What on earth is going on at the Sydney Film Festival?

Mark Sarfaty, the recently appointed chief of the Sydney Film Festival, has resigned from his position just one year after his appointment, Inside Film has reported.

This is extraordinary news considering the festival is going through Chief Executives almost as quickly as Italy changes government.

Reading like the book of Genesis, Sarfaty, previous head of Dendy Cinemas, replaced Fiona Cameron who was in the role for just three months and took over from Clare Stewart who took on the role not long after she took on the role of Artistic Director when Tony Grierson departed after he replaced Jennifer Naughton.

Is it just a case of bad luck or are there undue pressures from sponsors, the board or from staff within? They certainly didn't have a particularly fun year after their program was cut short by a week due to global financial pressures.

So what keeps that door revolving?

Keep your eyes peeled for their annual report release later this year and whether its good or bad news. A good litmus test is to see whether its bad or not is to see how close to Christmas Day the Annual Report is made public.

I can't shed any light on what's happening down at the festival even though I worked at the SFF in 2006 in the marketing and publicity departments as a mere foot soldier with a group of great colleagues.

Next!

Who's Who in Creative Sydney?

For your interest...

Creative Sydney is a new festival of ideas that gives creative people the platform to discuss how we can make Sydney the best place in the world to create new film, art, design, music, technology, events and more.

It is part of Vivid Sydney, a unique new public festival featuring Luminous music festival at Sydney Opera House, Smart Light Sydney and Fire Water. Vivid Sydney is one of five anchor events in the first ever NSW Master Events Calendar created by Events NSW on behalf of the NSW Government.

And there will be a festival celebrating the wealth and diversity of the city’s creative talents from May 27- June 13.

As part of that Creative Sydney will be recognising the outstanding talent we have in Sydney; artists, performers and producers, and the people working behind the scenes to build the culture of our city.

They’re applauding the work of 100 Creative Catalysts, individuals who have developed original projects, products or services within their creative field, and who inspire and support other creative people.

And they want your input. Who inspires you? Creative Sydney is open to suggestions as they compile the Creative Catalysts list. They could be friends or peers, people you admire or icons you want to emulate.

Post your nominations on Facebook by April 3.

Register for the newsletter for updates and full launch details at http://creativesydney.com.au/

Follow on Twitter: http://twitter.com/creativesydney


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For the purposes of Creative Sydney the creative industries include: advertising, architecture, visual art, computer software & web development, design (interior, graphic, object), fashion, photography, film, video, animation, performing arts, music, literature and publishing, radio and television, crafts and video games.

The river runs dry

As the Murray River - the natural border between New South Wales and Victoria - dries up, it seems that state borders are also breaking down. Well, in arts policy anyway.

Today in Crikey an interesting anonymous tip arrived;
Arts Victoria funding announcement is scheduled to be released this Friday. Several arts organisations that do really good work, highly respected, genuinely tick all the boxes for Australian content, developing young artists, building partnerships, have got the knife. This follows on from some severe bloodletting in the Australia Council funding announcements earlier this year. Some organisations that are rumoured to be defunded this year include Chambermade Opera, Astra, Ballet Lab, Elision (not able to be verified till after Arts Vic announcement).

Lots of disquiet and anger amongst the arts community which is waiting for the government injunction on Friday to lift following the announcement so that they start raising hell. Regarding the Australia Council, a strange Sydney focus and a big conservative lean. In Arts Vic, a sudden-death change in tune to organisations who were given assurances six months ago that all was well and now have had the plug pulled with no wind-down plan or valid explanation of why evaluations have changed. Several orgs are likely to fold, and others have dramatic staff, admin and programming cuts to face up to. A real kick in the guts to Australian culture and a worryingly cavalier attitude to sustainable art-making from the arts bodies.


There's three points to this argument that get lost amongst the general howling that goes on whenever there is some major funding changes.

Firstly, when is the arts industry going to learn to lobby governments as a united front? This constant justification for funding cloaked in terms of educational/community/social benefits instead of pushing the old fashioned we are here and we need to be funded line is extraordinarily divisive. This is not to mention the amount of back-stabbing that goes on behind closed doors whenever an organisation gets the ear of a Minister - 'they get lots of money, why don't we get some of that' type of tactic.

We must be the only industry in the country that lobbies the government like this and other industries representing anything from mining to banking to education wouldn't be caught dead playing those types of tactics.

