Sydney's yearly film bonanza
By Norm Dixon
Enthusiasts of new and progressive cinema are already saving up for their tickets to the 39th annual Sydney Film Festival, beginning on June 4. Many have begun to prepare themselves mentally for the 16 days of relentless movie consumption.
The festival this year will contain more than 60 feature films and 100 shorts and documentaries, with a special emphasis on Asia, especially Japan, and Europe. Canadian cinema will also be strongly represented among films from 26 countries.
Highlights include:
- Zentropa (Denmark/France/Germany/Sweden) — Lars Von Trier's surrealistic account of a young US idealist's experiences in the war-ravaged and humiliated Germany of 1945.
- Black Snow (China) — Jiang Wen, director of Red Sorghum, made this film at the height of the 1989 democracy movement.
- Who Needs A Heart (Britain) — A film by the Black Audio Film Collective looking at the Black Power movement in Britain in the '60s. Director John Akomfrah is expected to be a guest of the festival.
- The Black Republic (South Korea) — A bitter attack on South Korean politics and culture by Park Kwang Su, a leader of Korea's new wave film makers.
- Because You Are A Woman (South Korea) — A harrowing story of a woman's fight for justice after being raped.
- A retrospective of Japanese cinema 1946-55 — This special presentation will focus on Japan's "golden age of cinema". In 1945, freed from the confines of the war-time right-wing regime and military censorship, film makers embarked on a new kind of realism and progressives themes. Scholar Donald Ritchie has selected 10 rare films from the period.
Among the shorts and documentaries on offer are:
- Black Harvest (Australia) — The continuing account of Joe Leahy and his neighbours, already featured in two previous docos, in the highlands of Papua New Guinea.
- Pictures From the Revolution (USA) — A photographer returns to Nicaragua to find people she photographed during the revolution.
- 600 Days of Salo (Italy) — A reconstruction of Mussolini's last days, using recently rediscovered newsreel footage.
- Mysteries of July (Britain) — A film about black deaths in custody made by the Black Audio Film Collective.
- Warrior: The Life Of Leonard Peltier (USA) — The story of a Native American political prisoner framed on murder charges.
- Jazz fiends should be especially gratified by the screenings of films on three great jazz saxophonists — Last Date (Holland) on the life of Eric Dolphy, Texas Tenor: The Illinois Jacquet Story (USA) and Dexter on Vacation, a tribute to the legendary Dexter Gordon.
The festival also includes special nights devoted to new European, Japanese and Mexican cinema and late shows with horror and comedy themes. For further program information and details on ticket prices, phone (02) 660 3844.