to avenge her by punishing all those responsible for the attack.

Men are beaten, gagged and brought to a secret location where they are tortured until they submit to signing confessions for their misdeed. As they quickly dispense of the men one by one, the group works its way towards the top dog, who authorized the murder. One On One is dark and twisted but has plenty to say, examining cronyism, hierarchy and the widening income chasm in Korea with a heady mix of philosophical nihilism and gritty ultra-violence. official selection

FANTASPORTO Film Festival 2015

Carries the air of seriousness and stylised violence we’ve come to expect from Kim Ki-Duk. Cinecola.

26

FEATUREs

official selection

VENICE Film Festival

AUSTRALIAN premiere

2014

REALITY

There’s fun to be had in Dupieux’s latest exercise in intellectual pranksterism, particularly in the elegant way he threads the ornate strands of meta-narrative into a cohesive whole.

The Dissolve.

SAT19

Reality is a film so brain-meltingly surreal that it makes Being John Malkovich look like an episode of Play School by comparison. After his 2010 cult classic Rubber, (a film about a car tyre that goes on a killing spree in the America desert, which if you haven’t seen, you must) Quentin Dupieux’s, ‘Reality’ simply defies summation. The film tells the story of Jason, a quiet cameraman who dreams of directing his first horror movie. Jason is granted financing for the film on one condition: he has 48 hours to find the best scream in the history of cinema. During his search, he gradually gets lost in a nightmarishly complex labyrinth of multiple realities from which he cannot seem to escape. Forget Inception; this absurdist movie-within-a-movie-withinpossibly-a-dream-within-anothermovie will stay with you long after you leave the cinema.

6.00pm Cinema 1

Director Quentin Dupieux Year 2014 Country FRANCE Time 95 mins official selection

ISTANBUL

INTERNATIONAL Film Festival 2015 official selection

ROTTERDAM

INTERNATIONAL Film Festival 2015

FEATURES

27

AUSTRALIAN premiere

WINNER GRAND JURY AWARD

INDIEFEST 2015

WINNER GRAND JURY AWARD

IFFBoston 2015

WINNER GRAND JURY PRIZE

NASHVILLE

Film Festival 2015

WINNER AUDIENCE AWARD

NASHVILLE

Film Festival 2015

WINNER VERY HONOURABLE MENTION

SLAMDANCE 2015

SAT19 4.00pm Cinema 4

Director Perry Blackshear Year 2015 Country USA Time 80 mins

28

They Look like people Suspecting that people around him are transforming into malevolent shape-shifters, Wyatt flees to New York City to seek out his estranged childhood friend Christian. As mysterious horrors close in on Wyatt must decide whether to protect his only pal from what he believes to be an impending war or from himself, as he slowly loses grip with reality.

Crafting a genre-bending story that ponders questions of alienation, trust and societal presumptions around masculinity, director Perry Blackshear has garnered comparisons to Darren Aronofsky’s Pi and Rian Johnson’s Brick for making a debut indie on a DIY micro-budget. A thematic counterpart to It Follows and John Carpenter’s They Live with a decidedly Hitchcockian style, They Look Like People was the breakout film at this year’s Slamdance Film Festival.

FEATUREs

Unbearably tense but also profoundly moving, [They Look Like People] takes friendship to its outer limits, while presenting the most alarming aspects of mental illness in the most sympathetic of lights.

Vérité.

A ballsy, stylish desert road flick of young love on the run.

Indiewire

The Director Rupert Glasson in attendance

What Lola Wants

FRI18

What Lola wants, Lola gets. The seventeen-year-old (Sophie Lowe) has run away from home, allowing the world to believe that she has been kidnapped. While making her way across New Mexico she meets the cool and irresistibly charming rockabilly, Marlo (Beau Knapp), a fellow drifter who happens to be running from some demons of his own. The pair falls quickly and madly in love, but when Marlo finds out about the reward on Lola’s head, he must decide between turning her over to the authorities and journeying to Alabama to help her answer questions from her past. Tarantino-esque in its whip-sharp dialogue, indebted to the on-the-run romance of David Lynch’s Wild at Heart, and reminiscent of the novels of Jim Thompson (The Grifters, The Killer Inside Me), Rupert Glasson’s film presents a visually striking ode to young love set against the rich backdrop of the American desert. With breakout performances from the leading duo, the feature is dream-like in nature and charged with serious emotional urgency.

6.30pm Cinema 1 Director Rupert Glasson Year 2015 Country USA Time 81 mins official selection

LA Film FEST 2015

official selection

REVELATION Film Festival 2015

A captivating fun flick that leaves no cinematic stone unturned in its desire to fully engulf you in a whirlwind of wacky wonder – one unforgettable trip indeed.

Star Pulse.

FEATURES

29

Every comic-strip kick, sock and kapow is cranked up to the decibel level of a thousand bones breaking.

The Hollywood Reporter.

Yakuza Apocalypse:

FRI18

The Great War of the Underworld

10.30pm Cinema 1

Director Takashi Miike Year 2015 Country JAPAN Time 125 mins official selection

CANNES Film Festival 2015

official selection

MELBOURNE

INTERNATIONAL Film Festival 2015 official selection

NEW ZEALAND INTERNATIONAL Film Festival 2015

30

Yakuza boss-turned-vampire Kamiura has tight control of his turf, shaking down the local population for their hard earned and their plasma. When a rival cartel rolls into town – consisting of a bad-ass witch-hunter with a Django-like coffin on his back, an ultra-violent anime geek and a water-demon with terrible personal hygiene – all hell breaks loose, and that’s only the first act. Yakuza Apocalypse dives headfirst into bat-shit craziness, and then a giant frog turns up so any remaining rules of cinema go out the window. Here, Takashi Miike stirs everything he can into the mix: slapstick, body horror, stop-motion animation, and vintage giant monster carnage included. Returning to his roots V-Cinema (the low-budget, often X-rated direct-tovideo gangster films that allowed the helmer to mash up genres in darkly imaginative ways), Yakuza Apocalypse showcases Miike’s demented, visionary brilliance and confirms him as one of the most distinctive cinematic talents of our generation.

FEATUREs

Takashi Miike’s martial arts extravaganza is foolish, transgressive, and just about the best fun you can have in a cinema.

The Telegraph.

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DOCUMENTARIES PAGE

All the time in the world Back in Time Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution Call me lucky Deep Web Fassbinder - To Love Without Demands I dream of Wires Jesus Town, USA KILLSWITCH Kung Fu Elliot PEACE OFFICER Prison System 4614 RAIDERS! remake remix rip-off SAlad Days Theory of Obscurity The Yes Men Are Revolting Thought Crimes We Are Twisted Fucking Sister!

