…sink the fucker.

Footy players & their girlfriends posing for photos on the red carpet in designer clothes = Australian Film Culture!? Nm

My uncle, George Fordham, passed away on the weekend & I will miss him. He was a bloody good bloke… (And I will share some [loosely “cinema” related] stories about him here soon.) Nm

“The route you take lies parallel to the words along these walls you slide along in search of that which might be said each step assured or bored or trembling to discover finally only that one foot has followed the other.”
Fiona Hall

Toby & I have recently been working flat out on other things - building a family home & shooting stuff - but we still have our mind on the streetsweeper job & will keep you posted. The tour? Looks like we’re just gonna go to Deniliquin & Braidwood!? Nm (Off to shoot something now.)

So, we made the best film we could & we honestly thought that it had a fairly good chance of screening here & there on the international film festival circuit. But, alas, this was not to be (The best comic figures are often deluded!). We did not make a festival film after all: it seems like every unAmerican filmmaker in the world is now compelled to use the festival circuit to get their films seen, and we had some mighty competition. Next, the tour. Nm

I recently got invited to an “industry” (ha, ha, ha… ha, ha… ha… er…) shindig:
“Dungog Film Festival is the only 100% Australian Film Festival that operates in a non-competitive environment. We are having launch in Newcastle to promote and encourage Newcastle participation in this event….”
Funny that… Um, against all odds, we actually made a truly independent (100% local) feature film, in Newcastle, and do you think they wanna screen it?
Mediocrity triumphs again (?) Nm

Why are so many film festivals now full of features that are available to see on the big screen, in mainstream cinemas, or on the small screen, from convenient stores, anyway? If my memory serves me right, film festivals used to be the place you went to see films you couldn’t see anywhere else. Nm

It’s choko season: T is cracking on with his Grand Design & I am back to winging, fudging & bamboozling. Meanwhile, we are still plotting “the tour” gee-ed on by a whelming tide of enthusiasm… N

I think the only way we can have a healthy film “industry” in this country if is we create a healthy contemporary film “culture”: I am sick of hearing about the so-called good old days of Australian Cinema… I want to turn the huge amount of potential energy that is available right now into something kinetic: we have to get creative and that means more risk, trust & new blood. NM