DOCSLIB.ORG

Australian Queer Screen in an International Market

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Australian Queer Screen in an International Market [ INDUSTRYperspectives ] 1 Outand 2 AustralianReel Queer Screen in an International Market Australian queer film and video is thriving internationally despite its low yield and the difficulties of finding domestic theatrical release. Troy Bullock explores this overseas success and the surprising launch into international stardom by actors ‘playing gay’. 3 PLACE AMONG THE FINALISTS The winner also receives an automatic in short film competition My Queer place in the finals of the only truly inter- ACareer would be welcome news for national queer short film competition. The ing pad to success on the international any young director. It provides the opportu- Iris Prize, valued at £25,000, gives the market. Craig Boreham, whose Love Bite nity to open the prestigious Mardi Gras Film winner the opportunity to produce their (2008) opened the 2008 Mardi Gras Film Festival with a gala screening of their short next short in London. Top honours in My Festival in February, was selected to take film at Sydney’s City Recital Hall. Now in its Queer Career have been won by the likes part in the Berlinale Talent Campus in Ger- fifteenth year, the Mardi Gras Film Festival of Tony Ayres (Walking on Water [2002], many, a week-long film program where over showcases around 150 films each year and The Home Song Stories [2007]), Robert 350 young directors learn from acclaimed attracts an audience of over 25,000, making Luketic (Legally Blonde [2001], Monster- international filmmakers. Boreham won it the southern hemisphere’s largest gay in-Law [2005], 21 [2008]) and Academy a place in the prestigious program partly and lesbian film festival. The fifteen finalists Award winner Adam Elliot (Harvie Krum- on the strength of his previous short film in My Queer Career are selected from a sur- pet, 2003). According to Elliot: Transient (2005), the tale of failed gay love prisingly small number of submissions. In that won the audience choice award at My 2006 around sixty Australian and New Zea- My Queer Career is a supportive and cru- Queer Career in 2005. The 2006 winner of land short films competed for the top prize; cial vehicle for filmmakers who choose to, My Queer Career, Sotiris Dounoukos, said: in 2007, there were 150 films. Prizes are or simply ‘must’, express Queerness. They awarded for best cinematography, screen- have supported me over the last decade The support I received helped me to travel play, editing, direction, sound and develop- and given me the strength and confidence after the festival and meet with producers ment. All films compete for a top prize of to keep telling stories that are honest and about future projects ... Mona Lisa [2004] $3000 cash and all finalist films are eligible without compromise.1 has since been invited to another [ten] in- to be included on the national My Queer ternational festivals as a direct result of My Career tour and compilation DVD. A win in My Queer Career can be a launch- Queer Career.2 112 • Metro Magazine 158 the US distributors‘ were hoping for a tits-and-ass gay movie and weren’t overly happy with what they got until it started making money. 1 ED ALDRIDGE ON TAN’ LINES 4 1: TAN LINES 2: 2008 MARDI GRAS FILM FESTIVAL OPENING NIGHT 3: MARGARET POMERANZ, A JUDGE OF THE 2007 MY QUEER CAREER COMPETITION 4: SBS BROADCASTER ANTON ENUS, A JUDGE OF THE 2008 MY QUEER CAREER COMPETITION for a tits-and-ass gay movie and weren’t overly happy with what they got until it started making money. 1 Tan Lines has performed well on the inter- national market, scoring a small theatri- cal release in Germany and DVD releases In 2008, a series of master classes will be ‘a gay surf movie, a coming-of-age story, in North America, the United Kingdom, introduced to increase the professional or a punk’s view of teenage sexuality’. France and Spain. It has even managed development opportunities for filmmakers. Shot on MiniDV on the aptly named Manly to cross over to mainstream festivals. In a My Queer Career finalists will be invited to Beach in northern New South Wales, Tan positive review, Dennis Harvey in Variety attend three forums with key professionals Lines premiered at Melbourne’s Queer stated, ‘It’s hard not to wish this had been from the Australian film industry. Festival Film Festival and, unlike a lot of Austral- shot on 35mm.’4 The most