DOCOS

34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52

33

AUSTRALIAN premiere

official selection

HOTDOCS 2015 MOST POPULAR DOCO

VANCOUVER

INTERNATIONAL Film Festival 2014 PEOPLE’S CHOICE

KINGSTON

CANADIAN Film Festival 2015 BEST OF THE FESTIVAL

WILD AND SCENIC Film Festival 2015 BEST OF THE FEST

WAKEFIELD

INTERNATIONAL Film Festival 2015

SAT19

All the time in the world

12.00pm Cinema 2

These days, disconnecting from electronic devices is becoming increasingly difficult. Between work and home, our lives are spent plugged in to our computers, televisions and phones. Wondering why we have to live this way, director Suzanne Crocker takes her husband and three young daughters looking for answers. Leaving the comfort of their suburban family home to spend nine months living in the remote wilderness of the Yukon – with no road access, running water, clocks, electricity or access to amenities – they attempt to live self-sufficiently and off the grid, learning that there is more to life than what the mainstream media tells us. Showcasing beautiful photography of the Canadian wilderness as it transforms from season to season, All the Time in the World riffs on the theme of disconnecting from our hectic and technology laden lives in order to reconnect with each other, ourselves and our natural environment.

Director Suzanne Crocker Year 2014 Country CANADA Time 89 mins

Anyone watching this will have to ask: what is life all about, why am I in such a hurry, what is it that gives us true happiness? Thank you for making a film that demands that we answer those questions.

Dr. David Suzuki.

34

DOCOS

AUSTRALIAN premiere

Back in Time

SAT19

Once in a while, a movie comes along that creates a following like no other. Among all the cult films, sagas and trilogies, few compare to ‘80s classic Back to the Future. Celebrating the original film’s 30th anniversary, Back in Time takes a look at the impact the movies have had on our culture. From the iconic DeLorean DMC-12 time machine to Marty McFly’s handy hoverboard, this adoring documentary charts the trilogy’s evolution from its conception to its status as one of cinema’s most beloved treasures. As October 21st 2015 – aka the date Marty, Doc and Jennifer visited in Back to the Future II – approaches, Back in Time serves as a monument to the vastness of the series’ enduring global fandom. Featuring interviews with director Robert Zemeckis, producer Steven Spielberg, stars Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd and Lea Thompson, composer Huey Lewis and mega-fans including Dan Harmon (Community, Rick and Morty), this is a must-see for film buffs, children of the ‘80s, and anyone who’s ever wished they had a flux capacitor.

We’ve strived to make THE Back to the Future documentary.

That, in 20 years, when it’s the 50th anniversary, people are still watching. We want this to become the accompanying piece, the album liner for Back to the Future.

Jason Aron, director.

12.00pm Cinema 1

SUN20 1.00pm Cinema 4

Director Jason Aron Year 2014 Country USA Time 96 mins

DOCOS

35

AUSTRALIAN premiere

It’s the rarity of the footage and the first person accounts that bring depth to this movie.

The Daily.

Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution

FRI18 10.30pm Cinema 2

SUN20 5.00pm Cinema 2

Director Stanley Nelson Year 2015 Country USA Time 113 mins

In the 1960s, change was coming to America. Cities were burning, Vietnam was exploding, and disputes raged over women’s rights, gay rights and civil liberties. A new revolutionary culture was emerging, seeking to drastically transform the system. The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense would, for a short time, put itself at the vanguard of that movement. Master documentarian Stanley Nelson goes straight to the source, weaving together rare archival footage of the people who were there: police, FBI informants, journalists, white supporters and detractors, the Black Panthers who remained loyal to the party, and those who left it. An essential history lesson, The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution offers a vibrant, human, living and breathing chronicle of this pivotal movement that birthed a new mindset in America. Exploring concerns over race and policing as pertinent today as it was when the Black Panthers formed over 50-years ago, the film is essential viewing for anyone interested in the rich history that has informed the recent conflicts in Ferguson and Baltimore.

official selection

SUNDANCE

Film Festival 2015

36

DOCOS

Maybe — just maybe — The Black Panthers will remind the media that revolution is incredibly sexy and it should be televised.

Smells Like Screen Spirit.

official selection

BEST DOCUMENTARY

SUNDANCE

FREE STATE

BEST DOCUMENTARY

AUDIENCE CHOICE

Film Festival 2015

BOSTON

INDEPENDENT Film Festival 2015

Film Festival 2015

CHICAGO

CRITICS Film Festival 2015

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE AWARD

BEST DOCUMENTARY

GASPARILLA

CINETOPIA

INTERNATIONAL Film Festival 2015 TOP DOCUMENTARY AWARD

BOULDER

Film Festival 2015

Call me lucky Barry Crimmins is the funniest comedian that you’ve never heard of. As a young and hungry comic in the ‘70s, he founded his own Boston comedy club, fostering the careers of legends such as Steven Wright, Denis Leary and even Bobcat Goldthwait. A venerated member of America’s comic community, Crimmins’ scathingly ribald stand-up style took early audiences by force. Through stark, smart observation and judo-like turns of phrase, his rapid-fire comedy was a war on ignorance and complacency in ‘80s America at the height of an ill-considered foreign policy. Alas, beneath Crimmins’ gruff, hard-drinking, curmudgeonly persona lay an undercurrent of rage stemming from a dark secret from his past – a rage that eventually found its way out of the comedy clubs and television shows and into the political arena.

Featuring interviews with Margaret Cho, Marc Maron, David Cross and Patton Oswalt plus a swath of stand-up footage, Call Me Lucky bravely tells Crimmins’ incredible story of transformation from a rage-fueled funnyman into an acclaimed proponent of justice who personifies the healing power of comedy.

Film Festival 2015

AUDIENCE AWARD

CHATTANOOGA Film Festival 2015

SAT19 4.00pm Cinema 1

Director Bobcat Goldthwait Year 2015 Country USA Time 106 mins Not only a wonderful piece of documentary filmmaking, but it’s an act of substantial bravery as well.

Consequences of Sound

DOCOS

37

AUSTRALIAN premiere

Meticulously researched, impartial, and prescient.

POV Magazine.

SAT19 4.00pm Cinema 2

Director Alex Winter Year 2015 Country USA Time 90 mins

Deep Web At the very depths of the internet lies a seedy underbelly of piracy and crime, known as the Deep Web. This lawless black market is where the drug-pedaling enterprise that is the Silk Road can be found, as run by Ross Ulbricht. In this powerful documentary, actor turned director Alex Winter follows the case against the main man behind this notorious online cartel. Narrated by his Bill & Ted co-star Keanu Reeves, Deep Web presents unprecedented interviews from the cyberpunks, hacktivists and even government officials who regularly populate the unseemly space most internet users don’t even know about.

In a companion piece to fellow SUFF 2015 film Killswitch, this film critically examines what a decentralized and free internet might look like, beyond the reaches of the legal system.

The inside story of one of the most important and riveting digital crime sagas of the century.

POV Magazine.

38

DOCOS

Thomsen builds a fascinating film around a fascinating man, but never, despite his evident deep affection for him, allows it to fall into hagiography.

