Director Pene Patrick coming to Port Fairy

Film director Pene Patrick will be a special guest at the Port Fairy Film Society pre-release screening of her new film Playing for Charlie on Friday 23^rd January to launch their 2009 program.

Playing for Charlie enjoyed critical acclaim and sellout audiences at International Film Festivals in Rome, Melbourne and Sydney. Now Port Fairy will join London, Prague and Toronto on the 2009 circuit of this coming of age drama that explores the delicate relationship between a young mother and her teenage son after the recent death of his father.

Newcomer Jared Daperis (whom Inside Film dubbed “the new Mel Gibson”) plays Tony, at 16 the man of the house caring for mum Paula, who has Multiple Sclerosis. Tony’s first true love is football – paradoxically for a film set in Werribee, it’s rugby union – but the barriers to him ‘making it’ seem too great. He is forced to make a decision that will impact the rest of his life.

Debutant director Pene Patrick has crafted an emotional tale with a terrific cast and crew, including Oscar-nominated composer Lisa Gerrard.

“Confirmation of a cinema that is independent, courageous, profound, powerful, determined to trace its own path amongst an audience that is in contunuous flux," said Gianluca Giannelli Savastano of Rome International Film Festival.

“It's a story of courage and heart, with a very unique hero at the centre,” said Dale Sinden of 2UE.

“The Joe-Paula relationship and big-game finale are handled in a nicely understated way,” wrote Boyd Van Hoeij in Variety. ”(The) score by Lisa Gerrard (Gladiator) is wonderfully atmospheric.”

Playing for Charlie screens at 7.30pm followed by a rare chance to discuss the film with the director Pene Patrick.

Anyone can be a member of the Port Fairy Film Society. Well-priced memberships for its monthly screenings (choose from three-month or annual) are available at the door before each screening. Visitors can come to one session per year before taking out a membership. Port Fairy is one of the most successful film societies in Australia. Its 2009 program promises once again to bring the best of contemporary world cinema to the district.

Summer films in Port Fairy

The Band's Visit - December 12th 7.30pm

The Band’s Visit is Port Fairy Film Society’s December screening this Friday 7.30pm.

Comedy can’t end wars. But sometimes it can help cut through the unremitting complexity of conflict and grief by presenting us with the simple maxim: our stories are shared, so let’s laugh about it together.

The Band’s Visit revisits the Israeli-Arab issue with a clever set-up. An Egyptian police band due to perform at an Arab cultural centre becomes stranded at a remote Jewish village in Israel due to a miscommunication with a bus driver. In their bright blue police uniforms and carrying enormous instrument cases, they are less fish out of water than a pod of beached whales.

When the enemy is humanised, and needs our help, it generally brings out the best in people, and so it is – eventually - with the townfolk of Peta Tikva. The helpless dignity of the men and the generosity of the women in particular provide some interesting and amusing culture clash moments. With a lovely coming-of-age subplot and an emphasis on the shared love of music, the film is touching and memorable.

“The Band's Visit (is) a witty, elegant and deeply affecting film,” said David Stratton in The Australian.

“A film of quiet intensity, hard edged charm and surprising revelations, The Band's Visit straddles comedy and drama with ease," wrote Andrew L. Urban from Urban Cinefiles.

To get the audience in the mood, and to celbrate our final film of the year, the Port Fairy Band will be performing in the theatre shortly before the screening.

Screening starts at 7.30pm. Memberships available at the door, tea and coffee provided.

Click below to watch trailer:

The Counterfeiters - November 21st

 

The Counterfeiters is Port Fairy Film Society’s November screening this Friday 7.30pm.

 

Salomon Sorowitsch is regarded as ‘the most charming scoundrel in Berlin’ and the best counterfeiter in the world. As his fellow Jews begin disappearing, he is given the chance by the Nazis to save himself by forging money to help bankroll the war effort. Sal chooses life. ‘Nobody’s prepared to die for a principle,” he says.

 

This year’s winner of Best Foreign Film Oscar, The Counterfeiters is based on a true story. Like last year’s German drama The Lives of Others, this film explores the moral murkiness of collusion. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em, but at what cost to conscience?

 

Karl Markovics’ portrayal of a Sal, a man who understands that to survive he must sacrifice others, has been lauded for its understated power.

 

"What distinguishes The Counterfeiters is the masterfully subtle manner by which (director Stefan) Ruzowitzky gets under your guard and wreaks havoc with your conscience," wrote Jim Schembri in The Age.

 

"One of the most vital releases of 2008," wrote Leigh Paatch from the Herald Sun. 

Click below to watch preview:

 

Screening starts at 7.30pm. Memberships at the door, tea and coffee provided. For more info contact Damien on 55681358

Tarerer Film Festival - 7th November

Port Fairy Film Society is proud to support Tarerer-Gunditj Project Association in presenting the 2nd Tarerer Film Festival on Friday 7th November. The festival is curated by Walter Saunders.

