OnScreen news
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John Safran let loose
John Safran, the smart and entertaining punster from Race Around the World, has been signed by SBSi for a new series screening 2002 on contemporary music. The 10 part series will focus mainly on dance, rap, rock and pop and “stories that perhaps Stuart Littlemore would cover if he hosted Video Hits”. Safran commented: “I’ll be talking to the artists I’ve grown up with, and the ones I’m shaking my butt to now. And it’s going to be very multicultural as well; I’m told one of the guys in Metallica is half-Dutch.” Richard Lowenstein is Executive Producer of the series.
Good news for Oz docos
For the first time ever, SBSi will commission and fully finance a proposal for their provocative Cutting Edge series, which screens Thursdays, 8.30pm. General Manager Glenys Rowe commented: “This initiative will enable production of docos which in the past could not have been made”, providing complete finance of $275,000 for one film to be commissioned before June 2002. It is designed to provide a fast track for subjects which need immediate shooting, without the delay of the usual financing timeframe. SBSi welcomes proposals from creative teams that include writers and directors skilled in drama, as well as documentary filmmakers. Amy Frasca, SBSI Documentary Co-ordinator,
02 9430 3915,
Cannes Palme D’or winner at Italian Film Festival
Nanni Moretti’s The Son’s Room will close the second Italian Film Festival. A big success last year, the festival will screen this year at Palace Norton St and Palace Academy Twin in Sydney, October 10-24, before travelling to Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane in October/November. Other films screened will include Malena (Cinema Paradiso director Giuseppe Tornatore), The Last Kiss, Honolulu Baby (The Icicle Thief director Maurizio Nichetti) and Placido Rizzotto, based on a true story about the murder of a trade union leader by the mafia in Sicily.
Screentour – planning resource for exhibition touring
In May 2001, Media Resource Centre (MRC) in Adelaide gained funding from AFC to further develop Screentour, an online planning database for those involved in screen-based exhibition touring throughout Australia. The database has 3 functions: to provide a ‘one stop shop’ for programmers wishing to research and secure screen-based touring programs; to provide partnership opportunities for programs in development; and to provide date and location information about upcoming tours to prevent scheduling clashes and encourage longer-term planning.
Cinema Sprints on again
The Glen Eira Film Festival, November 9-11, is once again holding its Cinema Sprints program, which features shorts from 30 seconds to 3 minutes. If you want to watch or participate, contact Rosanna Verde, Festival Coordinator,
Daisy Bates at the Adelaide Festival
Pre-production has begun on 26 Hooks and Eyes, a South Australian Film Corporation-funded short film based on the life of Daisy Bates. A series of vignettes will link the past to the present, “a dramatic map of obsession and the colonial imagination.” A collaboration between the Adelaide Festival Corporation and SBSi, the film will premiere at the Adelaide Festival 2002.
Local NSW film events
Project Contemporary Art Space is staging a film retrospective and exhibition, A Century of Cinema, in Wollongong, showing archival footage including tourist promotion films, industrial films, short films, amateur productions and old newsreel footage. Movie-house memorabilia, photographs and lectures will accompany the screenings. The films will be screened October 13-20 in Wollongong and most sessions are free. A full program is available in October. 02 4226 6546, . Meanwhile on the other side of Sydney, Screen Me! The Blue Mountains Short Film Festival, Katoomba Scenic Railway, March 14, is looking for interesting works of all genres under 15 minutes. They are particularly keen on animation and documentary. Deadline December 14.
02 4782 9976
And the AWGIE goes to…
John Romeril celebrated a double win at the AWGIES this year. As screenwriter for One Night the Moon, he took home awards in the Telemovie Original Category and was presented with the 2001 Major Award (along with Rachel Perkins). The hosts of the night HG Nelson and Rampaging Roy Slaven also won the Fred Parsons Award for a Special Contribution to Australian Comedy. Other scripts honoured included Lantana (Andrew Bovell), Mullet (David Caesar), Australians at War (Geoff Burton), Wee Jimmy (Stephen Mitchell) and The Secret Life of Us (Christopher Lee).
RealTime issue #45 Oct-Nov 2001 pg. 23