Indiewire.

official selection

SXSW

Film Festival 2015 official selection

HOTDOCS 2015 official selection

MONTCLAIR Film Festival 2015

official selection

SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL Film Festival 2015

official selection

FULL FRAME

DOCUMENTARY Film Festival 2015 BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM

GLOBAL VISIONS Festival 2015

official selection

65th BERLINALE Film Festival 2015

official selection

MELBOURNE

INTERNATIONAL Film Festival 2015

Fassbinder - To Love Without Demands

SAT19 2.00pm Cinema 4

Rainer Werner Fassbinder was one of the most prolific directors in the history of the cinema. In just over 14 years he wrote and directed 60 films for the big and small screens, until his career was cut short Director by a cocaine overdose at the age of 37. Danish film director Christian Christian Braad Braad Thomsen was a close friend of Fassbinder, fashioning To Thomsen Love Without Demands from the lengthy, candid, otherwise unseen interviews he shot with him in the 1970s. Beginning with Fassbinder’s Year 2015 volatile childhood in post-war Germany, the seven-chapter film Country provides an illuminating, intimate and moving tribute to a man who reached a large international audience without ever compromising DENMARK his unique vision, and to work that interpreted 20th century German Time 110 mins history from the collapse of the Weimar republic to the terrorism of the 1970s.

A must-see for anyone interested in the mind of a major auteur. A thematic and psychological profile‌that does a good job explaining what made the man tick.

The Hollywood Reporter.

DOCOS

39

AUSTRALIAN premiere

official selection

F.A.M.E

FRI18

Film AND MUSIC Experience Festival 2015

10.30pm Cinema 5

official selection

EAST END

Film Festival LONDON 2015 official selection

Director Robert Fantinatto

SONAR

Year 2014

official selection

FESTIVAL Spain 2015

LAUSANNE

Country USA

UNDERGROUND AND MUSIC Film Festival 2014

Time 102 mins One cannot help but be caught up with the sheer love and passion that flows throughout this film, and be enraptured by this eccentric and obsessive subculture. Films with this high level of craft and quality and care are increasingly rare. Films that draw you in with their passion and subject matter rarer still.

Waveformless.

40

DOCOS

I dream of Wires “I don’t want to make music as anyone knows it,” Morton Subotnick recalls telling analogue synth pioneers Robert Moog and Don Buchla in the mid 1960s. For the last half a century, that’s exactly what modular synthesis has represented: an alternative to conventional approaches. I Dream of Wires explores the phenomenal resurgence of the modular synthesizer, the passions, obsessions and dreams of people who have dedicated their lives to this esoteric electronic music machine. Inventors, musicians and enthusiasts including Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails), Vince Clarke (Depeche Mode), Chris Carter (Throbbing Gristle), Carl Craig, Gary Numan and John Foxx show off their systems and explain why they opt to use this volatile but ultimately rewarding technology. Meanwhile, a new generation of dance and electronica artists discuss why they’ve stepped away from laptops to embrace the sound and physicality of modular synthesizers and what started out as a vintage revival in the 90s has grown into an underground phenomenon, with a growing market of obsessives craving ever more wild and innovative sounds and interfaces.

AUSTRALIAN premiere

Jesus Town, USA

official selection

HOTDOCS 2015

For 88 years, a small town has pantomimed the story of Christ in a unique construction of Jerusalem built into an Oklahoma Buffalo reserve. Alas, attendances are waning and the man who plays Jesus is retiring, leaving organizers seeking a new saviour for this year’s performance. Enter Zack, a rotund twenty-something paperboy who has grown up in this devout Christian community, taking minor roles in past plays. This hybrid documentary chronicles a 300-strong amateur cast, a 6-hour production, and Zack, whose massive secret threatens to de-rail the entire show. With endearing characters, quirky humor, and stunning cinematography, Jesus Town, USA documents a town grappling with questions of tradition, legacy, and what it means to be a community.

SAT19 6.00pm Cinema 4

Directors Billie Mintz, Julian T. Pinder Year 2015 Country USA Time 95 mins

A comical mashup of Waiting for Guffman and A Fistful of Dollars, with a nod to Fellini.

Hot Docs.

DOCOS

41

BEST EDITING

WOODSTOCK Film Festival 2014

official selection

GOTEBORG Film Festival 2014

official selection

IDFA

Film Festival 2014

AUSTRALIAN premiere

KILLSWITCH

FRI18 8.30pm Cinema 2

U.S. Representative Alan Grayson.

SAT19 10.30pm Cinema 5

Director Ali Akbarzadeh Year 2014

Think the internet is society’s last bastion of true democracy and free speech? Think again. The right to online information and how we access it is currently up for grabs but will the internet be dominated by a few powerful interests or will citizens rise up to protect it?

Featuring interviews from cyber-law pioneers Tim Wu, Lawrence Lessig and Peter Ludlow and focusing on the two diverging stories of the world’s most famous hacktivists, Aaron Swartz (The Internet’s Own Boy) and Edward Snowden (Citizenfour) – Killswitch examines the internet’s complex impact on social issues. In the midst of current political debate around the right to privacy, freedom of information in the digital age and net neutrality, this must-see documentary advocates for the importance of a new human necessity: a free, impartial and decentralized internet.

Country USA Time 72 mins

42

One of the most honest accounts of the battle to control the Internet and access to information itself.

DOCOS

BEST DOCUMENTARY

SLAMDANCE Film Festival 2014

AUSTRALIAN premiere

Kung Fu Elliot Meet Canada’s first kick-ass action hero.

Elliot “White Lightning Scott”, an eccentric martial artist, dreams of becoming Canada’s answer to Chuck Norris with his low budget karate epic, Blood Fight. Kung Fu Elliot spans two years in the lives of this passionate amateur filmmaker, his supportive partner Linda and their outrageous cast, all of whom will stop at nothing to realise their dreams. As the film delves deeper into Scott’s personal life, it presents a complex portrait of a man who may not be everything he purports himself to be. The winner of Best Documentary at Slamdance Film Festival 2014, Kung Fu Elliot is a funny and equally compassionate exploration of the divide between our dreams and the reality of the hand that fate can often deal us.

Unfailingly earnest and moral without ever slipping into dogma or preachiness, Kung Fu Elliot’s exploration of the lengths people will go to escape reality, and the emotional collateral damage they leave in their wake has a lot of staying power to it.

FRI18 6.30pm Cinema 4

SAT19 4.00pm Cinema 3

Consequences of Sound. official selection

FANTASTIC FEST 2014

official selection

HOTDOCS 2014 official selection

Directors Matthew Bauckman, Jaret Belliveau Year 2014

FANTASIA Film Festival

Country CANADA

official selection

Time 81 mins

2014

NEW ZEALAND INTERNATIONAL Film Festival 2014

DOCOS

43

BEST DOCUMENTARY

SXSW

Film Festival 2015

official selection

HOTDOCS 2015

Creates an extremely timely narrative around a volatile issue.

The Playlist.

