20, 21, 22, 23

film 20: matchmaking mayor


a strange doco on a slovak mayor who decided to take matters into his own hands and get the single people of his village together. a gathering of the said singles was organised and the outcome... well, just a little bit sad really.

film 21: page one: inside the new york times


another documentary and this time it was the inside workings of the new york times newspaper, some of the major players in the news room and by chance caught the period of wikileaks.

a break between films so i headed up to the top end of bourke to sit on the stairs of parliament and get some air and the little remaining sunshine.





film 22: detroit wild city


wasn't sure what was coming with this one, first i thought it might be about music but it was about a modern day dying city and the people living within. sad and a little disturbing.

film 23: project nim


in the early 70s, a chimp is taken from it's mother and given to a human mother who breast feeds and rears it for the first year or so of it's life as a human. nim was part of a university study trying to understand communication and linguistics, and was taught sign language. nim did not meet another chimpanzee until the project was abandoned and he returned to the research lab he initially came from before being sold to an animal testing laboratory. his story doesn't end there.

16, 17 & 18, 19

film 16: africa united


i loved this flick. it's all about following your dream no matter how impossible it may seem. almost a road movie that takes four kids from rwanda, to the congo, then through the other african states to south africa for the 2010 world cup. interspersed with collage animation, i found the characters really engaging and yes, i laughed and cried.

film 17: pool party


a fun doco from queens, new york. an amazing story of the largest pool in the world, mccarren pool in williamsburg was built in the early 30s and was used until 1984. it was then derelict for the next 25 years until it's rebirth as a performance venue and then a series of summer concerts. the last 'pool party' was held in 2008 afterwhich it was announced that the venue would be refurbished as a swimming pool once more.

film 18: red dog


a really sweet film. i got a kick out of it as it was set in the 70s and shot in the pilbara, wa. i grew up in similar red dirt about that time so it was a joy to see the characters and life in a north-west mining town. of course the film is hyper reality but it was still fun. a simple story with likeable characters, and a cute dog. a nice way to spend a couple of hours.

film 19: pom wonderful presents the greatest movie ever sold


morgan spurlock did a q&a at the end of his film. an interesting doco on product placement in films and tv. he said it would make us even more aware of products on the screen but maybe because i'm in the middle of a film festival with a whole lot of independent films it didn't wasn't so evident as commercial endeavours.

there's a world out there

a saturday morning wandering through melbourne city before heading off to the pictures once more. melbourne open house was on for the weekend but i could only manage to get to the myer mural hall, 6th floor of myer on bourke street.

14, 15

by now i should have been nearing 20 watched films but i've been feeling ill so have been putting my health first.

film 14: the giants


this film was sadder than i expected, more tragic than the preview suggested it would be. two brothers and a friend spend the summer trying to make money to buy themselves food and pot and the indignities and humour they find along the way.

film 15: beginners


all a bit angsty but again, beautifully shot. christopher plummer's character comes out after the death of his wife when he's 75, only a few years before his death. his son played by ewan mcgregor is accepting but confused. emotionally distant all his life, so when he meets a beautiful french girl with laryngitis, it gets even more angsty. still, a nice film.

13

film 13: tabloid


this was the oddest story that should've been a fairy tale but in fact was reality. the documentary was written around the media hoopla in the late seventies, when an american beauty queen called joyce mckinney falls in love with a kirk, a mormon. he moves to england (supposedly without telling her, even though they were planning to get married), so she assumes he's been kidnapped... and then it gets really weird. joyce is the prime interviewee, with a supporting cast of journalists from the period - it is such a deliciously strange story. kirk, the manacled mormon, refused to comment. boo to him.

11, 12

film 11 - natural selection


this one i liked. it was funny and sweet and just a really oddball film. a couple has been married for 25 years, and the husband has a heart attach when donating sperm (something the wife knows nothing about). she gets it in her head that it will help him if she tracks down one of his "offspring". hilarity ensues.

film 12 - foreign parts


a documentary about a junkyard part of queens, new york. for the entire film i was waiting for something to happen, a revelation, anything and i wanted to like this film but it was too long and just eh. i walked out before the end. i know. first time. it wasn't bad but it wasn't anything, which in some ways is worse.

