Tarerer Film Festival - Friday 12th November 6.30pm

Tarerer Film Festival:

Samson & Delilah 6.30pm

Stone Bros. 9pm

The third annual Tarerer Film Festival has two of the most anticipated films of 2009 on one big night, Warwick Thornton's Samson & Delilah and Stone Bros. by Richard Frankland.

Curated by local film icon Walter Saunders, the inaugual Director of the Indigenous branch of the Australian Film Commission, the Tarerer Film Festival has been a highlight on the region's film calendar for the past two years.

Samson & Delilah (6.30pm) is the most acclaimed Australian film since Lantana. Two teenagers in the central desert are in love but have little support around them to nurture their spirit. They flee to Alice Springs, where life is hard and unsafe.

Told using intimate, fluid desert imagery and minimal dialogue, Samson & Delilah won Warwick Thorton a Camera D'Or at Cannes for Best First Feature.

"This is for me one of the most wonderful films this country has ever produced," said Margaret Pomeranz of ABC TV's At the Movies. "It is exquisitely made, it’s full of discipline. There’s not a spare moment in it. Five stars."

"Most importantly for Australian filmmaking, there is a complexity to our response; it's neither 'feel good' or a 'downer'," wrote Andrew L Urban of Urban Cinefiles.

Stone Bros. (9pm) is directed by Portland director Richard Frankland. As the first Indigenous comedy feature ever made, this stoner road movie features Eddie and his 'cuz' Charlie travelling through the outback with a deranged dog, a deadly spider and 187 joints.

Essentially an old-fashioned slapstick played chiefly for regular belly laughs, Stone Bros. hurtles along from one crazed situation to another. Reminicent of the hilarious 2001 TV series Bush Mechanics, the film is underpinned by Frankland's storytelling ability while exploring deeper issues of place and identity. Frankland is a deep thinker and a smart filmmaker, and you sense that despite the apparent ease of the style there is something he is working away at in the minds of the audience.

"A lively, energetic and laugh-out-loud funny road movie with a uniquely black Australian flavour," said Louise Keller from Urban Cinefiles.

"A genuinely funny road movie that sees two fine actors dealing with personal and global issues in a fresh and emotionally engaging way," wrote Ruth Hessey of ABC Radio National's MovieTime.

The Tarerer Film Festival is run by the Tarerer-Gunditj Project Association and hosted by the Port Fairy Film Society. Tickets are $8 per film, available at the door. There will be drinks and nibbles and discussions between each film.

15/15 Film Festival - Friday 30th October @ 7pm

Just before midnight on a cold night in July, three filmmakers from Warrnambool came together to celebrate having each made a film in the preceding fifteen hours. James Russell, Sidney Sprague and Colleen Hughson joined 168 filmmakers from six countries across the globe completed a task set that morning: to create an entire short film in 15 hours from scratch. Their films will all be shown as part of the ninth annual 15/15 International Film Festival this Friday in Port Fairy.



Participants in the 15/15 Film Festival were challenged to make a short film of no longer than 15 minutes within 15 hours on July 18, 2009, using the prompt of an object and quote revealed on the filming day. The screening will feature local films as well as those nominated for awards.

Festival Director Amadeo Marquez Perez says the screening is a chance to see exciting films from across the globe.

"We have some amazing local and international talent on show this year," said Amadeo. "The audience is always blown away by what people can do in 15 hours, and, we’re going to see some really great work."

After beginning as a regional event, the 15/15 Film Festival has been running successfully for eight years and grown to cover all corners of the globe, with entries from diverse places such as Spain, France, UK, Malaysia, Thailand and Puerto Rico.

The festival is not for profit and provides emerging and independent filmmakers from around the world with the opportunity to have their work screened internationally as well as in their home town.

"It means that if you make a film in Warrnambool, we come and screen your film and others in Warrnambool - this allows emerging filmmakers to have a dialogue about their work and compare it to films from around Australia and the world," said Amadeo.

Port Fairy Film Society President Damien Becker, who helped out on Colleen Hughson's production 'Fred's Big Adventure', said being part of such an event both was unique and thrilling.

"This is speed filmmaking," he said. "It gets back to the basics of cinema, which is how to tell a good story simply and effectively on screen."

"There was no time to procrastinate, just get the right shot then and there and move on. Colleen had a clear vision of what she wanted and this allowed her natural talents to show through."

Five dollar entry at the door. More Info at http://www.filmfestival15.com/

Stats:
590 Filmmakers involved: 6800 Final films: 168
2009 15/15 Object: Balloon
2009 15/15 Quote: The most important thing is to be happy
2009 Countries participating: 6 (France, Spain, Australia, Netherlands, Puerto Rico and UK)

Summer Hours - Friday October 16th, 7.30pm

Port Fairy Film Society invites you to share in the delights of a summer table in provincial France this week with Olivier Assayas' Summer Hours.

Helene has a house full of family treasures and little time left to enjoy them. She asks her son Frederic to make sure they are preserved after her death. Once she's gone, however, Frederic must convince his sceptical brother and sister that memories are worth honouring.