SAT19 12.00pm Cinema 3

SUN20 1.00pm Cinema 3 Directors Brad Barber, Scott Christopherson Year 2015 Country USA Time 105 mins

PEACE OFFICER Since the late 1970s, SWAT team raids in the United States have increased by a staggering 15,000%. The American police force is becoming increasingly militarised, as former sheriff William “Dub” has witness and experienced the tragic consequences of, first hand. Lawrence established and trained his rural state’s first SWAT team, only to see that same unit kill his son-in-law in a controversial standoff 30 years later. Driven by obsession, Lawrence uses his own investigative skills to uncover the truth in this and other recent officer-involved shootings in his community.

Winner of the Jury and Audience Awards for Best Documentary Feature at SXSW 2015, Peace Officer also tackles larger questions about the changing face of law enforcement across the USA. A powerful and important film about policing tactics that have crept into everyday use with little scrutiny, Peace Officer makes its case effectively enough to move even the staunchest law-andorder civilians.

The Hollywood Reporter.

44

DOCOS

AUDIENCE AWARD

SXSW

Film Festival 2015 Audience Award

MONTCLAIR Film Festival 2015

DAVID CARR Award

MONTCLAIR Film Festival 2015

WINNER - AWARD FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

FULL FRAME

DOCUMENTARY Film Festival 2015

Though this may seem tough, hard and severe, Jan Soldat manages to depict an unexpectedly tender portrait of the couple of men who created the prison and run it. He also lays an affectionate eye on the prisoners themselves.

Jury of the Tel Aviv Film Festival.

official selection

65th BERLINALE Film Festival 2015

OFFICIAL SELECTION

QFEST 2015

AUSTRALIAN premiere

Prison System 4614 In the world where there’s a niche for every type of proclivity, Arwed caters to a special type of customer: he runs a private prison where he finds all sorts of ways to bully and victimise his paying guests on the other side of the bars. Shot over the course of one week, Prison System 4614 provides a documentary portrait of a self-built place where vacationing men pay big bucks to live out imprisonment and torture-fantasies for real – whether as a warden or a prisoner. Their activities aren’t always entirely sexual, with most participants treating the time they spend in handcuffs and leg irons as a real holiday where they can switch off and relax. Renowned for his controversial BDSM documentaries, Jan Soldat explores this intricate world with the nuance it deserves, humanising the prisoners and exploring the humane side of the wardens who care for those in their charge.

SAT19

PLUS SHORT FILM

2.00pm Cinema 2 Director Jan Soldat

Rubber Romance

Sophie Dros // THE Netherlands // 2014 // 15 mins // AUS premiere Meet Knuffelfantje, an S&Mslave who escapes daily life by coming to his dominant mistress Madieanne.

Year 2014 Country GERMANY Time 60 mins

Jan Soldat’s documentary work is the purest storytelling I’ve seen in cinema.

Desist Films.

DOCOS

45

SUN20 RAIDERS! 3.00pm Cinema 1

Directors Jeremy Coon & Tim Skousen Year 2015 Country USA Time 104 mins official selection

SXSW

Film Festival 2015 official selection

MELBOURNE

INTERNATIONAL Film Festival 2015 official selection

THE CHICAGO CRITICS Film Festival 2015

46

Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made

Prepare to discover the inspiring story behind the greatest fan film ever made. In 1982, 11-year-old pals Eric Zala, Chris Strompolos and Jayson Lamb set out to craft a shot-by-shot remake of their all-time favourite movie, Steven Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Ark. It took seven tumultuous years and almost cost them their friendship, as well as their lives. By the end, they had completed every scene except one: the explosive airplane scene that simply proved too pyrotechnically tricky to pull off. Decades later, their affectionate creation has become a viral sensation, inspiring the now 40-something amateur filmmakers to reunite to finally film that fated final footage. Exploring the perils and real-life dramas of pursuing your dreams at all costs, Raiders! tells their tale, complete with extraordinary behind-the-scenes glimpses, outtakes spanning the ‘80s and today, and interviews with the likes of John RhysDavies and Eli Roth.

Captures the lunacy and love of fandom and friendship… the will-theywon’t-they dynamic of the film grips you and it’s almost impossible not to root for Strompolos and Zala.

The Guardian.

DOCOS

Illustrates how honest enthusiasm can gradually transform itself into ego, arrogance, and borderline obsession.

Nerdist.

remake remix rip-off Name any Hollywood blockbuster and you can be sure there is a Turkish equivalent. From Star Wars to Rambo, and The Wizard of Oz to The Exorcist, the majority of the high-grossing American films have been given the Turkish treatment. Since the 1960s, the Turkish film industry – aka Yesilçam – has been one of the most prolific producers of films in the world and one buoyed by strong demand; however without proper training, funding or support, it has survived by embracing a copy culture. Having grown up on these classics, director Cem Kaya takes us on a nostalgic and uproarious journey through this period in his nation’s film history. In the same vain as Not Quite Hollywood, Remake, Remix, Rip-off is a joyous celebration the heyday of shameless exploitation cinema in Turkey.

SAT19

official selection

FANTASIA Film Festival

12.00pm Cinema 4

2015

official selection

EDINBURGH

Director Cem Kaya

official selection

Year 2014

INTERNATIONAL Film Festival 2015

ROTTERDAM

INTERNATIONAL Film Festival 2015 official selection

TEL AVIV

INTERNATIONAL Film Festival 2015

Country TURKEY Time 96 mins

official selection

LOCARNO Film Festival 2015

AUSTRALIAN premiere Admission is worth it for the clips alone.

Variety.

DOCOS

47

SAT19 6.00pm Cinema 2

Director Scott Crawford Year 2014 Country USA Time 90 mins An inspiring primer, sure to remind viewers that the power has always been in their hands.

Time Out New York.

48

official selection

SAlad Days:

BONNAROO

A Decade of Punk in Washington, D.C. (1980-1990) Punk may have been born in the UK, but as Washington D.C. bands like Minor Threat, Bad Brains and Fugazi prove, it reached its apex in the USA. By the early ‘80s, the Reagan government’s stifling conservatism triggered much social unrest and in Washington it was the hardcore punk scene that voiced their dissent the most loudest.

Through a mix of interviews and live concert footage, director Scott Crawford charts the scene’s evolution from its violent and anarchic DIY origins to the famed ‘Summer Revolution’, which saw bands fight for a more inclusive and egalitarian musical landscape. Boasting insights from rock icons Ian Mackaye, Henry Rollins (a D.C. native whose first band S.O.A. pioneered the scene), Dave Grohl (who got his start in D.C. band Scream) and Thurston Moore, Salad Days offers a raucous, engaging look at one of the most important eras in music history.

DOCOS

MUSIC AND ARTS Festival 2015 official selection

BEAT FILM Festival RUSSIA 2015

official selection

NIGHT VISIONS INTERNATIONAL Film Festival 2015

Looks to be making a late bid to be the year’s best music doc.

