In just a few short weeks, the Melbourne International Film Festival will be back for its 73rd edition, with a program stacked with 250 features, shorts and XR experiences to warm the hearts and minds of the nation's voracious film buffs. We. Can't. Wait.
To get in the MIFF mood as we await the 8 August opening night premiere of Oscar winner Adam Elliot's hotly anticipated Memoir of a Snail, we enlisted MIFF's formidable programmers, Kate Fitzpatrick and Kate Jinx (aka 'The Kates'), to curate a special selection of some past program favourites, for you to stream right now at SBS On Demand.
We love pulling these collections together with you, as a way to surface some of the greats that are ready and waiting to be discovered. How did you arrive at a theme for this year's MIFF showcase at SBS On Demand?
Kate Fitzpatrick: Kate and I discussed the fact that Australian films can oftentimes be overlooked. MIFF has a very dedicated commitment to supporting Australian content, and so we thought a nice extension of that was to put together a collection of Australian films that we think are really great, including a lot of documentaries, which have an extra level of being overlooked.
We think these are all really great films, and we just thought it was a really nice thing to highlight for people that maybe haven't heard of them, or seen them before.
There are some real gems there, alright. And it spans quite a quite a good timeline too.
Kate Jinx: It does. A couple of the films that we chose actually have played twice at the festival: they played originally and then as a restoration, which is kind of cool. We always love putting together those restoration strands and being able to re-highlight films. And it's not that often you get to do it with Australian titles.
Plus, we also wanted to highlight the fact that we do have some pretty major awards for Australian filmmakers in the festival. We of course, have our Bright Horizons award, which is a global competition in which we feature Australian filmmakers. But then we also have the Blackmagic Design Australian Innovation Award, and the First Nations Film Creative Award. The inaugural winner of the First Nations Film Creative Award is in this collection.
Well, that seems an excellent place to start.
Kindred (2023)
Directors: Gillian Moody and Adrian Russell Wills
Kate Jinx: I really love that they describe their bond as being cosmic; there's something just so special about the bond that they share. They've also said that they were like two unicorns finding each other. These two incredible individuals who, through that relationship and friendship that they share, acknowledged: 'This is something so strong within us'. Learning about their own culture and the things that they were deprived of, and it's like they unlock that in within one another, which is pretty special.
Can you reflect on the night it was announced as the inaugural winner of the First Nations Creative Award?
Kate Jinx: It was a pretty momentous occasion, actually. They accepted via video, and it was a really special moment. It was the first time that we had we had been able to include that award, and have the opportunity to give filmmakers $20,000 cash, but also $25,000 worth of financial services. I remember the jury spoke about the total joy of watching these stories and, the honour of acknowledging the creativity of First Nations filmmakers.
Stream free On Demand
Kindred
documentary • 2023
documentary • 2023
Petrol (2022)
Director: Alena Lodkina
Kate Jinx: What a delightful film, I just love this film. It was was so wonderful to be able to include this in the very first year of Bright Horizons as well. It was supported by the MIFF Premiere Fund, of course Alena (Lodkina, writer/director) was part of our Accelerator Lab. Both Kate Fitz, and I were kind of blown away by her first film, Strange Colours. She's just such a dynamic and bold new voice. She's making films that are very different within the landscape of Australian cinema. It was fabulous to see her moving into this very urban story, There's a strange magic to her films: this is the story of a filmmaker who is bewitched by a performance artist, and this kind of weird folie à deux happens between the two of them; a kind of intense friendship is struck up. There's a very performative element to it. I remember the copy that we used on the festival website, was: 'the lovechild of Around The Twist and David Lynch'. I certainly didn't come up with it, but when I read it, I thought, that is so oddly spot on!
Kate Fitzpatrick: Yes, because it's got this thriller, mystery element to it, which works beautifully in the film as well. [Elena] has got such a particular eye as a director. She's really interesting.
