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Brooklyn 30 Lafayette Avenue CommunicationsDepartment Academy Brooklyn NY 11217-1486 Sandy Sawotka of Telephone: 718.636.4111 Melissa Cusick Music Fax: 718.857.2021 Fateema Jones www.bam.org Tamara Mccaw Molly Gross Kila Packett 718.636.4129 News Release [email protected] As Part of Next Wave Down Under, BAMcinematek Presents Killing the Koala: Australian Films of the 90s, A Four-week Film Festival Comprising More Than 30 Films Special guests-including Anthony LaPaglia and Rachel Griffiths to participate in Q&As during series, which includes early work of actors Russell Crowe, Toni Collette, Guy Pearce, Susie Porter, and David Wenham and movies directed by P.J. Hogan, Geoffrey Wright, and Clara Law Next Wave Down Under is presented in partnership with Series includes seven New York premieres Brooklyn, August 23, 2001-As part of Next Wave Down Under-BA.M's month-long celebration of Australian arts and culture-BAMcinematek presents Killing the Koala: Australian Films of the 90s throughout the month of October. The wide-ranging, four-week series will feature more than 30 films largely drawn from the last decade of Australian $ FOREIGN filmmaking, a period of dramatic change in Australian cinema. Killing the Koala is curated by AFFAIRSAND ~t~'$."'._,1$,V TRADE prominent Australian film critic and progranuner Paul Byrnes for the Australian Film through the Australia International Commission, in association with BAM's Curator-at-large Adrie1111eMancia and Associate Cultural Councrl Curator Florence Almozini. Screenings will take place at the four-screen BAM Rose Cinemas at 30 Lafayette Avenue in Brooklyn. ~-~-~SRAUAN ia....A.:.~ "I think people will be surprised, possibly even shocked, when they see this series of COMMISSION contemporary Australian films. They're much funnier, tougher, and more diverse in style than people might expect. That's why we are calling it 'Killing the Koala,' to shake out some preconceptions," commented Byrnes. BAM's Next Wave Festival Film festival highlights include Gillian Armstrong's Oscar and Lucinda, featuring Cate is sponsoredby Blanchett and Ralph Fiennes; Jocelyn Moorhouse's Proof, featuring Oscar-winner Russell PHILIP MORRIS Crowe and Hugo Weaving; Geoffrey Wright's Romper Stamper, also featuring Crowe; The C O M P A N I E S I N C. Boys, directed by Rowan Woods, with Oscar and Tony Award nominee Toni Collette; PJ. Hogan's Muriel's Wedding, an early film with Rachel Griffiths and Collette; Stephan Elliott's The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, featuring Guy Pearce and Weaving; Kate Woods' Looking.for more ... NP)(t\/'-J?.\IP nnwn UnrlPr October2001 A month-long celebration of contemporary Australian performing arts and culture, part of BAM's 2001 Next Wave Festival Killing the Koala: Australian Films of the 90s, 2 Alibrandi, featuring Tony winner Anthony LaPaglia and Greta Scacchi; Davida Allen's Feeling Sexy starring Susie Porter; and documentaries, including Trevor Graham's Mabo: Life of an Island Man-an absorbing portrait of Eddie "Koiki" Mabo, the crusading Indigenous leader from the Torres Strait. The festival also will include several short, experimental, independent, and animated films. BAM 2001 NeA'tWave Festival is sponsored by Philip Morris Companies Inc. Next Wave Down Under is presented in partnership with Australia Council for the Arts, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade through the Australia International Cultural Council, and the Australian Film Commission. Support is provided by The Australian Consulate-General. Ticket information General admission tickets to BAM Rose Cinemas are $9. Tickets are $6 for students (with valid I.D. Monday-Thursday, except holidays), seniors, BAM Cinema Club members, and children under 12. Tickets are available at the BAM Rose Cinemas box office, by phone at 718.777.FILM (order by "name of movie" option), or online at bam.org. A dinner and movie package on Thursday-Saturday nights at BAMcafe is available for only $30 (at the box office only). For more information, call the BAMcinematek hotline 718.636.4100 or visit www.bam.org. About Killing the Koala: Australian Films o(the 90s According to curator Paul Byrnes, a noted Australian critic and fonner director of the Sydney Film Festival, Australian cinema found a new voice during the last decade of the 20th century. "The new movies were more urban, contemporary and hard-edged, less concerned with making myths than exploring new realities in the culture. The topics were new and often raw: racism, drug abuse, violent crime, sex and gender, homosexuality, migration, suburbia. The styles of filmmaking changed too, from the moody surrealism of Jane Campion's Sweetie to the broad and confident satire of P.J. Hogan's Muriel's Wedding or the kinetic violence of Geoffrey Wright's Romper Stamper. The films were mostly made by