recent country director Lex Lindsay believes: ian feature films, it has managed to turn to come on board with a DVD release is a profit for its producers quite quickly, Australia. ‘At the beginning we shopped it We need to continue to do more for our even after a difficult start. Turned down by around in Australia to two or three niche queer filmmakers, if we want to see hon- many of Australia’s funding bodies, who distributors that we thought would have est, powerful and meaningful representa- didn’t like the script, Aldridge was still loved it,’ says Aldridge. ‘It was a revelation tions of queer life in Australian cinema, the determined to get his film shot. ‘We kept to us that Australia took so long to come most important thing we can do is invest going as if we had the funding, casting on board.’ in our local queer voices.3 the roles, finding locations and hassling distributors.’ Aldridge managed to secure Some months after Tan Lines’ interna- Gay and global: Tan Lines a presale from TLA Releasing for a North tional success, Force Entertainment has American DVD release and then the sup- released Tan Lines on DVD in Australia One local queer voice that is having signif- port of Peccadillo Pictures in the UK. under their new FQ – Force Queer range. icant success in the international market- Small Australian film distributors are place is Ed Aldridge, writer and director of The UK were very supportive from the be- slowly beginning to realize the potential for Tan Lines (2006). The film is described as ginning, the US distributors were hoping gay and lesbian themed films, and major Metro Magazine 158 • 113 [ INDUSTRYperspectives ] video chains like Blockbuster have also of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (Stephan and gain both domestic and international taken notice. Large speciality sections Elliott, 1994) have all given a unique recognition. have been created at Blockbuster outlets take on a gay Australian experience. The in suburbs with strong gay and lesbian appearance of gay characters in Austral- Two of Priscilla’s stars, Hugo Weaving and demographics, like Brisbane’s New Farm ian films has been gradual, with many Guy Pearce, went on to build strong Hol- and Melbourne’s Prahran. roles small and secondary to the film’s lywood careers after their roles in the film. storyline. Pearce followed up with L.A. Confidential Queensland distributor Eagle Entertainment (Curtis Hanson, 1997) and Hugo Weaving launched its Out & About Films label in Early examples of gay male representa- has become an international star through 2005, after owner Jeff Cooke saw a gap in tion include experimentation by boys both The Matrix (The Wachowski Broth- the market and a demand from Australian at a Catholic seminary in The Devil’s ers, 1999, 2003 and 2003) and The Lord audiences for gay and lesbian content. Out Playground (Fred Schepisi, 1976) and an of the Rings (Peter Jackson, 2001, 2002 & About Films is releasing one or two titles all-too-intimate friendship between two and 2003) trilogies. While many American a month into DVD rental and retail stores boys in the 1981 television feature by Wil- actors admit to shying away from gay and says it is committed to the label liam Fitzwater, A Hard God. It wasn’t until roles due to the harm it could do their on- although the Australian market is still in The Everlasting Secret Family (Michael screen image, many of Australia’s leading its infancy. Managing director Dan Quinn Thornhill, 1988) that gay issues became actors have made leaps in their career explains: the central focus of an Australian film. In thanks to playing gay. Everlasting, a boarding school student We look for quality productions, a good becomes a member of a homosexual Before Gladiator (Ridley Scott, 2000), plot, well made films that just happen to brotherhood formed by men in his com- Russell Crowe was a gay son in The Sum have gay and lesbian themes. We’d love munity. He begins to resent the ‘plaything’ of Us. Also released in 1994, the film dealt to see some Australian films for this label. status imposed upon him by the older with the relationship between Crowe’s We’ve had some come our way but none members and his resentment culminates character and his father, played by Jack that we’ve released, it’s mostly been films in a battle of wills between himself and Thompson. It was praised for its ‘original- from America so far. a local senator’s trophy wife. Everlast- ity and refreshing portrayal of