An interesting journey through sites of industry – metal crushers, freight ships, oil wells – with people who work there speaking of their relationships with sound and silence. Marred by the noise coming from the venue foyer, it was nevertheless an interesting experience but not as visually pleasing as the above image.
Image via miff.com.au
Virtual Reality at its best immerses you in a human experience in a way that cinema can’t. Parragirls Past, Present floats you slowly through a mostly ghost-like recreation of the Parramatta Girls’ Home while former inmates – survivors – recount their stories. Continue reading
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This Kiwi creation takes you into the world of aspiring rugby player 18-year-old Hemi. His dream to play for New Zealand is tempered by a need for him to be able to connect with his Maori culture and fully understand and engage with the Haka before he can be ready for such a step. Continue reading
Image via miff.com.au
This 20 minute Virtual Reality short takes you on a journey of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander dance. Continue reading
Image via miff.com.au
This debut feature from Iceland’s Isold Uggadottir takes a small moment in the lives of two very different women and spins a delicate and nuanced story of oppression and connection. Continue reading
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I wasn’t expecting to be charmed by Christian Petzold’s inventive rethinking of a well-worn World War II movie trope. To all intents and purposes, it is a period drama akin to Casablanca, complete with third-person narration, a mysterious dame and uniformed guards with dogs. However, the backdrop is inexplicably and unapologetically modern day France. Continue reading
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Okay, a confession up front; I micro-napped throughout this film. It’s tempting to think this is why I have no idea of the storyline but I suspect that wide-eyed wakefulness wouldn’t have helped all that much. Continue reading
Image via miff.com.au
Usually, you going to a heist movie expecting tension, action and a black-and-white resolution – capture or escape. Don’t expect this from Alonso Ruizpalacios’s Museum, loosely based on the real life theft of Mayan antiquities from the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City in the 1980s. Continue reading
Image by Digby Duncan via miff.com.au
I love MIFF for the chance to experience or revisit important pieces of filmmaking and Witches, Faggots, Dykes and Poofters is a great example of this. Continue reading
Image via miff.com.au
Although unalike in style and purpose, this inventive blend of animation, interviews and live footage reminds me of Laurie Anderson’s Heart of a Dog in its approach to subjective documentary. Filmmaker and animator Anja Kofmel creates a story around her cousin Christian Würtenberg, who was a journalist and sometime mercenary, killed under mysterious circumstances in Croatia in the early 90s. Continue reading
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