new, young writers and directors-many of them women-working with a superb new crop of Australian actors, several of ,vhom have now become internationally known." The BAM series will feature many of the early films of Russell Crowe, Toni Collette, and Rachel Griffiths-as well as newer talents like David \Venham and Susie Porter. In selecting the films, the curators sought to reflect Australian culture and to illustrate the diversity of the nation's cinema, which has become much tougher and more surprising in the last dozen or so years. A key part of that growth has come from Aboriginal filmmakers-who have produced an astonishing wealth of vivid, mostly short, films-and also from migrant communities, with directors like Clara Law (Floating Life) and A.Iia Kokk1nos (Only the Brave) telling stories of people who have not been portrayed often in Australian cinema before now. Byrnes reflects that the "new voice" is in fact many voices; Killing the Koala will provide a showcase for them, underlining just how much the landscape of Australian cinema has changed. About Next Wave Down Under As a premier destination for audiences interested in all disciplines of contemporary performing arts and film, BAM will undertake an unparalleled exploration of a single country, entitled Next Wave Down Under-a month-long celebration of Australian arts and culture presented as part of the 2001 Nel-.1Wave Festival, from October 2-27. Next Wave Down Under will feature many of Australia's foremost creators, artists, and companies, performing innovative works that reflect one of the world's most distinct and intricate cultures. In addition to Killing the Koala (BAM Rose Cinemas), the programs will include four mainstage productions of theater, music-theater, and dance (BAM Harvey Theater); Over Down Under, a series often live music performances (BAMcafe); three Word Down Under conversations featuring prominent Australian and American writers (BAMcafe); Under score: Net Art, Sound, Essays, and Web Documentaries ji·om Australia on BAM's website (www.bam.org); four BAMdialogues (BAM Rose Cinemas and the Hillman Attic Studio); visual art; and Australian food and wine (BAMcafe). (For more inforn1ation about Next Wcn;eDovm Under or to request complete press releases, contact BAM Communications at 718.636.4129 or [email protected].) more ... Killing the Koala: Australian Films of the 90s, 3 Killing the Koala schedule and film description Saturday, October 6 at 2, 8pm Oscar and Lucinda (1997), 120 min Directed by Gillian Annstrong, with Cate Blanchett, Ralph Fiennes A devoutly religious minister's son and the owner of a glassworks meet aboard a ship, united by their passion for taking risks and compulsive gambling. When he plans to build an intricate cathedral out of glass and transport it to the Australian outback the two place wagers on it, but what they don't bet on is falling in love. Saturday, October 6 at 4:30pm* and October 7 at 2, 4, 9:40pm Looking.for Alibrandi (1999), 100 min, NY premiere Directed by Kate Woods, with Greta Scacchi, Anthony LaPaglia In English and Italian with English subtitles This funny and passionate film follows the adventures of a sixteen-year-old Italian-Australian girl stmggling against maternal traditions. (on October 7) Preceded by Swinger (1995), 4 min Directed by Gregor Jordan Sometimes when you are feeling down, one phone call can brighten your whole day. *Q&A with Anthony LaPaglia on October 6 following 4:30pm screening Saturday, October 7 at 7pm Park/ands (1996), 53 min, NY premiere Directed by Kathryn Millard, with Cate Blanchett, Tony Martin Cate Blanchett debuts in a short feature about a policeman's daughter coming to terms with his death. She returns home after her father passes away and becomes suspicious while reading his diaries, which hint at cormption. She puzzles about his real identity, her early life, and her relationship to him. Monday, October 8 at 2, 4:30, 6:50, 9:10pm The Sum of Us (1994), 100 min Directed by Kevin Dowling and Geoff Burton, with Russell Crowe, Jack Thompson A father tries to find a boyfriend for his gay son (played by Crowe) in this pramatic and funny film. Preceded by · · · Relative Strangers (1998), 12 min Directed by Rosemary Hesp A family, a deception, and its legacy. Tuesday, October 9 at 6*, 9:30pm Indigenous Women Directors Program One Night the Moon (2001), 56 min, NY premiere Directed by Rachel Perkins, with Paul Kelly, Kaarin Fairfax The dialogue is sung in this film about a child missing on an outback fann and the fanner who refuses an Aboriginal tracker's aid. Preceded by Night Cries Directed by Tracey Moffat This is the tale of an Aboriginal woman and her white mother, an invalid. Road Directed by Catriona McKenzie In Road two Aboriginal men try to escape the city after a fight. Confessions of a Headhunter Directed by Sally Riley This is the story of Frankand Vinnie,modern-day head-hunters.