Secondly, eventually there needs to be some clearing away of the deadwood so that emerging artists, practitioners and organisations get a turn at the funding pie (not that all the above companies are deadwood). But there needs to be a reality check from many organisations that maybe their time is up. Often a group will get funding for say ten years and what they were proposing back in 1998 hasn't really changed a decade later. And it's a funding pie that everyone seems to take for granted. I have seen on industry bulletin boards straight up whinging and moaning when a company does get funding that it is a) not enough b) too little too late or c) not the right type of funding.

And finally, surely it must be time to examine the rift that exists between the major performing arts companies (AMPAG) and the rest of the industry. This shouldn't just be couched in financial terms but also within the creative. Partnerships need to be established far more often that what they are and they must be across all platforms.

It really shouldn't be a surprise when the Australia Council, Arts NSW or Arts Victoria shake things up a bit. Shouldn't we be innovative enough to keep a bit ahead of the game?

Review: Du levande

De levande (You, the living)
A film by Roy Andersson

"Be pleased then, you the living, in your delightfully warmed bed, before Lethe’s ice-cold wave will lick your escaping foot.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe


A man lies asleep on a small sofa in an apartment until he is woken from a terrible dream where he sees hundreds of bomber planes flying towards him.

A depressed woman wearing a leather jacket and leopard skin prints sits on a park bench in the middle of the city. Next to her is her overweight boyfriend with their little dog. As she sucks furiously on a cigarette, she pleads with them to go away because 'no one understands me'.

A pretty young girl sees one of her local rock idols in a pub and summons the courage to speak to him.

A psychaiatrist explains to us the sadness in his life as he has had to treat his patients over the years. He doesn't like them.

A muslim barber takes revenge on a racist client.

In the city an enormous thunderstorm arrives with lightning and rain drenching the building and streets as its people look to the sky and observe it coming down.

Shot with an austere, almost white-wash colour grade, this is one of the best films I have seen for a long while, not merely for its style but its menacing humour and awe-inspiring characters and scenes.

This is a movie, as the title says, about 'you, the living'. All of us in our habitats, all of us together and all of us alone.


There are many, many characters in the movie and all of them, they are representing themselves, of course, as individuals but they are also representing the human being and that's why I also want them to be not too individual, because I paint them. They have the white faces so they are more similar to each other. As a clown circus is always white and he's represents humanity, the human being.

Roy Andersson, interview with David Stratton


In one way, this is a theatrically delicious film full of the best of everything you want but rarely get from the stage. The sublety of movement, the structure of the direction, the tone, the mood, the plain speaking text, the characterisations and the brilliance of the intricate mise-en-scene.

This is a film of an epic quality, and quite frankly, I could go on and on and on and on about it....

So, do yourself a favour - go and see this film with a very good friend and a champagne in your hand. Because by god, you'll want more champagne after the film and a bloody good chat.

Nothing like a bit of a re-hash

The Daily Telegraph must be short of arts articles as well as the Herald. Today they have decided to re-hash a news item that the SMH first broke in February.

Nearly seven months on and their film editor, Vicki Roach, pulls out a good old copy job as a news item on page 19.

This must be welcome news for arts and entertainment publicists, because it is now official - your target journalists are running out of ideas and stories. If they have room to reproduce old stories then they surely have room to get some fresh items out there as well.

If I were you, I would hit them up big time this week and next. You could even start your conversation along the lines of, "I hear you need some stuff to write about. Well, have I got a story for you... and better still, it's new!"

Can someone please....

Write a movie about this woman?


Image: News Ltd.

Review: The Pillowman at Company B and In Bruges at Sydney Film Festival

The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh
Company B

In Bruges written and directed by Martin McDonagh
Sydney Film Festival


Martin McDonagh is flavour of the month in Sydney at the moment. Not only are you able to catch Company B's excellent production of the 2003 play The Pillowman, but over this weekend you can also catch the Australian premiere of his debut feature In Bruges at the Sydney Film Festival.

For fans of his dark and brutal writing, there couldn't be two better reasons to get out into the wet and wild winter that Sydney is having at the moment. Just don't take anyone who is slightly sensitive to what one might call 'rich' language because from some reports people are walking out of the theatre production. This is not to mention the people I witnessed who got up in disgust from the film.

Doesn't it just give you the warmest feeling to know that people still get up and leave 'shocking theatre'? And it happens despite all the protective cushioning dressed up as warning signs that now plague our theatres.

