FAFFing around

Currently helping out on an upcoming Melbourne film festival called the Fantastic Asian Film Festival but you can call me FAFF. It is being put together by the people at Monster Pictures and will be twenty or so genre films sourced from Asia to be screened at Cinema Nova (Carlton) in mid- November. Top of the list for me is Sion Sono's Guilty of Romance (see past blog post) but that is just the start. The Yellow Sea from Korea is an absolute cracker, it's about a cab driver but it is so much more than taxis. There are some whacky ones like Helldriver (trailer) and Yakuza Weapon (trailer) and some pink ones like Erotibot and Sex & Zen 3-D (trailer). The films are coming from China, Japan, Korea and even a couple from the Philippines, the majority of the films are yet to be released in Australia. Check the FAFF website for programing details (although at the time of posting the website was still work in progress.)

So my involvement to date has been on the cinema trailer front. This is a multi pronged affair, we pumped out a quick one that was completely graphic based in vein of Gasper Noe's Enter the Void opening title sequence. Maybe a rip off, surely a homage and definitely appropriation.
Check it here FAFF Trailer 1

The second front of attack is to cut a live action trailer or trailers. This is a little more challenging because of the wealth of material that is to be condensed into 15 and 30sec slots. Shit!
They are currently being cut as we speak.

The third prong is to shoot some vignettes/promo's/trailers, again they will be 15 & 30sec but with real live people shot by ourselves. This is probably the most exciting. theshoot is planned for next thursday and a small team of production people is being amassed along with a number of actors/models. We are going to shoot down at the Docklands (my Spiritual home :P ) and we are going to employ some in-camera special effects techniques. It should be a lot of fun and I'm really looking forward to the results.
Will keep you posted.

This won't be shown, but Guilty of Romance will be

People Who Make Me Smile #1

YowaYowa camera girl (japanese for weak/feeble) hahahaha
Natsumi Hayashi, Tokyo Photographer, or as I refer to her: The Girl Who Floats.

Natsumi Hayashi (right) floating through life, here with an accomplice

I used to work with a man who floats. Hal McElroy, he is a legendary heavyweight in the Australian Film & TV Industry. I was working on Blue Heelers at the time and he was the Executive Producer.
He was the man who floats because when he walked into the room it was like he glided, like he was floating. He was magic! Everything that Hal touched turned to GOLD.

But although I admire him, he is not a person who makes me smile. However, for the record, he worked on 'The Cars That Ate Paris' (Peter Weir's 1st Feature) and that does make me smile, in fact I have credit envy with that one.

Natsumi makes me smile, well her photographs do. She specialises in self portrait levitation photographs (no special effects). She describes her techniques on the website. Pretty much every one that I look at makes me smile. One other thing she photographs are her cats and they make me smile too. I posted a video response to her photographs at the start of this financial year. She has inspired me along with Baes Pascal to venture down the path of Human Stop Motion Animation. James & I thought it would be nice to say thank you.
Hats off to Natsumi, a fine photographer, a woman that floats and a person who makes me smile

amazing levitation photography

Are you going to Ride To Work????

National Ride to Work Day is on the 12th of October 2011
and when in Melbourne you can get breakfast too! Look I'm sure it is happening around the country but I'm going to focus in on Melbourne.
Breakfast destinations
St Kilda Town Hall is where I think I shall park my bike.....temporarily maybe but maybe my boss will just have to wait until all the food and prizes have been thoroughly digested.
Celebrate your ride with a community breakfast hosted by the City of Port Phillip. Register yourself or your business. There will be prize giveaways, travelsmart maps and bike valet!
 Too good to be true!
Use this day to get out and about on the deadly treadly. Try it, ride it to work, you'll be surprised.
It always seems insurmountable when you are not doing it, even when you are thinking about it. But when you are actually doing it, it's a sinch.
You'll be asking yourself "why have I not being doing this for a long while?"
And Me?
I won't be riding to work  but I will be working the ride.
That's right, I'll be filming the morning for my forth coming documentary, most probably around bayside and the St Kilda Town Hall. So I hope I see you out there, I hope the day is a success in that there are huge numbers turning out for my documentary. But my real hope and dream is that this will translate much beyond one day of promotion and that everyone that participates will continue thier ride to work throughout the year.

THRIVE - be part of the solution

To be part of the solution there needs to be a problem

"What Problem?" you may ask.  

Well you'll have to move beyond your social Prozac to even start to get a glimpse. Is it shopping, is it sport, is it pot, is it booze? You know what I mean, what makes the world alright for you NOW?
That is what you are going to have to give up. It is this that prevents you from dwelling on what is really going on.  For most the horror is too great and too hopeless but maybe you can look there if there is HOPE, maybe you can dwell on this if there were a solution, even a possibility of one. Because once there is possibility or once in possibility we can create anything.