masculinity’.5 ing suggests that, like the so-called Crowe’s character says, ‘I don’t want to live Critically queer mainstream political scene, gay lifestyle in a world that begins and ends with being can become a dangerously manipulative gay,’ and the film manages to celebrate the Broadcast opportunities for gay and les- power trip in the wrong hands. common ground between gay and straight bian content in Australia are limited. Only people. Coming from the filmThe Heart- SBS shows real support for the industry, A key year in the pursuit of gay rights break Kid (Michael Jenkins, 1993) and the screening international programs such was 1994 as the Australian Government spin-off television series, Alex Dimitriades as Queer as Folk and a few Australian overturned Tasmania’s anti-sodomy changed his image completely in playing documentaries on queer issues.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • David Stratton's Stories of Australian Cinema
    David Stratton’s Stories of Australian Cinema With thanks to the extraordinary filmmakers and actors who make these films possible. Presenter DAVID STRATTON Writer & Director SALLY AITKEN Producers JO-ANNE McGOWAN JENNIFER PEEDOM Executive Producer MANDY CHANG Director of Photography KEVIN SCOTT Editors ADRIAN ROSTIROLLA MARK MIDDIS KARIN STEININGER HILARY BALMOND Sound Design LIAM EGAN Composer CAITLIN YEO Line Producer JODI MADDOCKS Head of Arts MANDY CHANG Series Producer CLAUDE GONZALES Development Research & Writing ALEX BARRY Legals STEPHEN BOYLE SOPHIE GODDARD SC SALLY McCAUSLAND Production Manager JODIE PASSMORE Production Co-ordinator KATIE AMOS Researchers RACHEL ROBINSON CAMERON MANION Interview & Post Transcripts JESSICA IMMER Sound Recordists DAN MIAU LEO SULLIVAN DANE CODY NICK BATTERHAM Additional Photography JUDD OVERTON JUSTINE KERRIGAN STEPHEN STANDEN ASHLEIGH CARTER ROBB SHAW-VELZEN Drone Operators NICK ROBINSON JONATHAN HARDING Camera Assistants GERARD MAHER ROB TENCH MARK COLLINS DREW ENGLISH JOSHUA DANG SIMON WILLIAMS NICHOLAS EVERETT ANTHONY RILOCAPRO LUKE WHITMORE Hair & Makeup FERN MADDEN DIANE DUSTING NATALIE VINCETICH BELINDA MOORE Post Producers ALEX BARRY LISA MATTHEWS Assistant Editors WAYNE C BLAIR ANNIE ZHANG Archive Consultant MIRIAM KENTER Graphics Designer THE KINGDOM OF LUDD Production Accountant LEAH HALL Stills Photographers PETER ADAMS JAMIE BILLING MARIA BOYADGIS RAYMOND MAHER MARK ROGERS PETER TARASUIK Post Production Facility DEFINITION FILMS SYDNEY Head of Post Production DAVID GROSS Online Editor
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Picturing a Golden Age: September and Australian Rules Pauline Marsh, University of Tasmania It Is 1968, Rural Western Austra
    1 Picturing a Golden Age: September and Australian Rules Pauline Marsh, University of Tasmania Abstract: In two Australian coming-of-age feature films, Australian Rules and September, the central young characters hold idyllic notions about friendship and equality that prove to be the keys to transformative on- screen behaviours. Intimate intersubjectivity, deployed in the close relationships between the indigenous and nonindigenous protagonists, generates multiple questions about the value of normalised adult interculturalism. I suggest that the most pointed significance of these films lies in the compromises that the young adults make. As they reach the inevitable moral crisis that awaits them on the cusp of adulthood, despite pressures to abandon their childhood friendships they instead sustain their utopian (golden) visions of the future. It is 1968, rural Western Australia. As we glide along an undulating bitumen road up ahead we see, from a low camera angle, a school bus moving smoothly along the same route. Periodically a smattering of roadside trees filters the sunlight, but for the most part open fields of wheat flank the roadsides and stretch out to the horizon, presenting a grand and golden vista. As we reach the bus, music that has hitherto been a quiet accompaniment swells and in the next moment we are inside the vehicle with a fair-haired teenager. The handsome lad, dressed in a yellow school uniform, is drawing a picture of a boxer in a sketchpad. Another cut takes us back outside again, to an equally magnificent view from the front of the bus. This mesmerising piece of cinema—the opening of September (Peter Carstairs, 2007)— affords a viewer an experience of tranquillity and promise, and is homage to the notion of a golden age of youth.