So I will give it to you clearly. Martin McDonagh's plays are filthy rich in swearing, as he litters the text with feck this and feck that like confetti over a bride and groom.

The shame of it, for those that leave, is that the swearing is the least shocking element of his plays (or film for that matter). He has an elegantly forceful way of placing very normal people in extraordinary, absurd and violent situations that ask the big questions of personal responsibility, fate and choice. And despite the heightened situation it is all beautifully placed within the realms of possibility.

In The Pillowman, we meet Katurian K. Katurian (Damon Herriman), a writer living in a police state, somewhere, sometime with his mentally affected brother Michal (Steve Rogers). It smells instantly of the world of Winston Smith as the play opens up with Katurian interrogated by good-cop Tupolski (Marton Csokas) and bad-cop Ariel (Dan Wyllie).

Central to the allegations are some short stories which Katurian has written that depict violent scenes and violent deaths of children. A string of unsolved murders in the town similar to the stories as well as the toes of a child discovered in Katurian's home leads him to become the prime suspect.

Although the play is set within the confines of the interrogation rooms the stories of Katurian are told throughout, taking you to dark fairytale worlds of his imagination. But the dark fairytale soon becomes a reality as the childhood of Katurian and Michal expose a fractured and unresolved past.

Director Craig Illott has crafted a stylish and honourable production for Company B and along with designers Nicholas Dare, Jo Briscoe, Niklas Pajanti and Jethro Woodward they have created a world that does not overstate but passionately delivers the reality and fantasy of the worlds.

What is most beautiful, aside from the excellent performances from one of the strongest casts to be ensembled in Sydney this year, is the simple story-telling that has you enraptured like a child.

It was then an unexpected delight to then find myself walking into the State Theatre just yesterday to witness the Australian premiere of In Bruges directed and written by McDonagh in his first venture into the world of feature films.

Ray (Colin Farrell) and Ken (Brendan Gleeson) are hitmen who have suddenly had to hot-foot it to the Flemish town of Bruges at the order of their gangster boss (Ralphes Fiennes) after an accident. Waiting for 'the call' to give them the all clear, Ray despairs at the thought of having to spend two weeks in the 'shithole' of Bruges while his older companion delights in the medieval history, the canals, cobble-stone streets and the beautiful tower of the city.

Ray explains to Ken, "I grew up in Dublin. I love Dublin. If I grew up on a farm, and was retarded, Bruges might impress me but I didn't, so it doesn't."

And so it goes, with Ray despairing over his 'accident' until he stumbles across a film set in the alcoves of Bruges where he meets the stunning Chloe (Clémence Poésy).

The performances by Farrell and Gleeson are spot on as they wrap the delicious one-liners around their tongues, playing brilliantly off each other.

It's interesting to see McDonagh translate his writing style to the world of film. His biting dark humour, the swearing, the politically incorrect comments and the violence are all there. So too is his trademark ability to ask those questions of personal responsibility.

But somehow, his transition into film loses a certain something. Within the beautiful realm of theatre, it is his unique strength of conjuring up worlds and people outside the four walls that makes him such a stunning playwright. The theatre is a place where he can let loose his imagination onto the audience and create a pressure cooker of tension as the outside forces bear down on the stage.

In film, he has found the restrictions and is forced to re-create the reality of his imagination and show all his cards. Don't get me wrong, this is a fantastic film that is a hilarious and brilliant ride but for those who have followed his stage work, there is that missing element.

But then again, maybe that's the nature of the film beast.


The Pillowman - Directed by Craig Ilott Set design Nicholas Dare Costume design Jo Briscoe Sound design Jethro Woodward Lighting design Niklas Pajanti. Cast: Amanda Bishop, Marton Csokas, Lauren Elton, Damon Herriman, Steve Rodgers, David Terry and Dan Wyllie.

Images:
Top - Dan Wyllie and Damon Herriman. Photo- Heidrun Lohr
Bottom - Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell

STC is getting down and dirty

I have received two really interesting press releases from the Sydney Theatre Company in as many weeks.

From their first release, the company is taking the bold step and putting on late night live music down at their Dickson Street home. It is billed as "a new regular series of free post-show gigs".

It's good that this sort of stuff is starting to happen in our performance spaces around the city and it is great that the STC is taking the lead. I just wish it was more regular and more widespread.

The first gig was last weekend and showcased Justine Clarke and The Kents who performed "a distilled blend of 60s jazz, pop and bossa".

There will be another gig in a month's time, so contact the STC if you want more info.