The Guardian UK.

official selection

OFFICIAL SELECTION

SXSW

DOXA

DOCUMEMTARY Film Festival 2015

PRESENTS

Film Festival 2015

Theory of Obscurity:

SUN20

A film about the residents

1.00pm Cinema 1

Renegade experimental art collective The Residents have been making some of the world’s most official selection SAN FRANCISCO Director mind-bending music and visual artifacts for over INTERNATIONAL Film Festival Don Hardy Jr. 40 years. In today’s modern celebrity-obsessed 2014 culture, The Residents dare to keep their identities official selection Year 2015 a mystery, with the enigmatic quartet always MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL wearing masks that ensure their anonymity. One Film Festival Country USA 2014 of the most fascinating and unusual bands of all official selection time, their uncompromising focus on creative Time 87 mins REVELATION control cuts against conventional conceptions of Film Festival 2014 commercial success. Theory of Obscurity cracks open their official archives, unveiling a flood of rare footage from decades of live performances, No matter your musical tastes, plus incisive interviews from the bands they have the enduring power of any group inspired including Devo, Primus, Ween and Talking of people to continue to inspire Heads. Interviews from some of their biggest fans others, especially those who find (including The Simpsons creator Matt Groening themselves on the outskirts of the and illusionist Penn Jillette) help shed light on status quo, is a worthy feat and a band whose perseverance and originality are Theory of Obscurity pays tribute now endearing them to a whole new generation where tribute is due. of fans. Thriving at a time when art has seemingly Way Too Indie. become more dispensable than ever, The Residents continue to subvert all expectations, proving that perhaps artistic integrity can triumph over all.

49

DOCOS

Another entertaining mix of agitpop, pranksterism and autobiography.

AUSTRALIAN premiere

Variety.

SAT19 2.00pm Cinema 1

Directors Andy Bichlbaum, Mike Bonanno & Laura Nix Year 2014 Country The Netherlands Time 91 mins

The Yes Men are Revolting Fans of comic documentaries, rejoice! In their third cinematic outing after The Yes Men and SUFF 2009’s The Yes Men Fix the World, everyone’s favourite comedic crusaders return with more insights into their anarchic activism. For the last 20 years, Yes Men Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno have staged outrageous and hilarious hoaxes to draw international attention to corporate crimes against humanity and the environment. Armed with nothing but thrift store suits and a lack of shame, these iconoclastic revolutionaries con their way into business events and government functions to expose the dangers of letting greed run our world. Now well into their forties, their mid-life crises are threatening to drive them out of activism forever, even as they prepare to take on the biggest challenge they’ve ever faced: climate change. With Laura Nix joining the Yes Men as a co-director, The Yes Men Are Revolting charts relationship break-ups and the threat of life-destroying legal actions, documents the resilience and determination required to create meaningful change on a global scale, and offers an intimate portrait of what it takes to be a celebrity activist in the modern world.

An entertaining and interesting examination of the anxieties that make us question who we are and if we’re making a difference.

Indiewire.

50

DOCOS

This new HBO documentary will make you want to delete your search history.

Business Insider.

AUSTRALIAN premiere

Thought Crimes: The Case of The Cannibal Cop At what point does an idea become a crime? Does engaging in online conversations about rape, torture and murder constitute criminal behaviour? Filmmaker Erin Lee Carr explores these questions through the stranger-than-fiction story of Gilberto “The Cannibal Cop” Valle, who was charged with conspiring to kidnap, cook and eat several women in New York City in 2012.

Featuring intimate interviews with Valle and his family, as well as insights from lawyers, journalists, psychologists and criminal experts involved in the case, Thought Crimes delves into this highly complicated issue with clarity of vision and a deft touch.

Part George Orwell in tone and Erroll Morris in execution, this is a deeply intriguing and at times darkly humorous documentary that examines whether someone can be found guilty on the basis of his or her most dangerous thoughts.

A compelling documentary about New York’s ‘cannibal cop’ raises uncomfortable questions about how far fantasy can go before it is interpreted as conspiracy to murder.

The Guardian.

SUN20 1.00pm Cinema 2

Director Erin Lee Carr Year 2015 Country USA Time 81 mins

official selection

TRIBECA FILM Festival 2015

official selection

HOTDOCS 2015

DOCOS

51

A raucously riotous rags-to-riches record of rip-roaring rock renegades.

AUSTRALIAN premiere

We Are Twisted Fucking Sister!

FRI18 10.30pm Cinema 3

SAT19 8.00pm Cinema 3

Director Andrew Horn Year 2014 Country USA Time 135 mins official selection

IDFA

FILM Festival 2015

52

The Hollywood Reporter.

Twisted Sister are as mad as hell and they ain’t gonna take it anymore. Their motto was: “Dress like women, talk like men, play like motherfuckers!” They were the Grand Funk of glam and the New York Dolls of metal, channeling savage energy and wild humor into something approaching bluecollar performance art. Some considered Twisted Sister a joke, others called them the greatest bar band in the world. While the microcosm of punk and new wave was taking over New York in the mid ‘70s and early ‘80s, Twisted Sister were battling their way to the top of a vast suburban, cover-band bar scene that surrounded the city in a 100-mile radius, yet existed in a parallel universe. That Twisted Sister would break out into multiplatinum stardom is well known but this is no fable of fame and success, nor a litany of celebrity tributes and fanboy adulation.

Uproarious and Instead, We Are Twisted Fucking Sister! poignant by turns – a offers a smart, savvy and wickedly funny story tale of excess, egotism of a 10-year odyssey to overnight success. and absurdity.

DOCOS

The Independent.

PAGE

LOVE/SICK LSD FACTORY OZPLOIT! REALITY BITES WTF SHORTS

54 55 56 57 58

SHORTS SHORTS

53

Short Film Session

SAT19 10.30pm Cinema 4

LOVE/SICK Bad at Dancing

Dir. Joanna Arnow // USA // 2015 // 11 mins // AUS Premiere Perpetual third wheel Joanna increasingly inserts herself into the relationship of her roommate Isabel. The two women test each other’s boundaries in this surreal manifestation of jealous rivalry.

Bloody Mary

Dir. Jono Freedrix // USA // 2015 // 6 mins // AUS prEmiere A sophisticated Manhattan loft party takes a deviant turn after an uninvited guest shows up, pestering nearly everyone.

Hallway

Dir. Leah Shore // USA // 2015 // 4 mins // AUS Premiere Shot exclusively in a secret sex club in New York City, a drug-addled couple unleash an existential barrage of delusion and broken dreams upon each other.

SAlad Days

Dir. Will Welles // USA // 2014 // 6 mins // AUS Premiere Just a normal couple out on a normal picnic on a normal nice day. Nothing out of the ordinary to see here...nothing at all.

The Girlfriend Experience Be Loved

Dir. Jan Soldat // GERMANY // 2010 // 16 mins // AUS Premiere Life’s about two things: being loved and not being alone. But what happens when people aren’t enough or they’re too much? A film about the relationship between humans and animals, poised between love and dependence.

