Culture

Film buffs with an eye for the international will be jumping for joy at the launch of the third Taiwan Film Festival in Australia today. Streaming on-demand until July 30, folks across the country can get in on the act digitally (including our locked-down Melbourne fam). The incredible line-up of 19 movies includes Taiwanese filmmaker Hsiao Ya-Chuan’s tip-top trio of features – 2018’s Father to Son, Mirror Image (2000) and 2010 hit Taipei Exchanges. Born in 1967, he began making short films at 21 before shifting into the advertising industry. After shooting a music video with Hou Hsiao-Hsien (The Assassin), Ya-Chuan's return to the feature fold with Mirror Image saw his debut screened at the Cannes Film Festival no less. Taiwan Film Festival director Benson Wu’s theme for this year is ‘Forgotten’, exploring aspects of Taiwanese society that are often overlooked, and the complex layers of immigration that have shaped the country. “We want to challenge stereotypes of Taiwan with films like Boluomi and The Good Daughter,” he says. “We seek to evaluate and reconnect Taiwan’s many forgotten identities and culture through this year’s program.” Directorial duo Lau Kek-Huat and Vera Chen were nominated for Best New Director at Golden Horse Film Festival 2019 for Boluomi, an astonishing look at a dark secret buried in Malaysia’s history. Guerrilla warfare drove many villagers to send their infants away in the hope of securing a better future for them. The feature centres on Boluomi, o

The Randwick Ritz has fired up the projectors and opened its doors in Sydney, as have sister cinemas the Classic, Lido and Cameo in Melbourne. But it is also getting chillier out, so it’s great to have some rainy day options up your puffer jacket sleeve if heading out seems a bit much right now The Jewish International Film Festival continues to bring the goodies direct to your door via its steadily growing video-on-demand platform At Home. If you dug Disclosure on Netflix, the brilliant doco about trans representation in film, you might enjoy JIFF hit Transkids, an insightful documentary series you can stream directly to your living room here.  The five-part miniseries from Peabody Award-winning filmmaker Hilla Medalia was filmed over four years and follows the journeys of four Israeli teenagers as they embrace transitioning. Documenting the hurdles they have to overcome at home, at school and within their friendship circles, Transkids also explores the very idea of unconditional love. JIFF will also present a live, totally free in-conversation event with the director on Sunday, July 12 at 6pm, which you can register for here. As if that weren't cool enough, a further trio of JIFF films available to stream on At Home have director chats up for grabs. Trevor Graham, director of Monsieur Mayonnaise, will be in conversation on Thursday, July 9 at 8pm. You can stream the film here, and register for the free chat here.   Or if you’re keen to hear Danny Ben-Moshe in conversation a

As if pivoting to digital earlier this year wasn’t enough of a filmic treat, the Sydney South African Film Festival is back with more goodies for your weekend movie fix. SSAFF On Demand will showcase 16 hits plucked from the previous two years of cinematic excellence that draws on South Africa’s rich diversity, and its complex political and economical realities. Offering you a second chance to see highlights you might have missed, or ones so good you're itching to see them again, each movies costs $8, or you can grab the lot for the bargain price of $60. The digital platform includes uplifting documentary Beyond Moving. A Billy Elliot story with a South African twist, the film shares the story of Siphe November, a gifted ballet dancer discovered as a boy in the townships. Also in the documentary category, Buddha in Africa offers a revealing look at China’s influence in the region as it follows a Malawian teenager’s upbringing in a Buddhist orphanage. The feature offering includes Oscar-nominated director Angus Gibson’s Back of The Moon, which centres on Sophiatown, the black ghetto in Johannesburg which was the first target for removal by the Apartheid government during the 1950’s. In The Last Victims, another film inspired by the country’s conflict-ridden history, a former member of South Africa’s infamous death squad seeks to atone for his past when he helps one survivor search for the bodies of a missing anti-apartheid cell. Just jump on their website between at Friday, Ju

While the major cinema chains wrestle with what they’re going to do without the major tentpole movies that are their bread and butter, Sydney’s indie picture houses have quietly got on with developing practical solutions as they prepare to open their doors next month. Erected in 1940, the glamorous Art Deco façade Paramount House brought a little bit of golden age Hollywood to Sydney, acting as Paramount Pictures’ HQ though to the ‘70s. These days the Surry Hills highlight houses Paramount House Hotel and, ensconced in the basement, the fabulous Golden Age Cinema and Bar. Its swish timber setting and intimate 56-person capacity was once a major drawcard, attracting cinema-goers with a taste for some of that classic silver-screen glamour. But now that selling-point is a cause for worry for CEO Barrie Barton, who says they’re balancing the “excitement of re-opening with the awful reality that while social distancing is set at four-square metres per person, it will be very difficult for any cinema to survive". How many of my mates can I take to a movie? The reality of these restrictions means cinemas will be operating at around 30% of capacity. So the Golden Age can only accommodate 17 people max. As Barton succinctly puts it: “Bummer.”   Barrie Barton, CEO of the Golden Age Cinema and BarPhotograph: Supplied   Already hosting private screenings and bar bookings at $90-125 per person, they’ll continue that offering when public sessions return mid-July. They also sought to ride