The second release which they sent out today really cheered my soul - and thank god finally, finally, finally someone is putting this film on!

I paste the release for you below.

STCinema
presents

The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark

Saturday 28 June at 1.30pm
Sydney Theatre
All tickets $10

STCinema returns in June when Sydney Theatre and Bell Shakespeare co-present Poor Theatre’s acclaimed cinematic adaptation of Hamlet.

Filmed in the back streets of Melbourne, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark played to sell-out crowds at the 2007 Melbourne International Film Festival and earlier this year Malthouse Theatre hosted a season of encore screenings.

Directly following the screening at Sydney Theatre, there will be a panel discussion featuring Marion Potts (currently directing Bell Shakespeare’s interpretation of Hamlet), Oscar Redding, the director of Poor Theatre’s The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark and actor/director Jeremy Sims, who took on both the title role and the role of director in Pork Chop Productions’ memorable theatre production.

STCinema’s screening of The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark follows successful screenings last year of Riflemind-related films curated by Andrew Upton and Philip Seymour Hoffman and Sydney Theatre’s Australian premiere screening of I’m Not There.


Venue Sydney Theatre, 22 Hickson Road, Walsh Bay
Date Saturday 28 June 2008 at 1:30pm
Cost All tickets $10

Bookings (02) 9520 1999 or sydneytheatre.org.au


If you can recall Theatre Notes raved about this film which is a pretty good impetus.


Image: Beth Buckanan (Ophelia) & Richard Pyros (Hamlet)

But what on earth is it?

I think it is absolutely marvellous that the Sydney Film Festival has hurled itself into the 21st Century by establishing an official film competition.

The Sydney Morning Herald has reported that the Sydney Film Prize, worth $60,000 is the biggest in Australia.

I have stolen a photo of festival director Clare Stewart holding the prize from the Herald website (sorry). But the question has to be asked.... what on earth is that award supposed to be?

Some smarty-pants sub-editor at the Herald called it a Blue Pavlova.

The look on Stewart's face seems to be crying out 'Do I really have to eat this?!'

The Sydney Film Festival website calls the prize "a unique award created by Dinosaur Designs, pictured above".

'Unique' is certainly a word for it. Hideous could be another.

Don't get me wrong - I am a big fan of Dinosaur Designs, having bought numerous things from them over the years. But this award, it almost looks edible or maybe an oversized brooch that a friend has brought home from a community college class.

I think it could also be an excellent feature next to a pool. Surrounded by terracotta, it could be stunning.

But lets look at the practicality. Suppose it is handed over to a prize-winner, they hold it up into the air, the blue rocks reflecting into the crowd. They then go home, exhilarated that they now have $60,000 and a trophy.

The question then gets asked - where can I put it. It will roll off a mantle piece. If you put it on a table, people might think it's a big coaster. You can't put it in the bathroom, just in case someone uses it as a soap dish.

What do you do?

Now there's a short film plot, if ever I saw one. What's the theme for Tropfest next year??

Image credit: Tamara Dean, Fairfax Media

No wonder they're crawling all over...

Just in case you missed the Sydney Theatre Company "documentary", In the Company of Actors, you will be delighted to know that the ABC are airing it tonight at 8.30pm.

The blurb on the website explains;

In raw and intimate detail the documentary takes the audience behind the curtains to observe the actors immersed in the creative process. We discover that presenting a seemingly effortless performance is a complex, detailed, technical and exhaustive process, with the director Robyn Nevin, writer Andrew Upton, and their teams of artists and technicians working 18-hour days. As we enter their world, we feel and understand their deeply ingrained love of theatre and their passion for telling stories.

Oh, I nearly forgot... there is also the review I wrote when I first saw it at the premiere last year HERE.

So get your mates together, get comfortable on the couch with your red wine and popcorn and sit down for the big event. You could even do a Eurovision type thing and even dress up. The possibilities are endless!

Review: To Be Romeo & Juliet

To Be Romeo and Juliet
A film by Robert Schlaht
Canadian Film Festival

For anyone who was disappointed with the less-than-revealing Sydney Theatre Company documentary In the Company of Actors which premiered this year, you will be pleased to know that there is a new film out there that sets the standard for arts documentaries.

To Be Romeo & Juliet, a new movie from film-maker Robin Schlaht is showing tomorrow afternoon as part of the Canadian Film Festival at Chauvel Cinema, Paddington.