GOAT WITCH!

Dir. James Sizemore // USA // 2014 // 13 mins // AUS premiere In a bid to win her girlfriend’s affection, a young woman participates in a bizarre black magic ritual. She soon realizes she’s got tough competition in the form of a terrifying shedemon, raised from the dead.

Either it’s love or sick, or just lovesick. A SUFF Short Film Session classic!

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SHORTS

Pale Blue Dot

Dir. Pourya Ezzati Pour // GERMANY // 2014 // 11 mins // AUS prEmiere Pieces of lives spent in this crazy, meaningless, violent Pale Blue Dot in the murkiness of space that we call Earth.

RE:

Dir. Stefan Adamski // POLAND // 2014 // 5 mins // AUS Premiere A film within a film about a man’s sexual relationship with a tree, based on correspondence with cult movie directors

Dir. Mark Kunerth // USA // 2014 // 7 mins // AUS Premiere Getting over a breakup of someone we love can make us do things we normally wouldn’t do. A young man’s plan for a no-strings attached encounter is not nearly as easy and uncomplicated as it first seems.

The Shadow of Your Smile

Dir. Alexei Dmitriev // RUSSIA // 2014 // 3 mins // SYDNEY prEmiere A look at the hidden pleasures that lurk behind and inbetween the artifacts of VHS adult films.

Short Film Session

FRI18 10.30pm Cinema 4

LSD FACTORY 8 Bullets

Dir. Frank Ternier // FRANCE // 2014 // 13 mins // AUSTRALIAN premiere My name is Gabriel and I live in Taipei. I have lost my wife during an assault. A red-haired man came to me, he smelt of fried fish. He had a gun and he shot my family. Since, I feel empty as if I had a hole in the head.

G14

Dir. Harlan Doolittle // USA // 2014 // 6 mins // AUSTRALIAN premiere A dive into the chthonian abyss of the postmodern subconscious, G14 is the beast beneath your brain set free.

Maku

Dir. Yoriko Mizushiri // JAPAN // 2014 // 5 mins // SYDNEY premiere Two people who face each other in space. Each person keeps distance between them and their partner, and finds some fearful, tender, and comfortable feelings that fascinate them..

Dir. Nassos Vakalis // GREECE // 2014 // 10 mins // AUSTRALIAN premiere Those who eat their fill speak to the hungry of wonderful times to come. An allegorical depiction of our society.

Dir. Jonathan Palomar // CANADA // 2015 // 11 mins // WORLD premiere The ultimate mash-up: from Lumiere brothers to Spiderman, and through Lili Marleen and Minecraft. A found footage and video essay on hyper-reality, technology, and humankind.

Familiar

Leather

Dir. Joel Benjamin // USA // 2014 // 6 mins // AUSTRALIAN premiere When an innocent decides it is not enough to live a life in a chomping maw, she ventures out into a frightening landscape of dreams, melting trees and piles of dung. But is the new better than the old and familiar?

Dir. Jimmy Joe Roch // USA // 2015 // 3 mins // AUSTRALIAN premiere Inspired by The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Begotten, Dog Star Man, Phil Solomon’s films, and Peter Kubelka’s 1958 Schwechater Beer commercial, Leather provides the perfect nightmare fuel.

Dir. A.J Briones // USA // 2015 // 7 mins // AUSTRALIAN premiere A little girl home alone finds herself face-to-face with pure evil.

World of Tomorrow

Hypertelia Dinner For Few

The Smiling Man

PLANET ∑

Dir. Momoko Seto // FRANCE // 2014 // 12 mins // AUSTRALIAN premiere Giant creatures are trapped inside the ice. Submarine explosions provoke a global warming, and a new life begins for animals.

Song For the Lemons

Dir. Tommy Becker // USA // 2013 // 6 mins // AUSTRALIAN premiere The lemon, I felt, never got its day in the sun.

Dir. Don Hertzfeldt // USA // 2015 // 17 mins // AUSTRALIAN premiere A little girl is taken on a mindbending tour of her distant future. Winner of 2015 Jury Prize for Best Short Film at Sundance.

Who needs drugs when you have the LSD Factory.

Be afraid, these shorts will mess with your shit!

SHORTS

55

Short FilmS PRESENTED BY 2SER

Ozploit!

SAT19 6.00pm Cinema 3

An outrageously diverse session of short films by the Australian new wave!

Amateur

Dir. Emma Varker // AUS // 2015 // 1 min // WORLD premiere A 16mm experimental piece featuring a headless man masturbating and a reluctant porn star.

Parallel Divergence

Dir. Alice Sciberra // AUS // 2015 // 2 mins // AUS premiere Parallel Divergence is a material stop-motion, displaying an abstract relationship that becomes strained as competition and ego consume the pair.

Shy Latte

Dir. Cathy Vu // AUS // 2014 // 7 mins // WORLD premiere Coffee. Sex. Magic. What could go wrong?

Take a Seat

Dir. Jordan Turner // AUS // 2012 // 7 mins // SYDNEY premiere Jensen’s fetish for the fourlegged is out of control. His room is a cluttered shrine to this obsession, and those who love him are at their wits end.

Sick Joke Double Blind No. 1

Dir. The Double Blind Experiments // AUS // 2015 // 2 mins // AUS premiere Five VFX artists set out to test the theory that a fine-art technique relying on chance can be applied to a motion piece.

RECONSTRUCTION OF IDENTITY

Dir. Michael Toledo // AUS // 2014 // 12 mins // WORLD premiere Ulysses has filmmaker’s block.

The only way through is to journey into his subconscious mind, confront his past and the history of his family through fragments of old movies.

Dir. Jason J. Cohn, Sigourney Luz // AUS // 2014 // 7 mins // SYDNEY premiere Daniel and Stella are the kind of couple who like to push each other’s buttons just for the fun of it, but don’t know when to stop. A tale of life, love and shallow grave digging.

The Everybody’s Guide To Film Making

Dir. Nick Martinelli // AUS // 2014 // 6 mins // WORLD premiere In just 10 easy steps just these 10, The Professor will show you how to make an ‘Oscarwinning* masterpiece’ (*Oscar not guaranteed).

Flutter By

Dir. Gregory Godhard // AUS // 2014 // 3 mins // SYDNEY premiere In these dying days of shooting films on actual film and in the traditions of hand-made cinema, Flutter-by is a homage to the film medium itself.

Fully Funded

Dir. Alicia Easaw-Mamutil // AUS // 2015 // 7 mins // SYDNEY premiere Jordan and Neil are housemates but things get ugly when Jordan’s crowd-funding campaign to have Neil killed surpasses its funding goal.

56

RUCKUS

Dir. Hannah Balke // AUS // 2015 // 6 mins When night falls in the inner Sydney suburbs, the mother of all raping lesbian poltergeists come out to search for her prey.

