DNSW
Conversations

The Weight Of Destiny, On-Screen And Off

Sarah Ward

Conversations

Place in Australian Genre Film

Samuel Harris

The sprawling, sun-battered landscape is an icon of the Australian genre film. Scan some of the most popular fare: there’s a reckoning with the (waste)land in George Miller’s MAD MAX franchise and David Michôd’s THE ROVER (2014), where the supposedly barren ‘outback’ has been rendered post-apocalyptic.
Conversations

Australian Cinema – Reality Checked

Glen Falkenstein

The most terrifying thing about film is that it’s all already happened. Sure, stories are original, full of things we or sometimes no one has ever seen before; yet every event in some form, in some place has already transpired.

Conversations

Pleasure And Pain

Georgia Imfeld

A portrait of women’s interiority, Miranda Nation’s Undertow explores female power and vulnerability in a landscape of loss.
DNSW
Conversations

The Nightingale And The Language Of Violence

Daniel Lammin

It’s not possible to be passive about Jennifer Kent’s THE NIGHTINGALE. In fact, the film itself makes it impossible. It knows you’re there, knows you’re watching. It looks you square in the eye and dares you to flinch as it depicts the deepest pain, deepest loss and deepest anger. Maybe this is why so many have found it difficult to get through.
Conversations

A Living Hell: Australian Landscapes On Screen

Tara Judah

Australian cinema has a history of celebrating reckless men. Mythic, real or fictional, from Ned Kelly and Mad Max to Adam Cullen, there’s a fascination with outlaws. Be it endless bush and marshland or the barren plains of The Outback, Australia’s non-urban, often unforgiving landscapes provide perfect reflection of the characters they condemn. Outlaws or outliers, these characters are narcissists, trying to win a fight for survival against the elements, and thus, themselves.
Conversations

The Inner Sanctum

Lesley Chow

Watching Samuel Van Grinsven’s SEQUIN IN A BLUE ROOM is like reading THE STORY OF O for the first time: an induction into a sensual world, exploring all of its pleasures, hierarchies and structures. While Van Grinsven’s film is set in contemporary Sydney, where men hook up via a Grindr-like app, its presentation of an erotic scene is nothing less than awed.