I was lucky enough to be sent a copy of the doco a couple of weeks ago, and to my great surprise, I discovered a film that is raw, revealing and revelatory.

Without the promotional-like gloss of In the Company of Actors this documentary digs deep into the process of creating theatre by travelling with three sets of companies all staging productions of Romeo & Juliet.

One group is an amateur group based in England led by a director that tends to be all talk and no action. He becomes uncomfortable as the young actors playing Romeo and Juliet clearly need help in adding lust and passion to their roles. Indeed at one stage he suggests they go off to practice on their own.

The footage then switches to the young actresses bedroom, where the two young performers are left to their own devices as they try and become accustomed to the physical intimacy that they think that they need. Adolescent hormones, naivety and total lack of directorial leadership twist and turn their emotions as they become lost in the rehearsal process.

Meanwhile, the documentary skates across to Canada where a youth theatre production of R&J is under way. With teenagers on a holiday camp, they only have a few weeks to get the show up. The patience of the director to get the best out of his young charges who face the simple frustration of learning lines and working out how to play the characters while still remaining cool, is a testament to his professionalism.

Heading further afield, the film then looks at a professional production from the National Theatre of Chile. The scene opens up as the large ensemble ignore their scripts and hurl themselves at each other to create that sense of ensemble. Physical boundaries are immediately broken down as they push boundaries of theatricality to get to the heart of the director’s vision.

The delight of this film is that it not only documents the working process of each of the productions, but also throws in for good measure, the highs and lows of mistakes, ego’s and lost causes. The intimacy of the footage that Schlaht gets is phenomenal as the subjects of the documentary become accustomed to his constant presence.

It is the type of documentary that will make those familiar with the industry take another look at the cross section of process through the three levels. For those that are unaccustomed with the rehearsal process behind theatre is nothing short of revelatory.

If you have tomorrow afternoon free, I recommend you head to Paddington and catch this most worthwhile film.


The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Robin Schlaht and drinks for the opening his new photography exhibition in the Chauvel mezzanine.

1st of December 2007, 2:00 pm - Chauvel Cinema

Terrorist Busters

The image of the terrorist buster logo from the CIA website that Crikey reproduced today was just too much for me to resist.

Picturing President Bush, Prime Minister Howard and Paul Wolfowitz as the daft but lovable Venkman, Stantz and Spengler can’t be a missed opportunity.

One by one, Bush, Wolfowitz and Howard come down the tightly winding, old iron staircase. They are scared. Books are strewn all over the floor.

The books start to slide forward then the whole shelving unit topples over and almost crushes the team under a ton of books. They jump to safety.

BUSH
Nice.
(out loud)
Hello...

WOLFOWITZ looks at his meters and silently points at a dark aisle intersecting the one they're in. The team inches toward it.

WOLFOWITZ
It's here.

They stop at the corner.

The team peeks around the corner and looks toward camera.

An ethereal Osama bin Laden like presence is hovering between the stacks about four feet off the ground. It seems to waver on the edge of being and non-being, then a large legless, headless torso begins to emerge.

BUSH, HOWARD and WOLFOWITZ stand there amazed.

HOWARD
(whispers)
What is it?

BUSH
It looks like a big pair of breasts and a pot belly.

A head and arms begin to form. The apparition is now unmistakably a full-bodied, somewhat elderly Osama bin Laden, tinted beard and all.

WOLFOWITZ
It's Osama.

He edges closer to take valence readings. HOWARD starts snapping infra-red photos of it.

HOWARD
(excited)
I told you it's real.

BUSH
(whispers)
What do we do now?

HOWARD
(whispers back)
I don't know. Talk to it.

BUSH
(nods in agreement then
hesitates)
What do I say?

HOWARD
Anything! Just make contact.

BUSH
(takes a deep breath, then
addresses the specter)
Hey, Osama?
(the apparition turns and
seems to look right past
them)
Osama! Can you talk? Who are you?
(no answer)
(to HOWARD)
This is not working. Think of something else.

HOWARD
(sotto voce)
Okay. Okay. I got it. I know what to do.
Stay close. I have a plan.

He starts moving closer to the apparition. BUSH and WOLFOWITZ edge closer, fighting their fear. They stop just a few feet from the vision.

HOWARD (CONT'D)
(whispers)
Okay, now do exactly as I say. Everybody
ready?

BUSH & WOLFOWITZ
Ready.

HOWARD
Okay...
(shouts)
GET HIM!!!