    [Show full text]
  • Jill Bilcock: Dancing the Invisible
    JILL BILCOCK: DANCING THE INVISIBLE PRESS KIT Written and Directed by Axel Grigor Produced by Axel Grigor and Faramarz K-Rahber Executive Produced by Sue Maslin Distributed by Film Art Media Production Company: Distributor: Faraway Productions Pty Ltd FILM ART MEDIA PO Box 1602 PO Box 1312 Carindale QLD 4152 Collingwood VIC 3066 AUSTRALIA AUSTRALIA Email: [email protected] Phone: +61 3 9417 2155 faraway.com.au Email: [email protected] filmartmedia.com BILLING BLOCK FILM ART MEDIA, SOUNDFIRM, SCREEN QUEENSLAND and FILM VICTORIA in association with SCREEN AUSTRALIA, THE AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION and GRIFFITH UNIVERSITY present JILL BILCOCK: DANCING THE INVISIBLE Featuring CATE BLANCHETT, BAZ LUHRMANN, SHEKHAR KAPUR and RACHEL GRIFFITHS in a FARAWAY PRODUCTIONS FILM FILM EDITORS SCOTT WALTON & AXEL GRIGOR DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY FARAMARZ K-RAHBER PRODUCTION MANAGER TARA WARDROP PRODUCERS AXEL GRIGOR & FARAMARZ K-RAHBER EXECUTIVE PRODUCER SUE MASLIN © 2017 Faraway Productions Pty Ltd and Soundfirm Pty Ltd. TECHNICAL INFORMATION Format DCP, Pro Res File Genre Documentary Country of Production AUSTRALIA Year of Production 2017 Running Time 78mins Ratio 16 x 9 Language ENGLISH /2 LOGLINE The extraordinary life and artistry of internationally acclaimed film editor, Jill Bilcock. SHORT SYNOPSIS A documentary about internationally renowned film editor Jill Bilcock, that charts how an outspoken arts student in 1960s Melbourne became one of the world’s most acclaimed film artists. SYNOPSIS Jill Bilcock: Dancing The Invisible focuses on the life and work of one of the world’s leading film artists, Academy award nominated film editor Jill Bilcock. Iconic Australian films Strictly Ballroom, Muriel’s Wedding, Moulin Rouge!, Red Dog, and The Dressmaker bear the unmistakable look and sensibility of Bilcock’s visual inventiveness, but it was her brave editing choices in Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo+Juliet that changed the look of cinema the world over, inspiring one Hollywood critic to dub her editing style as that of a “Russian serial killer on crack”.
    [Show full text]
  • All in the Family: Three Australian Female Directors Brian Mcfarlane
    ALL IN THE FAMILY: THREE AUSTRALIAN FEMALE DIRECTORS BRIAN MCFARLANE y any standards, apart perhaps from box-office takings, 2009 was a banner year for Australian films. There were Balibo and Samson and Delilah, Disgrace and Last Ride, but what is really impressive is that three of the most memorable entries in this memorable year were directed by women, in an industry where Bdirection has long been dominated by men. I don’t want to make any special, essentialist point about what’s attracting female directors: male directors have been just as often drawn to the conflicts that rend families (think of such recent Australian films as Steve Jacobs’ Disgrace, Tony Ayres’ The Home Song Stories, Glendyn Ivin’s Last Ride, Dean Murphy’s Charlie & Boots). I just want to celebrate three very significant films by female directors. On the international scene, Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker has won and been nominated for numerous awards, and neither in this nor her earlier films has the family been the site of her chief interest. Perhaps film directing is no longer a male preserve, and female directors are not to be confined by the parameters of what used to be patronisingly characterised as ‘the women’s picture’. With this sort of proviso understood, the three major films I want to highlight here—Sarah Watt’s My Year without Sex, Rachel Ward’s Beautiful Kate and Ana Kokkinos’s Blessed—indeed foreground family matters and do so with rigour and perception, but there the similarities end. 82 The three films are tonally distinct from each other.
    [Show full text]
  • David Stratton's STORIES of AUSTRALIAN CINEMA
    David Stratton’s STORIES OF AUSTRALIAN CINEMA **David Stratton: A Cinematic Life (a feature version of this series) has been selected to screen at the 70th Cannes Film Festival which opens May 17. “When I started championing Australian cinema at the Sydney Film Festival I couldn’t have imagined the richness of movies that would follow,” says David. “These are the stories of the films that changed the way the world saw us and how we saw ourselves … a story of how the films and those who made them broke through the status quo.” Revered critic David Stratton tells the glorious story of Australian cinema, focusing in on the films that capture the nation’s true nature with candour, emotion and humour. David is superbly qualified for this task. While he adapted to a new country and turned his passion for cinema into a profession as a film festival director and film critic, a growing band of courageous Australians turned their enthusiasm for storytelling into an extraordinary body of work. “A nation found its identity through cinema and so did I; this is my journey through the movies that made our nation,” he says. Those movies are wildly diverse but strong themes echo throughout the body of work. Screen Australia, The Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Screen NSW in association with the Adelaide Film Festival present A Stranger Than Fiction Production Episode one: Game Changers (June 6) Filmmakers gained confidence with: the boldness of Picnic at Hanging Rock and Mad Max; the global success of Crocodile Dundee and Shine; the flamboyance of Strictly Ballroom; the substance and style of Samson & Delilah.
