Film Screenings | I have never traveled to Australia

15:00–16:45 | “Storm Boy” by Henri Safran (1976)

Duration: 88 minutes

Mike, a lonely boy who lives with his father in the coastal wilderness of the Coorong, meets the Aboriginal man Fingerbone Bill, and the two develop a special friendship as they care for an orphaned pelican they name Mr. Percival. Henri Safran’s film debut is one of the most beautiful children’s films of the 70s and one of the most tender works of the Australian New Wave. The film stands out for its melancholic depiction of South Australia and for the performances by young Greg Rowe and the legendary David Gulpilil, in his second film appearance after Nicolas Roeg’s “Walkabout.”

17:00–19:00 | “Celia” by Ann Turner (1989)

Duration: 103 minutes

The year is 1957, in the suburbs of Melbourne. After the death of her grandmother, 8-year-old Celia sees the monstrous hand of a Hobyah in her dreams. The Tanners, a family of likely communists, move in next door. For her birthday, Celia asks her father for a rabbit. Ann Turner’s debut, with a remarkable performance by Rebecca Smart, is one of the most important and overlooked films of the 80s, and one of the most distinctive works in the subgenre that began with “Spirit of the Beehive” and “Cria Cuervos,” extending all the way to “Vigil” and “Pan’s Labyrinth,” showing how children use imagination to react to the world of adults.

19:15–21:00 | “Ten Years After, Ten Years Older” by Anna Kannava (1986)

Duration: 34 minutes

The year is 1974. Turkish forces invade Cyprus, and the family of 15-year-old Anna Kannava migrates to Melbourne. Ten years later, Anna returns to Limassol to reconnect with her grandmother. There, carrying a 16mm camera with her, she shoots the documentary “Ten Years After, Ten Years Older.” Through voice-over narration, faces and places she remembers and rediscovers, Anna Kannava composes images filled with her own truth. This is a prime example of autobiographical cinema, signed by a particularly courageous filmmaker.

“My Life Without Steve” by Gillian Leahy (1986)

Duration: 55 minutes

Sydney, 1980s. Through the window, we see Blackwattle Bay. Liz’s monologue takes us inside the apartment where she lived with Steve until their separation. Liz remembers, Liz describes, Liz sings Bob Dylan’s “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go.” Gillian Leahy’s film debut, Jenny Vuletic’s humorous vocal performance, Erika Addis’ beautiful 35mm cinematography. One of the most important experimental films.

21:30–23:00 | “The Second Journey (to Uluru)” by Arthur & Corinne Cantrill (1981)

Duration: 74 minutes

Uluru, the sacred red monolith, is a point of reference for Arthur and Corinne Cantrill, two experimental filmmakers who published the magazine “Cantrills Filmnotes.” In the first issue, they presented their manifesto: “To make films that refuse analysis.” This principle is distilled in “The Second Journey (to Uluru),” their second visit to the sacred monolith, a few years after they first recorded it in the film “At Uluru.” What has changed within them? What has changed in Australia? This is a film of observing nature, shot on problematically processed 16mm film, with sound design pushed into the red and an unexpectedly emotional ending. An ambient noise film experience.

23:30–02:00 | “Nice Coloured Girls” by Tracey Moffatt (1987)

Duration: 16 minutes

Visual artist Tracey Moffatt’s first short film examines the history of the exploitation of Aboriginal women by white men. Moffatt juxtaposes past and present, telling the story of three Aboriginal women wandering through Kings Cross, where they meet a drunken white captain. They encourage him to spend his money on them and drink until he loses consciousness, while they steal his wallet.

“Night Cries: A Rural Tragedy” by Tracey Moffatt (1990)

Duration: 19 minutes

A middle-aged Aboriginal woman cares for her dying white mother until her passing. A beautiful experimental film and possible sequel to Charles Chauvel’s controversial “Jedda.” Images that seem drawn from the paintings of Albert Namatjira. Jimmy Little sings “Royal Telephone.” The best film about the consequences of the Stolen Generations.

“BeDevil” by Tracey Moffatt (1993)

Duration: 90 minutes

A deeply personal folk horror film, “BeDevil” tells three ghost stories that draw on both sides of Tracey Moffatt’s heritage, from her Irish relatives as well as from Aboriginal people. Scenes with an almost documentary texture alternate with highly stylized sequences filmed on sets. The invaluable Jack Charles in one of his strongest roles. Geoff Burton in one of his most distinctive works of cinematography. The film was presented in Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival and remains the only feature film directed by Moffatt.

15:00–16:30 | “Dot and the Kangaroo” by Yoram Gross (1977)

Duration: 75 minutes

New South Wales, 1884: a red-haired, barefoot five-year-old little girl named Dot gets lost in the Australian outback. There, she meets a red kangaroo that helps her find her way home. Based on a book of the same title by Ethel Pedley, Yoram Gross’ “Dot and the Kangaroo” combined animation with live-action footage shot at the Jenolan Caves and the Blue Mountains, and became one of the most successful children’s films in 1970s Australia. Its success led to the creation of eight more films featuring Dot’s adventures, all of them directed by Gross.

16:40–17:50 | “Turnaround” by Michael Lee (1983)

Duration: 60 minutes

The second part of “The Mystical Rose” trilogy, “Turnaround,” is another spiritual journey by Michael Lee, shot with a handheld camera. A film with a spiral structure, an entire continent’s intense contradictions, an experimental documentary on a quest, a work of art mirroring its creator: a time-lapse ritual by Australia’s most philosophically restless filmmaker.