At 7pm, screening in the foyer are two short films by Indigenous writer/directors. Payback (G, 10 mins) is a short drama by Warwick Thorton about payback, the Indigenous traditional law system. After 20 years, Paddy (George Djilaynga) is released from jail into tribal law. No Way to Forget (G, 10 mins) was written and directed by Richard Frankland. The film tells the story of Shane Francis (David Ngoombujarra), a Field Officer during the Royal Commission Into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.

At 7.30pm we screen Wrong Side of the Road (M, 80 mins) by Ned Lander. This film documents the members and crew of the Aboriginal rock-reggae bands, No Fixed Address and US Mob on the road for two days. A road movie, musical and documentary drama in one, this innovative film is both inspiring and disturbing. No Fixed Address have reformed for this year's Tarerer Music Festival.

Screening at 9.00pm is Backroads (R, 60 mins) directed by Phillip Noyce. Two strangers – one white, one black – steal a car in western New South Wales and head for the coast. Jack (Bill Hunter) is abrasive, cunning and disparaging about Aborigines. Gary (Gary Foley) doesn’t really care – he just wants to escape. En route, they pick up Gary’s Uncle Joe (Zac Martin), a French hitchhiker (Terry Camilleri) and a young woman (Julie McGregor) who’s running away. Their petty crimes escalate as they go, heading towards disaster.

Entry is $10 by donation, food and wine included.

The Edge of Heaven - October 17th

Review by Damien Becker.

The Edge of Heaven is Port Fairy Film Society’s October screening after our Annual General Meeting this Friday at 7.30pm.

This German/ Turkish film directed by Fatih Akin takes the idea we have seen recently in Crash and Babel that many of our stories are linked in ways we don’t see, so that the viewer, witness to the concidences and near misses, is drawn to shout, ‘Look out behind you!’ to help the characters along.

Chance intertwines the lives of six characters. A retired Turkish widower living in Germany invites a younger woman to stay with him for payment. She accepts, partly to help her daughter whom she thinks is studying in Turkey but who is in fact on the run in Germany as a wanted terrorist. A German mother despairs for her daughter who has fallen in love with the young fugitive. The widower’s son returns to Turkey as redemption for a crime he cannot understand. Two of the six will die, the others left to reassemble their lives. 

Winner of Best Screenplay at Cannes, The Edge of Heaven requires patient viewing, which is rewarded by the detailed observation of the characters lives and the essential humanity of their dilemmas. The film lacks the polish or overt political commentary of Babel, but it’s a more humble film and a better one for that reason. It is also a not-so-gentle reminder of the complexities of the modern European dream. Akin is a gutsy filmmaker because he’s prepared to gamble that there is there is more meaning in the spaces in between action – the silence in conversation, the gaps in narrative, the physicality of a loved one’s absence – and that film can be a way to convey this.

"Circular in structure and story, this potent drama captures all the pathos and surprise of life itself,” wrote Louise Kellar of Urban Cinefile.

“It’s a truly excellent film,” said Margaret Pomeranz from ABC TV’s At the Movies. “Four-and-a-half stars.”

Click below for preview:

A screening of the Moyneyana House short film ‘A Little More Conversation, a Little Less Action’ will take place before the main film.

AGM starts at 7.30pm. Memberships, tea, coffee and lollies are available at the door from 7.15pm.

Lars & The Real Girl - September 19th

When you're an odd young man, it's hard to do the right thing by others - or even yourself. But in small town America you can get away with just about any amount of weirdness.

Lars & The Real Girl is your typical boy meets girl made of rubber, boys falls for girl made of rubber-type movie. Lars (played with colour and sensitivity by Ryan Gosling) is slightly stranger than your garden variety loner. Crippled by his social inadequacies, Lars forms an attachment to a fake plastic woman named Bianca and begins introducing his new flame to his family. (Let's be generous and call Bianca a 'mannequin'.) On the advice of his therapist, they play along, and before long Bianca becomes an indepensible part of the community.

The premise sounds kinda creepy, but this indie hit was nominated for Best Screenplay at the Oscars and a terrific cast make good use of a tight, witty script. Australian-born director Craig Gillespie has crafted an almost believable tale set in chilly, small town America. Gosling (The Notebook, Half Nelson) is always good, and you do feel for Lars' utter helplessness.

"A strangely affecting romance with real heart — and another sign that Gosling is one of the best young actors around," wrote Helen O'Hara from Empire.

"The film is at once entertaining, heartwarming and thought provoking, hard to label and impossible to simplify - but really easy to enjoy," wrote Andrew L. Urban from Urban Cinefiles.

"The impressive thing about this movie is just how unweird it is," said Marc Fennell from Triple J. 

Screening starts at 7.30pm. Memberships at the door, tea and coffee provided.

Click below for preview of Lars & the Real Girl