    [Show full text]
  • David Stratton: a Cinematic Life
    Presents DAVID STRATTON: A CINEMATIC LIFE Directed by SALLY AITKEN / In cinemas MARCH 9, 2017 Featuring DAVID STRATTON, GILLIAN ARMSTRONG, ERIC BANA, BRYAN BROWN, RUSSELL CROWE, NICOLE KIDMAN, GEORGE MILLER, SAM NEILL, GEOFFREY RUSH, FRED SCHEPISI, WARWICK THORNTON, JACKI WEAVER and HUGO WEAVING PUBLICITY REQUESTS: Transmission Films / Amy Burgess / +61 2 8333 9000 / [email protected] IMAGES High res images and poster available to download via the DOWNLOAD MEDIA tab at: http://www.transmissionfilms.com.au/films/david-stratton-a-cinematic-life Distributed in Australia by TransMission Films Screen Australia The Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Screen NSW in association with the Adelaide Film Festival present A Stranger Than Fiction Production David Stratton’s A CINEMATIC LIFE How a love affair with Australian cinema led one man to understand himself and his adopted country Writer/director: Sally Aitken Producer: Jo-anne McGowan Executive producer: Jennifer Peedom In Australian cinemas from March 9, 2017 Q&A screenings with David around the country from late February Distributor: Transmission Films Production company: Stranger Than Fiction Films Technical and other information Format Feature-length documentary Length 1:37:44 Aspect ratio 2:39:1 Sound 5.1 Filmed at: • Coffs Harbour/Sawtell, Bankstown, Camden, Sydney, the Blue Mountains and Broken Hill in New South Wales • Melbourne and Mount Macedon (Hanging Rock) in Victoria • Brisbane and the Gold Coast in Queensland • Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory • Alice Springs and Uluru in the Northern Territory • Los Angeles and Providence in the US • London and Devizes in the UK With thanks to the extraordinary filmmakers and actors who created the films that have enriched Australia.
    [Show full text]
  • What I Wrote by Andrew Bovell
    What I Wrote Andrew Bovell Teacher’s Notes Introduction This study guide forWhat I Wrote: Andrew Bovell has been written for senior secondary students. It provides infor� mation and suggestions for learning activities in English, Literature, Theatre Studies and Drama. What I Wrote: Andrew Bovell is a DVD on Australian playwright Andrew Bovell. Dr Tess Brady interviews Bovell and provides a critical introduction to After Dinner (1998), Scenes from a Separation (1995), Whose Afraid of the Working Class (1998), The Lantana Series Whiskey[ on the Breath of the One You Love (1992), Distant Lights from Dark Places (1994), Speaking in Tongues (1996), Lantana (2001)], Holy Days (2001), When the Rain Stops Falling (2008). The DVD also includes an investigation of Bovell’s approach to writing for the stage. What I Wrote: Andrew Bovell is one title from a series of DVDs spotlighting Australian playwrights. The series of� fers students information about the ideas and processes of the playwrights, as well as the opportunity to hear what the writers have to say about their work. Other titles available in the What I Wrote series include: Series 1: • What I Wrote: Matt Cameron • What I Wrote: Louis Nowra • What I Wrote: Hannie Rayson • What I Wrote: Katherine Thomson Series 2: • What I Wrote: Debra Oswald • What I Wrote: David Williamson • What I Wrote: �������������oanna Murray������Smith The DVDs are available from Ronin Films, http://www.roninfilms.com.au Further information about the series and film trailers can be found at: http://www.whatiwrote.com.au or on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/pinkcat1 The play scripts are available from Currency Press, http://www.currency.com.au/ About the Filmmakers Dr Tess Brady interactive websites and advertising.