Smack Down Under Dir. Bryce Mills // AUS // 2015 // 5 mins // WORLD premiere University student Bryce “The Cat” Mills powerbombs himself into the whacky world of professional wrestling. Watch him train and see how he fares when he makes his Australian Wrestling Entertainment debut.

The House of Lee

Dir. David Ma // AUS // 2014 // 10 mins Two thugs walk into a Chinese restaurant. They forget their manners, so instead of sweet and sour pork, the owners serve them a dish they’re certain to remember.

Sexy

Dir. Brooke Goldfinch // AUS/ USA // 2014 // 9 mins // WORLD premiere Kat is always trying to keep up with her best friend Jess. One night when the two girls sneak out to meet up with some boys, Kat realises that – unlike Jess – she’s not in a hurry to grow up.

SHORTS

This Is High Society Spoilt

Dir. Stefan Bugryn // AUS // 2014 // 9 mins // SYDNEY premiere Vlad has been pushed over the edge. His obsession has just been ruined, and now he must exact revenge in the worst way possible.

Dir. Benjamin Rushton // AUS // 2015 // 2 mins // WORLD premiere Dredge it, mine it, consume it... or not, its up to you?

1968 revisited, when the MC5 unloaded themselves onto the world. Lets shake off apathy, and DO something to CHANGE it!

Reality Bites Short Film Session

FRI18 Copycat

Dir. Charlie Lyne // UK // 2015 // 9 mins // AUSTRALIAN premiere In the summer of 1990, a teenage filmmaker successfully raises $100,000 to shoot a pioneering horror film. 25 years later, he tells the story of a cult classic that never was.

Dolphin Lover

Dir. Kareem Tabsch & Joey Daoud // USA // 2014 // 15 mins // AUSTRALIAN premiere A critically acclaimed, awardwinning short documentary about the incredible true story of Malcolm Brenner and his summer long love affair with Dolly the bottle-nosed dolphin.

Tennebrae

Dir. Adam Geczy // AUS // 2008 // 5 mins // AUSTRALIAN premiere A film about the big slaughter in a remote Portuguese village.

An allegorical and operatic film about the nature of life and death itself.

The Golden Legend

Dir. Olivier Smolders // Belgium // 2014 // 24 mins // AUSTRALIAN premiere Collector of cursed musicians, unreasonable murderers, fairground freaks, paranoid revolutionaries, flatulists and suicidal hermits, a psychiatric patient presents a gallery of the historic figures he is haunted by.

The History of Women

Dir. Darian Stansbury // USA // 2014 // 6 mins // AUSTRALIAN premiere A video-essay abstracting the construct of womanhood – and highlighting a secret society of women experiencing mystical sensations during their menstrual periods.

Theatre of pain backstage

6.00pm Cinema 2

A program of fascinating real-life narratives in short bitesized pieces.

Dir. Denis Slepov // RUSSIA // 2015 // 10 mins // WORLD premiere Take a look behind the scenes of the Theatre of Pain - where performers Lady, Hedgehog and Littlehorse create bloody shows suspending themselves from hooks.

SHORTS

57

WTF SHORTS Short Film Session

SUN20 3.00pm Cinema 2

Horseface

Dir. Marc Martínez Jordá // SPAIN // 2015 // 8 mins // AUSTRALIAN premiere A 20 euro budget comedyhorror-scifi-thriller-horse-drama short film starring the director and his grandmother.

90 Degrees North Invaders Dir. Detsky Graffam // GERMANY // 2015 // 21 mins // AUSTRALIAN premiere A grotesque modern fairy tale about a businessman who is ensnared by a demonic, maneating traffic island.

Anal Juice

Dir. Sawako Kabuki // JAPAN // 2013 // 3 mins // SYDNEY premiere A dream mixed with the charged atmosphere of Japan after the great earthquakes and nuclear power issues, as well as my heartbreaking depression after breaking up with my exboyfriend.

58

Dir. Jason Kupfer // USA // 2014 // 7 mins // AUSTRALIAN premiere A pair of home invaders consider their potential character choices just prior to their planned crime.

Larry Gone Demon

Dir. Matthew John Lawrence // USA // 2015 // 14 mins // AUSTRALIAN premiere When three twenty-somethings must deal with the incorrigible and incredibly demonic Larry, they risk life and limb in an attempt to save the soul of their once-kind-and-unassuming friend while also procuring his $500 in back rent.

SHORTS

Melvin

Dir. Josh & Jason Sondock // USA // 2015 // 6 mins // AUSTRALIAN premiere Melvin, the greatest milkman alive, must face his inner demons after a new customer violates everything the craft of milk delivery stands for.

Mute

Dir. Job, Joris & Marieke // DENMARK // 2014 // 4 mins // AUSTRALIAN premiere In a world populated by people born without mouths, a gory accident leads to a remarkable discovery that changes lives for the better.

Pregnant Man

Dir. Charlie Mars // FRANCE // 2015 // 16 mins // AUSTRALIAN premiere After he becomes pregnant, a man suffers a multitude of pressures: external and internal – unless it’s otherwise.

Recipe

Dir. Olivia Saperstein // USA // 2015 // 5 mins // AUSTRALIAN premiere Faye takes her obsession with diet and exercise a little too far...

The Low Road, Baby My Life is a Dream

Dir. Brian Benson // USA // 2015 // 8 mins // AUSTRALIAN premiere Cousin Wonderlette never imagined she’d meet the man of her dreams, so when her dreams turn into nightmares she’s not so surprised.

Dir. Mark Roeder // USA // 2013 // 4 mins // AUSTRALIAN premiere On a highway overpass in roaring traffic, A custody battle gets out of hand.

What the f*ck were these filmmakers thinking – pure genius or mentally unstable?!

Awards and jury Celebrating films that go the extra mile in transgressing the status quo when it comes to film form and content, the SUFF “Dead Oscar” Awards are presented on closing night. Film prizes also include copies of FINAL DRAFT - the number-one selling screenwriting software in the world.

Thanks to our 2015 judges:

JOHN DI STEFANO (Artist/filmmaker,

writer, curator and Associate Professor in Screen Arts at Sydney College of the Arts – the University of Sydney.)

KARINA LIBBEY (The Festivalists Festival Manager, Film Festival Programmer and Special Event Curator)

Thanks to

Mark n spoo Wother

(Sydney-based Glass Artist) for creating the coveted SUFF Dead Oscar awards!

DOV KORNITS (FILMINK magazine publisher and co-creator)

THE AUSTRALIAN AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARD The winner will receive a one week Avid editing package at the SPECTRUM FILMS Fox Studios Facility to the value of $3,500 valid one year from date of presentation.

#SUFF2015

SHORTS

59

MasterClassES at SUFF SUFF has partnered with the University of Sydney’s contemporary art school, Sydney College of the Arts (SCA) to host an inaugural masterclass program at SUFF on Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th September. With a range of film practitioners, these classes aim to give participants new skills, tools and knowledge to help them with future projects and keep abreast of current trends.