Stream free On Demand
Petrol
drama • 2022
drama • 2022
Because We Have Each Other (2022)
Director: Sari Braithwaite
Credit: Jeremy Virag
Kate Fitzpatrick: This is a lovely film and it got a great response from our audience, too. Sari Braithwaite, the director, is so eloquent in talking about the film, and I think it speaks to her prowess as a director, as to the quality of what she gets out of this family of neurodivergent people, because she's got a great warmth to her, and she's a great communicator. I think in the hands of somebody else, it would have been a very different film. She really elicits the best that she can.
Kate Jinx: Totally. She has such a tender and empathetic touch as a filmmaker. I love the observational nature of it, and the whole film really shows a collaboration with the family. They bring so much of themselves to the film and seem so willing to share their stories. It's such a rare kind of film that, like you said, it's as though only she could have made that film.
Stream free On Demand
Because We Have Each Other
documentary • 2022
documentary • 2022
Friends & Strangers (2021)
Director: James Vaughan
Kate Jinx: This is a really sweet story. I think James Vaughan is such a talent. How can I describe it? It's this story of I guess, slackers. You know, these twentysomethings who are in disrupted periods of their lives. They're feeling rudderless, and they're sorting it out. Or trying to. It's funny and it's tender...
Kate Fitzpatrick: ...It's quite awkward [both laugh] but it's done really beautifully in that way. It captures the awkward nature of being in your 20s and perhaps being somewhere (in this case, on a road trip) with someone that you're not quite comfortable with. Those feelings are conveyed really, really well. There are really great performances from the actors as well. They really get that message across in a beautifully awkward way. We can all identify with it!
The Carnival (2023)
Director: Isabel Darling
The Carnival: Elwin Bell. Credit: George Fetting
Kate Jinx: This was really great. The audience really connected to this one, I remember, at the the screenings of it. It's full of all kind of wild tales and big personalities that come with a travelling circus. Essentially it comes in at this point of change and disruption to the family and to their way of life, their family business. There are bushfires raging, the pandemic is setting in. Everything is going downhill. What a time. They have to decide what they're going to do: are they going to continue, and also deal with that generational divide between the dad, who is at the helm of it all, and some of the children, who want a bit more stability. Do you stay in support of family or do you go and seek something out for yourself? it's a really fascinating story, well told.
I know that the director, Isabel (Darling), she also said that she wanted to kind of just run away with them at times! It's a really intimate film as well, since the family involved just gives so much of themselves into this film and to the process.
The Carnival premiered on SBS as part of the Australia Uncovered collection of original documentaries. Explore the full collection
Stream free On Demand
The Carnival
program • documentary
MA15+
program • documentary
MA15+
The Coolbaroo Club (1996)
Director: Roger Scholes
Kate Fitzpatrick: This film was recently restored by the National Film and Sound Archive. We often partner with them each year to present a newly restored work. The club operated from 1946 to 1960, so , even while in the city at large, the Indigenous population was being persecuted and hounded by local police, this was a place of refuge for Indigenous people, to mix and socialise. It was Indigenous-run, but they welcomed everybody. So it was one of the rare venues in the city where white Australians mixed with First Nations Australians, in a safe environment. It's really fascinating. I didn't know anything about it. The footage is really vibrant. They do a lot of recreations, which just give you this great sense of the time and this really unique place that happened, you might say, against the odds. It's really great. It's a great time capsule.
It's such a brilliant story. It would make a great movie! Can't you just imagine the film, The Coolbaroo Club.
Kate Jinx: - or a TV series.
Kate Fitzpatrick: Yes, looking at people's lives who were going there. And what are they dealing with outside the club? Yes, I couldn't agree more.
Kate Jinx: You [NITV and SBS] should commission it.
I know, right? Excuse me while I go and pitch it to the right people now [laughs].
Stream free On Demand
The Coolbaroo Club
program • community • 2007
PG
program • community • 2007
PG
Love In Bright Landscapes (2022)
Director: Jonathan Alley
Kate Jinx: We love, our Music on Film docs at MIFF, that for sure. They're always such a major part of the festival. This was the Premiere Fund film, about The Triffids. Of course. The incredible, incredible, much loved, much missed band.