18:00–21:00 | “Smoke ’Em If You Got ’Em” by Ray Boseley (1988)

Duration: 48 minutes

Melbourne gets destroyed by a nuclear attack. Three survivors discover the entrance to a fallout shelter where a group of people has organized an underground party to celebrate the end of the world. The only film directed by Ray Boseley is an unmissable, unclassifiable work—an intoxicated response from Australia to “Threads” and “Miracle Mile.” It resembles nothing else.

“Dogs in Space” by Richard Lowenstein (1986)

Duration: 105 minutes

It’s the year 1978 in Richmond, a suburb of Melbourne. Some kids living at 18 Berry Street play North Fitzroy Beat music. Filmmaker Richard Lowenstein reinstates the days of the Little Bands Movement through a frenetic film filled with “busy confusion” (overlapping dialogue as an homage to Robert Altman’s style), featuring a smashing soundtrack with bands such as The Boys Next Door, Whirlywirld, Thrush & the Cunts, and The Primitive Calculators. INXS frontman Michael Hutchence plays the lead part—a role based on Sam Sejavka, singer of The Ears—and also composed the film’s original score.

21:30–23:15 | “Spirits of the Air, Gremlins of the Clouds” by Alex Proyas (1987)

Duration: 96 minutes

In this post-apocalyptic bushranger film noir, bathed in the dazzling light of the red desert, Betty Crabtree and Felix Crabtree see fugitive Smith approaching in the distance. His arrival throws off their fragile balance. The directorial debut of Alex Proyas—long before “The Crow” and “Dark City”—shot on 16mm film with almost zero budget, stands as a paradoxically beautiful work of rare visual power, elevated by Peter Miller’s trailblazing ambient soundtrack.

23:30–01:30 | “Dead End Drive-In” by Brian Trenchard-Smith (1986)

Duration: 92 minutes

A teenage couple, Jimmy “Crabs” and Carmen, are trapped in a drive-in movie theater that actually operates as a concentration camp for the socially “unwanted.” Brian Trenchard-Smith, a key figure in Australian B-movies—later dubbed Ozploitation—here delivers his most ambitious and fully-fleshed work. The result is an explosively entertaining dystopian punk film, with striking production design, moving somewhere between “Blade Runner” and “Mad Max 2.”

15:00–17:00 | “The Year My Voice Broke” by John Duigan (1987)

Duration: 103 minutes

The first part of John Duigan’s autobiographical diptych, completed with “Flirting” and showcasing the talents of Noah Taylor and Ben Mendelsohn, is set in the early 1960s on the New South Wales plateaus. The film follows the teenage Danny Embling, who falls in love with the mysterious Freya. A dark and bitter period piece, but also a coming-of-age story, echoing works such as David Leland’s “Wish You Were Here” and Bill Forsyth’s “Housekeeping.”

17:15–19:15 | “Breaker Morant” by Bruce Beresford (1980)

Duration: 107 minutes

The year is 1902: Breaker Morant is on trial for crimes committed during the Second Boer War, in this highly complex political film—arguably the moment when the Australian New Wave came into its own. Having already signed a series of important and diverse films, such as “Don’s Party,” “Money Movers,” and “The Getting of Wisdom,” Bruce Beresford here delivers his most artistically and commercially successful work. The film was also the first Australian production to receive an Academy Award nomination. Following the success of “Breaker Morant,” Beresford continued his filmmaking career in Hollywood, directing notable films such as “Tender Mercies” and “Black Robe.”

19:30–23:45 | “Picnic at Hanging Rock” by Peter Weir (1975)

Duration: 115 minutes

Based on the novel by Joan Lindsay, this is a story without an ending; a mystery without a solution. The year is 1900, on Valentine’s Day: Miranda, Marion, Irma, and Miss McCraw disappear during a school excursion to Hanging Rock. Peter Weir, assisted by the dreamlike cinematography of Russell Boyd, translates William Ford’s painting “At the Hanging Rock” into the language of cinema, reflecting on the liminal passage from the 19th to the 20th century, shaping the aesthetic of the Australian New Wave, and creating one of the most influential Australian films of all time.

“The Devil’s Playground” by Fred Schepisi (1976)

Duration: 107 minutes

The year is 1953. Thirteen-year-old Tom Allen attends a Catholic school: a world of religious repression, sexual awakening, faith, and doubt. Fred Schepisi’s autobiographical film, remarkable for its maturity, is probably the most important debut in Australian cinema. Together with his next film, “The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith,” these two masterpieces left an indelible mark on the 1970s and the Australian New Wave. In the 1980s, Schepisi continued his career in Hollywood, directing films such as “Roxanne” and “Six Degrees of Separation.”

00:00–01:45 | “Next of Kin” by Tony Williams (1982)

Duration: 89 minutes

After her mother’s death, Linda inherits Montclare, an old rural nursing home. There, she discovers her mother’s diary and reads it in one breath, but soon the events it documents begin to manifest in her own life. Emotionally charged by the soundtrack of German composer Klaus Schulze (Tangerine Dream), and featuring an eerie performance by Jackie Kerin, “Next of Kin” is perhaps the most terrifying Australian film. The second and final work by filmmaker Tony Williams stands alongside creations like “The Shining” and “Suspiria,” as a personal labyrinth intertwined with the maze of a building’s memories.

Film synopsis: Miranda is driving a beige Ford Fairlane 500. She is being chased by The Shell. On the radio we hear Jimmy Little’s cover version of “Into Temptation.”

The short film "Night Fall in the Ti-Tree" by the Boy will be screened at the Upper Stage at the beginning of every slot.