HYPERLINKS BOASTS BIG SCREEN WEB-CONTENT IN FIRST YEAR OF INTERNET-FOCUSSED FEST.

A new inner-city film event that sells itself as a “multi-day exploration of digital pasts, presents and futures” is certain to add further fuel to the increasingly complex debate as to what constitutes ‘contemporary cinema’.

Hyperlinks is the latest progressive programming initiative from the Sydney film collective Static Vision and explores the artistry, aesthetics and thematic elements that are central to the new digital age of storytelling. Over three days, the new wave celebration will screen 13 features and nine shorts at the Pink Flamingo Cinema in the inner-west arts hub of Marrickville.

Somewhat ironically, the event kicks off with a retrospective session featuring Olivier Assayas’ visionary 2002 cyber-thriller Demonlover, starring Connie Nielsen, Chloe Sevigny and Gina Gershon. A prescient vision of dark-web insidiousness and interactive sex and violence, it was hailed by Variety upon release as, “a moody and intriguing corporate thriller [that] eventually spins off into uncharted realms of cyberhell.”

The remainder of the program is drawn from the vast digital landscape that lords of modern society (YouTube, facebook, Twitter, et al), finding compulsive narratives in collage works, clip packages and intimate documentation of ground-breaking personalities and fantastic technologies. These include:

A SELF-INDUCED HALLUCINATION (Dir: Dan Schoenbrun; USA, 74 mins). A breakdown of the Slenderman mythology and the grip that the creepy pasta meme held over a generation of impressionable YouTube users.

SEARCHING EVA (Dir: Pia Hellenthal; Germany, 84 mins) AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE. Eva oscillates between her real life as an anarchic vagabond, social marginal figure and feminist sex worker and the life of her Internet persona, iconised as the leading figure of the authentic.

AIDOL (Dir: Lawrence Lek; U.K., 83 mins) AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE. A fading songstress, Diva, enlists and aspiring A.I. songwriter to mount a comeback performance at the 2065 eSports Olympic finale.

TOURISM (Dir: Daisuke Miyazaki; Japan, 77 mins) AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE. Two Japanese micro-influencers must deal with missing phones, rooftop noise gigs and a sudden dance sequence when a trip to Singapore leads to them getting lost amongst the urban sprawl.

L.A. TEA TIME (Dir: Sophie Bedard Marcotte; Canada, 82 mins) AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE. Combining elements of video installation art and first-person documentary making, Marcotte’s ‘quasi-doc’ track a desperate filmmaker’s journey to meet her creative icon, Miranda July.

The Hyperlinks shorts roster further enhances the paradigm-shifting nature of modern film technology and its ability to invent and enhance fresh directions in narrative structure. Of the short film program, seek out In Event of Moon Disaster (Dir: Francesca Panetta and Halsey Burgund; USA, 6 mins), a deep-fake take on a Nixon contingency speech; A Room with a Coconut View (Dir: Tulapop Saejareon; Thailand, 28 mins), a study of Thailand’s past and present through a hotel resort’s AI system; and, Watching the Pain of Others (Dir: Chloe Galibert-Laine; France, 31 mins), a challenge to the traditional documentary form in its study of online conspiracy theorising.

HYPERLINKS: A STATIC VISION FESTIVAL will screen February 21-23 at Pink Flamingo Cinema, 18-24 Sydney Street Marrickville. Session and ticketing details can be found at the official website.

TRAILER PARK: FIVE OF THE BEST FROM SXSW

It is the cutting-edge cool of festival cinema, so when SXSW anoints a new film with a premiere slot, all industry eyes focus in. With the 2019 event about to shutter in Austin, Texas, we take a look a five films (apart from Jordan Peele’s Us, which had heat before heading west) that emerged from the fest with major buzz…

BOOKSMART (US | 102 mins | Annapurna Pictures) Dir: Olivia Wilde; Cast: Kaitlyn Dever, Beanie Feldstein, Jessica Williams, Will Forte, Lisa Kudrow, Jason Sudeikis.
From the program: Told from a wildly original, fresh and modern perspective, Booksmart is an unfiltered comedy about high school friendships and the bonds we create that last a lifetime. Capturing the spirit of our times, the film is a coming of age story for a new generation.
Critics said: “In this year’s class of first-time feature directors, Wilde handily earns the title of Most Likely to Succeed.” - Variety

LONG SHOT (US | 120 mins | Summit Entertainment) Dir: Jonathan Levine; Cast: Seth Rogen, Charlize Theron, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Andy Serkis, June Diane Raphael, Ravi Patel and Alexander Skarsgård.
From the program: An ambitious diplomat with a spotless reputation and a hard-partying journalist hilariously redefine “international relations” as they try to keep their red-hot romance under wraps.
Critics said: “A rom-com with a political edge that will be one of this year's most beloved crowdpleasers.” – RogerEbert.com

I AM RICHARD PRYOR (US | 92 mins | Paramount Network) Dir: Jesse James Miller; Cast: Richard Pryor.
From the program: I Am Richard Pryor tells the life story of the legendary performer and iconic social satirist, who transcended race and social barriers by delivering his honest irreverent and biting humor to America’s stages and living rooms until his death at 65.
Critics said: “Jesse James Miller's biographical documentary is a conventional but fascinating portrait of the self-destructive comic great.” – Variety

ONE MAN DIES A MILLION TIMES (Russia | 92 mins ) Dir: Jessica Oreck; Cast: Alyssa Lozovskaya, Maksim Blinov, Vladimir Koshevoy, Alena Artemova, Konstantin Malyshev, Andrey Emelyanov, Alexei Yuferev.
From the program: Set in the future, a story about seeds and genetic diversity, about growth and decay, about love and war, and about hunger of all kinds.
Critics said: “Transports viewers to another time and place, much in the manner of Aleksey German’s immersive masterworks…it is a rather fascinating and undeniably ambitious work of cinema.” – J.B. Spins

THE ART OF SELF-DEFENSE (US | 104 mins | Bleeker Street) Dir: Riley Stearns; Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Alessandro Nivola, Imogen Poots.
From the program: Jesse Eisenberg plays a man who is attacked on the street and enlists in a local dojo, led by a charismatic Sensei (Alessandro Nivola), in an effort to learn how to defend himself.
Critics said: “Manages to clarify the filmmaker's intriguing vision by stuffing it into a remarkably unnerving character study.” – Indiewire.