6, 7, 8, 9, & 10

film 6 - el bulli: cooking in progress


it's not about the food, but it is. but mostly i think, the experience of flavours and sensations that the chefs of el bulli can impress on you. an interesting doco about a restaurant in catalonia, spain and the effort that goes behind the annual menu.

film 7 - sing your song


an awesome into a guy i thought only as a kitsch singer from the 50s, prone to wearing open neck flouncy blouses and singing calypso tunes. but harry belafonte is so much more than that. this man is an amazing human being who's been an advocate for civil rights and humanitarian causes since the 50s and was confidante to martin luther king jnr. and i also didn't know that he helped to organise the 1985 song "we are the world". the man continues to this day - in his 80s, that's pretty fantastic.

film 8 - life in a day


another good doco. in july 2010 film makers both amateur and professional were asked to submit videos of themselves, the day chosen was july 24. a year to that day later, i was watching the completed film that had been cut down from 4,500 hours of footage and 80,000 submissions. every moment around the world something good, bad, indifferent, beautiful, horrendous, magical and amazing is happening. totally super.

film 9 - the bengali detective


for the longest time i couldn't work out if this was a documentary or a film. a team of private detectives is led by an overweight man who dreams of stardom on a local dance tv show. there's a murder, a shampoo-watering-down scam, and family sadness all against the backdrop of kolkata, india. an endearing and funny film.

film 10 - presspauseplay


nothing new here. is technology supplanting or enhancing art? since every man and his dog can now pick up a digital film camera, manipulate music on a computer where has the craft of such arts gone? enjoyed the doco, but like i said, nothing new to be seen here, though i may have to pick up a book by one of the interviewees, seth godin, unleashing the ideavirus.

3, 4, 5

film 3 - cave of forgotten dreams


it was in 3D, which means i obviously didn't read the blurb when booking in for this documentary. ha! i liked this once it got started. there was a little problem with the sound for the first 5-6 minutes, which once the projectionist got sorted the film started over again. anyway, a doco by werner herzog on the chauvet cave in southern france. this cave was only discovered in 1994 and is said to contain the earliest known cave paintings. it's pretty spectacular but i was wondering what the point of the 3D was. perhaps because there's really no chance of the cave being open to the public that by filming it three dimensionally this would be the closest we're going to get to the "reality" of being there.

film 4 - troubadours


i enjoyed this film immensely. yes, i make no qualms in admitting i love music docos - no matter the style, i love music docos. and this one was about the singer-songwriters of the mid 60s to mid 70s, in particular carole king and james taylor, with a little jackson browne, bonnie raitt, joni mitchell thrown in. the title comes from the club on santa monica boulevard in west hollywood, the troubadour, where doug weston created a place for the singer-songwriter. it's still going today, and i remember driving by when i lived there but never visiting.

film 5 - the eye of the storm


for some reason i think i should like it more than i actually did. don't get me wrong, it was a good film, a solid film. great acting, fred schepsi was the director, it looked beautiful and it's australian. but it didn't move me and the mummy character (charlotte rampling) reminded me a little of miss haversham (had she only had two grown selfish children). and maybe patrick white's story was a little edgy in content in the early 70s, but... like i said, i feel i should like it more than i do.

1, 2 buckle my shoe

film 1 - melbourne on shorts 1
6 short films from as early as 1956 through to 1982. interesting to see melbourne through the decades. i enjoyed the city vista and what people were wearing. the stories moved so slowly compared to what we're now used to. one i particularly enjoyed was the 1982 film on the construction of the melbourne concert hall. listening to the views of the builders was just tops.

film 2 - melancholia


aarrgghhh! it started and i cringed a little. beautifully shot (yes, this could sound the death knell) and it felt just like 2001 a space odyssey, which nearly killed me. in fact i've yet to finish watching that film. there were moments of von trier's film which really did make one feel depressed and melancholic, which i'm sure what his intent, but oh...dear... heavens... again, beautiful but eh, my butt felt every uncomfortable bump in that forum chair.

** please note, i've got the flu and could be suffering from failure to see the point. i may get over it by the end of the festival.

something new

i wondered if it was wise to purchase a new phone the day i was starting on my 44 film quest? would i learn to turn it to silent so it wouldn't ring during a crucial moment of a film? would i know how to text someone, answer a call, ensure that the ringtone is still the old phone ringtone? important things to consider.

today i left nokia behind for an htc android. mostly i think because of the name. i made sure it has a good camera, tick and also a radio connection, another tick. oh and yes, it does make and receive phone calls. so all is right with the world.

and in between sessions of films i can play the getting-to-know-you game with my new phone. i think i shall call you dalek. nope, no theme going on here.

thoughts and actions

source: the wheeler centre

a forum held at the wheeler centre - what men really think about... love. tim rogers, barry heard and harry o'brien all read out their own penned stories and shared a bit about love: self love, mateship and familial love. it was an interesting discussion and the place was packed to listen and comment on a muso, vietnam vet and afl player's views on love. melbourne + me = love.

sssnnnnoooowwwww...

i was very very excited on saturday. there was snow EVERYWHERE in falls creek. as soon as we arrived and dumped the car, it was off to hire gear and catch a lift up the mountain. joyful. (the photos can tell their own stories).










after the beautiful bluebird saturday, sunday you could barely see your hand in front of your face. i talked the other three into coming inner-tubing with me... wwhheee.... i think they liked it.












it was scary and funny and so much fun that i hope to get back to snow and skiing again soon. brrr....