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Tuesday
Jul032018

WORLD CINEMA / BULGARIA

Bulgaria's cinema history began when the wealthy embraced filmmaking as an art-form and invested in production and exhibition assets. It is still regarded with the utmost respect by a population that adores its domestic industry (left; Todor Dinov's iconic short, The Daisy; click here)   

Monday
Jul022018

FEATURES / FIVE MUST-SEE AUSTRALIAN SHORTS AT THE MELBOURNE DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL

2018 MELBOURNE DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL: From the deep pool of locally-produced short films at this years MDFF, we pick five standouts (amongst them, the mesmerising Wolfe from director Claire Randall, left). (Click here)

Sunday
Jul012018

REVIEWS / ANIMAL WORLD

The promise of Manga-inspired, CGI-generated fantasy madness and a "how-did-this-happen?" appearance by Hollywood heavyweight Michael Douglas isn't enough to carry Han Yan's Animal World into the realm of cultdom (Click here

Sunday
Jul012018

REVIEWS / ADRIFT

Shailene Woodley bridges her teen queen roles and pending adult career with a strong, sweet performance as oceanfaring survivor Tami Oldham in Adrift (Click here)

Tuesday
Jun262018

FEATURES / THE RATS THAT ATE LOUISIANA (AND THE PEOPLE WHO LOVE THEM)

2018 MELBOURNE DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL: An environmental plague of South American swamp rats was all that the people of Delacroix Island, Louisiana, needed to come together, defy adversity and have a wild ol' time doing it, in the documentary Rodents of Unusual Size (Click here

Saturday
Jun232018

REVIEWS / LOTS OF KIDS, A MONKEY AND A CASTLE

LALIFF 2018: A Spanish matriarch's personal struggle and how her extended family must reconcile their own fate with hers makes for a charming, bittersweet profile in Gustavo Salmerón's winning doco (Click here

Friday
Jun152018

FEATURES / SWAGGER OF THIEVES: THE JULIAN BOSHIER INTERVIEW

2018 MELBOURNE DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL: Julian Boshier embedded himself in the life and music of New Zealand rock gods Head Like A Hole, resulting in a foot-tapping, ear-shattering, occasionally heart-breaking documentary work (Click here)

Thursday
Jun142018

REVIEWS / MY SAGA

A father's journey from Queensland suburbia to a galaxy far, far away with his son by his side makes for a moving documentary experience in Adam harris' My saga (Click here)

Friday
Jun082018

REVIEWS / SGT. STUBBY: AN AMERICAN HERO

It's as if Steven Spielberg had made Saving Private Ryan via Dreamworks Animation. An incredible real-life canine war hero makes for a winning lead character in Richard Lanni's matter-of-fact combat adventure, Sgt Stubby (Click here)

Thursday
Jun072018

FEATURES / PREVIEW: 2018 MELBOURNE DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL

MELBOURNE DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL: 60 films over 9 days at six venues (including the big rat doc Rodents of Unusual Size; pictured, left) suggest that the 2018 MDFF is not cutting corners when it comes to representing the global factual filmmaking community (Click here)

Wednesday
Jun062018

REVIEWS / HEREDITARY

The spectre of grief and the ghosts of the past haunt a family already struggling with dysfunction in Ari Aster's Hereditary (Click here)

Sunday
Jun032018

BLOG / THE FIVE-POINT SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL SURVIVAL GUIDE

With thanks to Owen Gleiberman and his wonderful memoir, Movie Freak: My Life Watching Movies, we apply his Five Trade Secrets to surviving festival meltdown to the 65th Sydney Film Festival, which opens this week (Click here)

Saturday
Jun022018

HORROR / BELGIUM'S HORROR MAESTROS FIND LOVE, FINALLY, IN DOCO LOVE-LETTER 

Long overdue recognition for a horror film industry that has largely gone without praise proved strong motivation for director Steve De Roover, the man behind the documentary Forgotten Scares: An In-Depth Look at Flemish Horror Films (Click here)

Tuesday
May292018

REVIEWS / RISKING LIGHT

MELBOURNE DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL: Director Dawn Mikkelson's three-tiered account of grievous injustice and life-altering forgiveness is a work that needs to be seen by a world struggling to find direction (Click here

Tuesday
May222018

BLOG / EIGHT DECADES OF BILL GOLD'S MOVIE POSTER ART.

The passing on May 20 of Bill Gold brings to an end one of the great unsung careers in Hollywood history (Click here)