Thrive - What on Earth will it Take?
Here comes a documentary that is going to answer the question. It chases the paper trail of money right up to the top. It looks into the sacred geometry. It discusses UFO and extraterrestrials. But most importantly is does not turn a blind eye to what is happening in our world, right now. Who says that such a significant proportion of human beings must suffer, who ordained misery on our modern society? What is needed for us to THRIVE, more than just survive and more than just you and me, everyone??
I don't know a great deal about this doco but I do know when something sets of a ripple of excitement.
I do know when my unquantifiable ahha radar goes blip.
An Oil economy is never going to champion alternative energy (that's not rocket science)
I saw Nicola Tesla in the trailer (that could be rocket science?)
Anything that acknowledges our vast untapped potential within this context is going to create a stir.
A documentary that provides answers? maybe I'm being a bit too idealistic but one that is the catalyst of change...maybe, just maybe?
Thrive, don't just survive, be alive

Videos that Are A Gas #3

shot on a Nokia mobile phone from a crane high above the beach far below.
What else would you be doing in between calls?
There's a great Behind The Scenes video for this also

Highlights at BIFF but missing at MIFF or Pinoy Pride

BIFF  - Window on Asian Cinema.
16th Busan International Film Festival October 2011
This is where I want to be come October. Unlike at MIFF these guys have programed some pretty good Pinoy films. We had not one film from the Philippines at MIFF 2011 and I know its not because there is nothing from that country to screen.  A quick look at the program says that the Koreans know this also.
Highlights included.

AMOK by Lawrence Fajardo
My eyes and ears on the ground put this as the one to see at this years Cinemalaya. Set at a busy intersection in Manila on a very hot day, how does one man's rage effect those around? I haven't seen it but the look in the trailer and the word of mouth indicate something a little bit special going on here.

AMOK shot on the street and keeping it real

The trailer features Johhny Cash covering the NIN song 'Hurt'

Fable of the Fish by Adolfo Alix Jr
Adolfo is one of the promising upcoming directors of the Philippines, some may say already there? He has 18 titles under his belt since his debut feature Donsol (2006) and they have all been well represented on the international arena. Ranging from Oscar nominated 'Best Foreign Film' to TIFF, to Roterdam to Busan/Pusan and always Cinemalaya, he has what we'd say 'the runs on the board' but he doesn't play cricket that I'm aware of. ISDA (Fable of a Fish) is about a couple who give birth to a fish, Mum accepts it but Dad has a hard time. It is an exploration of family, what are the needs, what are the compromises.

ISDA (Fable of the Fish) Movie Poster

check the trailer

 Mask (Maskara) by Laurice Guillen
 This was the opening film of Cinemalaya 2011. A tale about a grieving widow who discovers that her famous actor husband had a secret daughter and her coming to terms with this news.

Mask

 Trailer       Laurice is a well established (30+ yrs), award winning Filipino director and actor.

Nono by Rommel Tolentino
The story of a little boy with a hairlip and how he overcomes adversity. Sorry sounds a bit dweeb, check out the official website

Ian Galliguez (Aling Glenda) and Axle Aeiou Samson (Toto) in Nono

It's an international premiere in Korea but the world premier was Cinemalaya 2011, exactly the same for Mask.

Ang Babae Sa Septic Tank (The Woman in the Septic Tank) by Marlon Rivera

Movie Poster for Cinemalaya

3 filmmakers, from well to do backgrounds, set out to rece their 'award winning' next film which is all about poverty. This is a self referential piece that has the film within the film but in a number of different genres.
Babae sa Septic Tank is a comedy about misguided ambitions, the art of making art and the romanticization of poverty.  Another from the 2011 Cinemalaya.   Trailer/Teaser

There are also some films that aren't in the program but I would love to see like Jerrold Tarog's Senior Year,  Bahay Bata (Baby Factory) by Eduardo Roy Jr & Jerome Zamora, the hard hitting Cuchera by Joseph Isreal Laban and anything with Mercedes Cabral (whoops!) but remember she did win 'The Most Beautiful Actress' at the 61st Cannes Film Festival and she has been cast by Korea's Park Chan-wook plus stared in Brillante Mendoza's Serbis along with a host of other movie credits. This years Cinemalaya saw her in three films.

Mercedes Cabral

So back to BIFF, 5 films from the Philippines in the official selection and just to give you a flavour of what they're in amongst. 
Try Sion Sono's Guilty of Romance and his latest Himizu (yet to see that), Eternity from Thailand plus films from Iran, India, China, Indonesia, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Taiwan and Kazakhstan. 
I still scratch my head when I think back to MIFF and ask 'where were they???' 
This is just the Window of Asian Cinema. You also have World Cinema, Korean Cinema Today, International & National Guests and a massive market. I reckon it would be a pretty good place to be come October.
6th to the 14th of October 2011 Busan, South Korea

The Air that we Breath

Always had a thing for the gas mask? Past life in the trenches? Maybe in the trenches now?
Such an outward sign that there is no more fresh air. A celebration of the micro-climate!
Or is it just a case of beautiful weirdness.
I made this foul stench and I can survive.....at least for a while.

authority still functions

Resistance Persistance

Both of these stills are from the 2011 Athens riots, sub-genre - finance gone awry

Holly Mother Fuck'n Christ

Military Fear

Say No More!

shit?