This was a really big film for us. The best kind of music docs are not just for the fans. They're best when there are multiple access points and I felt this one really had it because even if you only just know the hits, 'Wide Open Road' etc, there's so much to learn. And even if you're a big fan, like, you know, like we all were, it offers so much information. I mean, I had no idea.
Kate Fitzpatrick: David McComb's such an fascinating character in himself, isn't he. And like you say, beyond a fan's fascination, he's a fascinating character outright.
Stream free On Demand
Love in Bright Landscapes
alternative • country • 2021
alternative • country • 2021
Love Serenade (1996)
Director: Shirley Barrett
Oh, I love Love Serenade. Thank you for putting it in the collection, it always deserves time in the spotlight.
Kate Jinx: Absolutely, What a weird, little great film, But more than that, you know what? What an incredible first feature. That is so astounding. It's such an incredible film. I rewatched it a couple of years ago and just was just blown away by it again, like, all over again. Shirley Barrett was such an incredible director. She's so sorely missed. And just, what a way to burst onto the scene! It's so funny, it's so odd, and there's so many kind of like, unexplained, unexplained questions, like, there's so much missing from, like, the minutiae of the story of this film! But it's so rich and it offers so, so much.
Kate Jinx: It's a satirical view of Australia being offered in the '90s. Of course, there were so many incredible films made in that period. It was the real purple patch.
Kate Fitzpatrick: And Miranda Otto! She's just so perfect as this very weird little character that she plays.
And the soundtrack, we can't neglect to mention all the bangers on that soundtrack. Good choice, thanks again.
Head On (1998)
Director: Ana Kokkinos
Credit: Head On
Kate Fitzpatrick: Ana Kokkinos has been such a stalwart of the industry for such a long time and this was a really progressive film for the time that it was made. It's an enduring film; I think people revisit it now, or are introduced to it now, and it's still as contemporary now as it was. Again, another fantastic performance, this time from Alex Dimitriades. The film represents a great marriage between the literary and the film world: it's a really great adaptation [of Christos Tsiolkas' 'Loaded']. We featured it again in our Melbourne on Film program a couple of years ago.
Another Country (2015)
Director: Molly Reynolds
Kate Fitzpatrick: This documentary made by Molly Reynolds featured as part of our focus on David Gulpilil that year, and this was the springboard for that program. It was the new film, and then we screened a retrospective of films he was in, plus a short film that he made. It features David Gulpilil narrating the story about his home community in the Northern Territory, and what happens when cultures intersect, and traditional Aboriginal culture meets white Australian culture. It considers the profound effect it has on both sides, and can do, at least. It was a really beautiful way to start that program, and we had a fantastic 'In Conversation' with Margaret Pomeranz and David, at the Forum, which was totally picked out and, was great to see. We had a really fantastic response to that.
Stream free On Demand
Another Country
documentary • 2015
documentary • 2015
Senses of Cinema (2022)
Directors: John Hughes and Tom Zubrycki
Kate Jinx: This was a MIFF Premiere Fund film as well. What a fascinating time period! When people enter the world of Australian film, you hear about all the film collectives and how great it all used to be. You know, how they was money for people! So it was great to have this documentary, made by people who were really heavily involved and inspired by this time. The absolute archival treasures in this film are amazing. They had such great access to beautiful archival footage of the spaces in Sydney and Melbourne, but also so much paraphernalia. I always love to see paraphernalia of cooperatives in films. It is so rare to be able to see it and, and to have interviews with such legendary Australian film industry figures.
I just thought this was a beautifully pieced together documentary: I liked that it's focus is not just the films and the works that were made, and not just the egos and identities of the filmmakers — although they are many, and they are large — But it also looks at the politics beyond that of the funding bodies, to the larger politics at play as well, not least the Vietnam War, and how that affected these artists. It's inspiring.
Kate Fitzpatrick: And the discussion of gender politics is really interesting, as well, because there's so many women involved in that scene, and it had its own.. problems.
Stream free On Demand
Senses of Cinema