    [Show full text]
  • Stories of Australian Cinema
    David Stratton’s STORIES OF AUSTRALIAN CINEMA © ATOM 2017 A STUDY GUIDE BY MICHELLE LIDDY http://www.metromagazine.com.au 2017 © ATOM ISBN: 978-1-76061-073-9 http://theeducationshop.com.au 1 I I “A nation found its identity through cinema and so did I; this is my journey through the movies that made our nation”. Australian films matter because they tell Australia’s stories. © ATOM 2017 © ATOM 2 I I In this three-part documentary series respected critic David Stratton tells the story of Australian cinema, focusing on the films that capture the nation’s true nature with candour, emotion and humour. While he adapted to a new country and turned his passion for cinema into a profession as a film festival director and film critic, a growing band of courageous Australians turned their enthusiasm for storytell- ing into an extraordinary body of work. “When I started championing Australian cinema at the Sydney Film Festival I couldn’t have imagined the richness of movies that would follow,” says David. “These are the stories of the films that changed the way the world saw us and how we saw ourselves … a story of how the films and those who made them broke through the status quo.” © ATOM 2017 © ATOM 3 I I DAVID & MARGERET SYNOPSES - series overview Some of Australia’s movie greats help tell this story, includ- • Episode two: Outsiders Australian cinema celebrates ing the actors Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe, Geoffrey the endurance of outsiders: whether the newcomers Rush, Judy Davis, Hugo Weaving, Sam Neill, Rachel in They’re a Weird Mob and Wake in Fright or locals Griffiths, Eric Bana and Jacki Weaver, and the directors out of step with the mainstream in Evil Angels, Muriel’s Gillian Armstrong, George Miller, Fred Schepisi, Bruce Wedding and Priscilla.
    [Show full text]
  • ANA KOKKINOS and the AUDITORY SPECTATOR “I Wanna Tell You That I’M Feeling Closer”
    Screen Sound n3, 2012 ANA KOKKINOS AND THE AUDITORY SPECTATOR “I wanna tell you that I’m feeling closer” Eloise Ross Abstract Ana Kokkinos is an acclaimed director of Australian independent films. Her portrayals of contemporary life in Melbourne, and the delicate rendering of diegetic sound interplayed with score music in her films, create rich film worlds in which her characters—and us as spectators—occupy Melbourne. With a multicultural population of over 4 million, Melbourne is Australia’s second largest city and located in the southern, temperate zone of the continent, and it has a significant profile as a locus for Australian culture, couture and cuisine. Two of Kokkinos’ feature films that paint intimate portraits of the city, Head On (1998) and Blessed (2009), present rich soundscapes that encourage identification not only with the characters but also within the space constructed by camera and soundscape. In both works, diegetic and extra-diegetic sonic moments form layered soundscapes that serve as vectors for emotion, enabling us to identify and empathise with the characters. This emotional engagement builds on the spatial and sensate world of the film, with the soundscapes suggestive of the dynamic relationship our bodies have with comfort and discomfort, belonging and dislocation, movement and silence. The integrated diegetic and extra-diegetic sound tracks encourage relationships with these films in ways connected to reality, and to the cinematic world of Melbourne. Keywords Melbourne cinema, composed and compiled scores, diegetic sound, spectator, audition Introduction As a contemporary Australian filmmaker who has established herself on a local and international scale, with her work featuring abroad at film festivals in the North American and European continents, Ana Kokkinos deserves recognition for her dynamic contribution to the sound of Australian cinema.
    [Show full text]
  • New Queer Greece: Thinking Identity Through Constantine Giannaris's from the Edge of the City and Ana Kokkinos's Head On
    NC_6-3-03-Papanikolaou_080018 12/16/08 8:52 AM Page 183 New Cinemas: Journal of Contemporary Film Volume 6 Number 3 © 2008 Intellect Ltd. Article. English language. doi: 10.1386/ncin.6.3.183/1 New queer Greece: thinking identity through Constantine Giannaris’s From the Edge of the City and Ana Kokkinos’s Head On Dimitris Papanikolaou University of Oxford Abstract Keywords Reading From the Edge of the City and Head On as world examples of New identity Queer Cinema, this article shows how the role they assign to sexuality crucially Greekness inflects their perspectives on diaspora and Greekness. From the Edge of the City diaspora undermines the conventional narrative of successful Greek repatriations by pre- queer senting a group of Russian-Greek young men negotiating both their position Giannaris within Greek society and their framing by a new queer (cinematic) gaze. Head Kokkinos On screens queer desire as a strategy which finally unsettles the traditional space (and the accepted narratives) of Greek-Australia and disrupts the heteronorma- tive temporality of Greek emigrations. Both films thus present us with new understandings of movement and ethnic belonging they suggest genderfuck and nationfuck as positions which dismantle the traditional framing of national and gender identities and propose a new queer(ed) Greece as a fluid space-off for the radical rethinking of identity. In her well-known 1992 article, which named, if not shaped, ‘New Queer Cinema’, Ruby Rich observed the then-increasing interest in the work of independent gay and lesbian film in festivals and other contexts. Among the first examples she gave were Greg Araki’s The Living End (1992), Tom Kalin’s Swoon (1992), Jennie Livingston’s Paris is Burning (1991), Todd Haynes’ Poison (1991), Gus Van Sant’s My Own Private Idaho (1991) and Isaac Julien’s Young Soul Rebels (1991) (all films in English, incidentally).