The modern symbol of the laboured breath

The other side of the clean air debate

effective?

Maybe it's that I just can't hear you speak? I don't know and I don't care but I think it's got to do with that haunting stare. Argh the gas mask.

Will You Ride to Work?

Wol and his new Kick Bike might?

More Spoilt for Choice #2

In my post MIFF come down, where I'm hazy and lazy, propped under my coolabah tree, I squint into the spring sunshine and slowly make out through the glints and the flares another film festival.
AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH its the Korean Film Festival
and it's the first time it's been to Melbourne (God Bless Their Seoul)
and it's on at ACMI

KOFFIA 2011, Sept 10-13

No Hong Sang-soo, which is a shame but I think I'll open my account with an old classic. 
I'm looking forward to seeing Park Chan-wook's first successful feature JSA (Joint Security Area) A tale of military murder on the border of North and South Korea, an area that is still strained with the posturing and tension of a divided country. Some say his best film? Certainly a better box office return than his first two. (http://newkoreancinema.com/)
Check the Trailer.  I say I haven't seen any others but as he is a poster boy for South Korean cinema I might a well start here? He is currently working on his first English speaking film which is starring Nicole Kidman. I just don't know how to react to such news, usually she is a great reason NOT to see a film, so I hope she doesn't burst his bubble....stand by.

JSA screens on early Sunday evening (11th) and preceding it is a talk on Korean Cinema Downunder, headed up by Dr Adrian Martin. Do we need more than two good reasons to go to this? then maybe Christian Were (Madman) and Al Cossar (MIFF) may be the extra that you need. It's free and should put this cinema into context real good.


There are two films a night for four nights except for Saturday which has three films. It's short sharp and sweet and a treat....I hope. It is put on by the Korean Cultural Office which is based in Sydney and runs a healthy cultural program throughout the year. KOFFIA is one of their annual major events and we are very lucky in Melbourne that they are spreading their wings further afield this year. I imagine if it is well attended and a success it may too become an annual event down here?

Another film I may go and see is Shim's Family. Just the first line of the blurb got me in, oh that and the publicity still.

The Shims are weirdos. Misunderstood and misunderstanding is their middle name. 

 It's a black comedy about a dysfunctional family. Its skeletons in the cupboard. Why not I say?
Jeong Yoon-cheol, the director, was an editing student at AFTRS, on a scholarship apparently. I like a director that has come from the edit suite. This is the closing film for the festival, Tuesday evening (13th) 8pm.

50 Documenatries to See before you DIE

Spellbound

This is the list that has come from the show of the same name hosted by Morgan Spurlock. He had nothing to do with the list (see #5) it was decided by a panel. Check this page. In the absence of anything before 1988 I'm treating this list as a prompt for some of the better modern documentaries released in the western world in the last 1/4 of a century or so.
I've seen the ones in bold.
Those in italics are on the 'track em down and watch in the next year please' list.
The rest will be in my brain somewhere ready to ambushed and viewed when the opportunity arises

50. Spellbound (2002)
49. Truth or Dare (1991)
48. The Kid Stays in the Picture (2002)
47. One Day in September (1999)
46. Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1998)

Werner Herzog 2/50??

 45. The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years (1988)
44. Burma VJ (2008)
43. When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (2006)
42. Catfish (2010)
41. The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007)
40. When We Were Kings (1996)
39. Biggie & Tupac (2002)
38. March of the Penguins (2005)
37. Inside Job (2010)
36. Taxi to the Dark Side (2007)

Taxi to the Dark Side

35. Paragraph 175 (2000)
34. Brother’s Keeper (1992)
33. Tongues Untied (1989)
32. Dogtown and Z-Boys (2001)
31. Jesus Camp (2006)
30. Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)
29. Man on Wire (2008)
28. Gasland (2010)
27. Tarnation (2003)
26. Murderball (2005)
25. Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005)
24. Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (1996)
23. The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2000)
22. Shut Up & Sing (2006)
21. Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010)
20. Capturing the Friedmans (2003)
19. Touching the Void (2003)

Touching the Void

18. Food, Inc. (2008)
17. Street Fight (2005)
16. Bus 174 (2002)
15. Crumb (1994)
14. Dark Days (2000)
13. The Fog of War (2003)
12. Bowling for Columbine (2002)
11. Paris Is Burning (1991)
10. Grizzly Man (2005)
9. Trouble the Water (2008)
8. An Inconvenient Truth (2006)
7. The Celluloid Closet (1995)
6. The War Room (1993)
5. Supersize Me (2004)
4. Waltz With Bashir (2008)
3. Roger & Me (1989)

The Man - Micheal Moore - 3/50

2. The Thin Blue Line (1988)
1. Hoop Dreams (1994)

Where is the Corporation??? I thought that was pretty OK?
The White Diamond?
Cane Toads? Actually there are quite a lot missing....AntarticArt -everysomewherever???
Festivals....and going off???  hehehehe

What's missing for you?