With each revelation, the children and grandchildren gain an unfolding sense of a woman - and their own family's - true story. Juliette Binoche continues her dazzling career with another terrific performance as Helen's self-absorbed daughter Adrienne, while Isabelle Sadoyan plays to the film's heart as the elderly housekeeper.

The film was co-sponsored by the Musee d'Orsay in Paris and Assayas renders the aesthetic quality of these beautiful objects by making them, in a sense, co-stars of the film. More than beauty, however, this film is about loss, the preservation of stories and of the peculiar dynamic of a successful, lonely family.

"It's a rich, ambitous piece of work...this is a mature film by an accomplished director," wrote Paul Byrnes of the Sydney Morning Herald.

"Maybe this beautiful film will be too slight for many but it's certainly one of the better French films of the last year... fours stars," David Stratton said.

Summer Hours screens this Friday 16th October at 7.30pm after the Port Fairy Film Society Annual General Meeting at Reardon Theatre in Bank Street. Memberships available at the door with free tea and coffee provided.

Tulpan - Friday 18th September 7.30pm

If all you've ever known about Kazakhstan is through Borat's 'cultured learnings', Tulpan offers somewhat of a sandstorm in a newly opened eye.

Critically acclaimed for bringing the little-seen life on the Kazakh steppes to our screens, Tulpan introduces us to Asa, recently returned from the navy and on the lookout for a wife. Being where many might consider the middle of nowhere, there is really only one woman on offer for Asa, but she spurns him for his big ears.

With no wife prospects, Asa sees no life prospects and he struggles to win her affections. We never actually see Tulpan, the object of his yearnings, but the documentary style makes Asa's predicament real and his home life engaging.

Tulpan is not quite Hollywood in the sense of its gentle pace and hand-held, dusty vision of life in the post-Soviet desert. A real time scene of the delivery of a lamb in a howling desert gale is already an immortal cinema moment.

"If you surrender to its pace, Tulpan can be intoxicating; it's like nothing else in theaters," wrote Moira McDonald of the Seattle Times.

"Tulpan is a mesmerising cinema experience," Margaret Pomeratz said. "Four and a half stars."

"Highly acclaimed at festivals, Tulpan is wondrous and fascinating, with a gritty, true-to-hard-life tone," wrote Andrew L Urban of Urban Cinefiles.

Tulpan screens this Friday 18th September at 7.30pm at Reardon Theatre in Bank Street. Memberships available at the door with free tea and coffee provided.

Click below to watch trailer:

Mary and Max - Friday 21st August 7.30pm

Mary and Max both have feet of clay and are in need of a friend. Max is a lonely, overweight New Yorker whose only positive relationship is his new penpal Mary Daisy Dinkle, an eight-year-old with a sad home life. The film follows twenty years of this melancholy long-distance friendship.

Mary and Max is the feature length debut for Adam Elliot, who won an Oscar for his claymation short Harvey Krumpet. Elliot's handcrafted talent and cinematic voice is utterly unique in world cinema, demonstrated when this film opened the Sundance Film Festival to a rapturous reception.

Critics have fallen in love with his obsessive detail and quirky observational humour. Could Elliot be the Gen X Leunig?

An eclectic cast of voices include Toni Colette, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Barry Humphries and Eric Bana.

"The film is sublime," Margaret Pomeratz said. "It's funny and insightful... it was five years in the making and worth every minute."

"You really care about these characters, even though you know they're made of plasticine," said David Stratton.

 

Mary and Max screens this Friday 21st August at 7.30pm at Port Fairy Cinema in Bank Street. Memberships available at the door with free tea and coffee provided.

Short filmmaking taster courses

Got a yearning to make your own films? The Port Fairy Film Society is supporting local storytelling through film by running two low-cost filmmaking workshops in September. A four-hour course run over two weeks will commence at the Port Fairy Community House in Railway Place on 1st & 8th September. The course covers basics of putting together a home movie (scripted or created out of photos and home footage) including scriptwriting & planning, shooting and editing on readily available Movie Maker software. This course is at the beginner or the 'dabbler'. For more info contact Colin at the Community House on 5568 3187. Cost $30.

Another opportunity is being run as part of the Ex-Libris Book Fair on Saturday 5th September, a three hour 'race around the town' to create a 30 second cinema advertisement to be screened as a promotion for next year's Ex-Libris. Participants will help make the short ad with filmmaker Colleen Hughson and Film Society President Damien Becker, learning the basics of making a short video 'on-the-job'. A whirlwind learning experience. Cost $20. To book, contact Damien on 55681358. 

Friday 14th August -Special Screening -St.Kilda Short Film Festival in Port Fairy

Following on from the success of the 2008 National Tour, the St Kilda Film Festival National Tour is about to embark on its biggest tour yet visiting over 30 destinations Australian wide, covering every state and territory.
The sessions screened on the tour consist of a selection of some of the best films from the Top 100 program - award winners and audience favourites.
The ‘Best of the Fest’ sessions offer a variety of genres and includes filmmakers from each region, showcasing the very best of Australia’s emerging and established filmmaking talent.
Come and enjoy 12 diverse and amazing short films to be screened in two sessions commencing at 7.30pm.

The St Kilda Film Festival screens this Friday 14th August at 7.30pm at Port Fairy Cinema in Bank Street. Tickets $10.00. Overall film rating is 18+