SAT19

CHAIR

Simon Foster (Film Reviewer, ABC-FM Statewide and ‘ScreenSpace’ online publication Managing Editor, Freelance Film Journalist.)

DRONE CINEMATOGRAHY WORKSHOP with Kevin Khachan

12.00pm

This workshop addresses the latest tool that every filmmaker should have in their cinematographic arsenal - unmanned aerial vehicles. With the advancement of cheaper, smaller and more powerful cameras and drones, filmmakers of all budgets are able to capture shots once only achievable by big Hollywood budgets. Using the DJI Phantom 3, this combined technical and creative workshop will demonstrate the use and possibilities of UAV cinematography, taking your independent film to the next level.

SAT19

HOW TO WRITE SCRIPTS THAT DON’T SUCK with award-winning screenwriter Marc Rosenberg

2.00pm

This masterclass is to provide participants with all the basic tools beginning with how to get started writing, how to build the believable three-dimensional character, how to develop a movie structure that will be the spine for your story. Also, how to create a ‘hook’ or ‘logline’ that gets your foot in the door, how to write a marketable movie synopsis, cover the advantages of creating a ‘beatsheet’ and how to assess your first draft and begin the re-writes to finish your killer script.

SAT19 4.00pm

60

INDIE FILM ALTERNATIVE DISTRIBUTION with Richard Sowada, Neil Foley and Dean Francis With emerging technologies and new hybrid exhibition platforms, alternative distribution models are no longer the experiment but are the norm for a vast majority of filmmakers. This masterclass has gathered three diverse practitioners including Richard Sowada (Programming ACMI/Perth RevFest), Neil Foley (Founder of Monster Pictures/Monster Fest) and Dean Francis (Filmmaker/self distributor of Drown). A must for anyone wanting to discuss the future and new directions for distribution, creating an audience, online strategies and pitfalls to avoid when planning your film.

MasterclassES

SAT19 6.00pm

SAT19 8.00pm

WYRMWOOD: GUERRILLA FILMMAKING with Tristan and Kiah Roache-Turner The Wyrmwood creators will discuss the conception, production and distribution of their Australian Zombie film. They will address how they secured funding for the production and post-production (including crowd sourcing) without government assistance and eventually securing distribution. They will also share some behind the scenes vids of the Australian premiere.

PHYSICAL SFX AND PYROTECHNICS THE LOW-BUDGET FILMMAKER’S NEED-TO-KNOW GUIDE with John Sanderson (One Take Wonders Australia) The class will cover the basics of in-camera physical special effects and pyrotechnics and how to get the most out of them for your shoot. Topics will include budgeting and on-set safety, wind, rain, fire, water, explosions, smoke and fog, breakaway props, pyrotechnic sparks, electrical effects, bullet hits etc. The basic principles and typical set-ups for these effects will be explained along with how to use them best and what limitations to be aware of when planning your scenes.

SUN20 1.00pm

DIRECTING MASTERCLASS FOR INDIE FILMMAKERS with Platon Theodoris (Alvin’s Harmonious World of Opposites) Are you an emerging Writer/Director looking to develop both your directing​​ and working with Actors skills? In this masterclass, Platon Theodoris will share his insights into making the film Alvin’s​​Harmonious World of Opposites, from the writing process for a director, his dual roles as director/producer and how the film was funded, the casting process and how he works with actors. Platon will also discuss the importance of art direction and locations in setting the mood and tone of Alvin’s Harmonious World of Opposites. Finally, by drawing on his ​TV​commercial experience he will discuss the struggle between personal creativity and commercial sensibilities.

SUN20 3.00pm

BLOOD, GORE and HORROR FX WORKSHOP with Emmy award-winning Special FX artist Chad Atkinson

Chad Atkinson will host a workshop focused on the low budget filmmaker and budding special make-up artist. Chad will talk about his 20-year career as a special fx make-up artist from Los Angeles to Australia, giving out ideas for creating cheap gore effects to some advanced ones. Chad will provide a basic recipe in blood making and other store bought creations for cheap guerrilla style fx and will also include a demonstration on how to apply a silicone transfer prosthetic for a realistic effect for film.

SUN20 5.00pm

WASTELANDER PANDA DIGITAL DOMINATION! with creator Victoria Cocks Wastelander Panda started as a joke, then became a viral success and has gone on to become a television series released on VOD platforms, ABC, and DVD. In this masterclass, creator Victoria Cocks will cover the creation and marketing of the story world that Wastelander Panda is based in and how it became a viral success.

Victoria will discuss why it’s important to think about the many platforms that your story may play out on and will share her insights and experiences of making the original trailer (that received 100,000 views in three days).

Master of Moving Image, Sydney College of the Arts Foregrounding experimentation and innovation, the Master of Moving Image (MMI) brings together traditional aspects of film production with new directions in the cinematic arts. sydney.edu.au/sca/mmi

MasterclassES

61

Acknowledgements

Introducing Miss Dipity’s Dessert Bar

y’s

pit i D Miss

in The District @ Chatswood Interchange

Australian made - Australian owned Since 1966

Serendipityicecream.com.au

2015 SUFF Festival Team: Stefan Popescu (Festival Director / Program Director), Katherine Berger (Festival Director), Nathan Senn (Program Coordinator), Stephanie Gal (Festival Assistant / Volunteer Coordinator), Andrew Robards (Website Designer), Liz Berger (Graphic Designer), Michelle Carter (Event Manager), Stefan Fahler (2015 SUFF Key Visual Artist), Teresa Carante (Sponsorship Assistant), Chloe Hetzel (Marketing Assistant), Toni Clancy (Guest Liaison / Festival Assistant), Bonnie Stanway (Masterclass Program Assistant), Sarah Ward (Words Editor), Stephen Abdallah (Photographer), Tim Hoar (Programming Assistance), Anne Nguyen (Graphic Design Assistance), Livia Rubiolini and Nicole Cini (Festival Support).

Thanks to: Deborah Baumann, Alexi Ouzas, Alexei Toliopoulos, Angus Hunter, Ben Ferris, Beau Magloire, Bruce Ker, Chad Atkinson, Colin Rhodes, Dean Francis, Dov Kornits, Ian Leithhead, John Di Stefano, John Sanderson, Karina Libbey, Kevin Khachan, Kiah Roache-Turner, Marc Rosenberg, Neil Foley, Nerida Olson, Ngatai Johnson, Platon Theodoris, Richard Sowada, Rupert Glasson, Seph McKenna, Simon Foster, Tristan Roache-Turner and Victoria Cocks.

Thanks also to all the SUFF 2015 filmmakers and producers and anyone who submitted films, distributors, patrons, partners, sponsors and all the festival attendees who make the festival come alive!

In memory of David Perry (1933 – 2015) This project was supported by funding from Marrickville Council.

The SUFF HQ is kindly sponsored

by Sydney College of the Arts – Sydney University.

Program printed by Spotpress.

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