    [Show full text]
  • Media Release Miff Premiere Fund Supports Victorian
    MEDIA RELEASE MIFF PREMIERE FUND SUPPORTS VICTORIAN FILMMAKERS MELBOURNE: Thursday 24 January 2008 – The Melbourne International Film Festival’s Premiere Fund has announced the four projects in receipt of offers from its second funding round: • BLESSED: Executive Producers: Al Clark, Marian Macgown; Producers: Andrena Finlay, Ana Kokkinos; Director: Ana Kokkinos; Writers: Andrew Bovell, Melissa Reeves, Patricia Cornelius, Christos Tsiolkas. Based on the acclaimed Melbourne play Who’s Afraid of the Working Class?, Blessed, from Head On Director Ana Kokkinos, is an evocative feature film about mothers and children, about love and beauty, about being lost and finding your way home. • THE LOVED ONES: Executive Producer: Bryce Menzies; Producer: Mark Lazarus; Director/Writer: Sean Byrne, a 2007 attendee of MIFF’s Accelerator emerging talent workshop. You don’t have to die to go to hell! The feature debut of Sean Byrne, whose short film Advantage was selected for Sundance 2008, Loved Ones tells the story of a young man In rural Victoria digging himself out his own grave. • ANGEL OF THE WIND Producers: Matt Crosby, Tahir Cambis; Director, Tahir Cambis. An irreverent and magical documentary from the director of Exile In Sarajevo that, through the prism of a surrealist vaudevillian theatrical production concerning the spirits of dead Kamikaze pilots (including chaotic Tokyo rehearsals and mishap-plagued Melbourne performances), explores the world of acting, spirituality, national identity and ghosts of the past. • INDONESIA CALLING – JORIS IVENS IN AUSTRALIA Producer/Director/Writer: John Hughes. A signature documentary charting a little-told angle on the birth of the Indonesian Republic and the impact of Australian unions and foreign policy, a rogue Film Commissioner and an emerging film industry at a moment of crisis at the end of the age of Empire.
    [Show full text]
  • IN CINEMAS OCTOBER 21 108 Minutes
    JUMP STREET FILMS AND SHARMILL FILMS PRESENT IN ASSOCIATION WITH FILM VICTORIA A REVIVAL FILM COMPANY PRODUCTION A RICHARD GRAY PICTURE IN CINEMAS OCTOBER 21 108 minutes www.jumpstreetfilms.com.au www.sharmillfilms.com.au www.summercoda.com SHORT SYNOPSIS A romantic drama set amongst the stunning orange groves of sun-baked Mildura, along the majestic backdrop of the Murray River. Returning home to a family she‟s never known, Heidi (Rachael Taylor) is seeking closure. Busking for cash with her treasured violin, she catches the attention of orange grove owner Michael (Alex Dimitriades) and hitches a ride. Escaping to his orchard after a less than warming reception from her stepmother, Heidi finds unexpected feelings starting to blossom as she settles into work with the colourful citrus pickers. But Michael‟s wit and charm mask a wounded soul, and together they discover that in order to confront the future, their secrets and lives may be better shared. EXTENDED SYNOPSIS Having grown up with her mother in Nevada, Heidi (Rachael Taylor) hasn‟t spoken to her father since she was seven years old. Now a young woman, haunted by his memory, she returns to Australia seeking closure. After touching down in Melbourne, armed with only her violin and little cash, the nostalgic memory of a 7-year-old girl follows Heidi as she embarks on a journey down memory lane — visiting a beloved old neighbour (Jacki Weaver) and busking for a meal at a country roadhouse she once visited with her dad. At the roadhouse, her melancholic score catches the attention of handsome orange picker Michael (Alex Dimitriades) who, despite reservations, offers Heidi a ride when he finds her dangerously hitchhiking on the side of the road.
    [Show full text]