He leaps at the apparition. BUSH and WOLFOWITZ jump reflexively at almost the same moment but they all end up on the floor grabbing at thin air.

Osama drops back a few feet, looms up into a raging demon like specter and blasts them with a rush of hot breath as he mouths a single word.

THE GHOST
(roars)
QUIET!

BUSH, HOWARD and WOLFOWITZ scream and fall backwards.

They burst through the doors and onto the broad steps, terrified and exhilarated by their first real contact with the supernatural. Tony Blair rushes out the door after them and chases them down the steps.

TONY BLAIR
(very agitated)
Did you see it? What was it?

BUSH
We'll get back to you.

How embarrassing

Did not qualify. Last. Sixth. Did not qualify. Did not qualify. Last. Fifteenth. If you saw the look on the faces of the SBS presenters including Jane Flemming and Les Murray during the closing ceremony of the Athletics Championships in Osaka you would know what I was talking about. It looked like something had dropped on them from a great height and it wasn’t gold.

The Australian athletics team delivered what is probably one of the worst performances at an international meet in recent memory and we are now only eight months out from the Beijing Olympics.

The Australian Sports Commission, the Federal Government’s agency responsible for implementing the national sports policy released figures that showed that the Australian taxpayer spent $6.3 million on athletics in the last financial year.

More than $580,000 was spent specifically for the lead up to the Osaka meet which was to allow “medal potential athletes and their coaches to spend more time in Europe for valuable training and competition in the all-important European Grand Prix circuit events”.

It’s no wonder that the SBS Commentary team was totally lost for words.

It appears that many other commentators are also lost for words. Andrew Bolt, Tim Blair and Piers Akerman who are always quick to condemn failures in the arts sector have been deathly silent about the abysmal failure of the athletics squad.

As recently as June, Tim Blair led a scathing attack on arts funding in NSW by suggesting that if the health sector is in such a bad shape, maybe they should apply for arts funding grants. “Health department needs a big slice of this action. It should be easy enough; application forms are available online and Arts NSW has lots of cash to throw around,” he said in The Daily Telegraph.

Blair has also made consistent attacks on performing arts groups, such as Circus Monoxide, a troupe that travels around regional NSW entertaining kids and families referring to the performers as ‘creatively unemployable’.

Bolt has similarly condemned publicly funded arts programs, most notably the Melbourne International Arts Festival and Piers Akerman consistently takes aim at the ABC.

Central to all of their arguments is that ‘your’ dollar is being wasted and that any failure by artists or arts organizations is wasteful. This is surely remarkable double standards by commentators such as Blair, Bolt and Akerman.

Imagine the contempt they would have for Opera Australia, the Sydney Theatre Company or any other arts organization if performers gave the same excuses as the athletes did in Osaka

Australia’s best sprinter, Josh Ross was reported to have been afflicted by homesickness, depression and was too fragile to compete at his best and ended up coming home early without any success.

Other athletes used similar excuses of not having done enough preparation or hadn’t done the right preparation. If an opera singer in any major Opera Australia production had been in a similar predicament and suddenly sung off key due to a ‘lack of preparation’ abuse would be hurled at them from audiences, it would be critically slammed by the mainstream media and commentators would be quick to draw blood.

The Australian public expects a lot of our professional sports men and women and many of us share the highs and lows without a hint of antagonism towards the public sponsorship which aims for excellence on the world stage.

Attacks by commentators on artists or arts organizations if placed on agencies such as the Australian Institute of Sport would see them quickly face the wrath of the Australian public. Somehow, abusing artists is an easier point scoring tactic but is just as less justified.


Image credit: Jupiter images

Agent disappears with actors money

The hard earned dollars of potentially hundreds of film and television actors has gone missing after a Queensland based talent agent appointed a liquidator last week.

Pacific Artists Management (PAM), run by Jillian Rollo with assistant Stefanie Parry, was representing actors in NSW for several years illegally and without a license.

"The problem is a regulatory one," said Simon Whipp of the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, the union which has been investigating Rollo and Parry for over four years.

"You don’t need a license to run an actors agency in Queensland, but in NSW you need to register with the Office of Industrial Relations before you start trading," he said.

One actor who has been affected by the dealings of Rollo and Parry is Charlotte Gregg, an up and coming actor who recently starred in a feature film that premiered at the Brisbane International Film Festival.

"I was with her for several years as she represented me while I was in Queensland and then when I moved to Sydney," she said.

"There were always inconsistencies with what I was earning and what I was actually being paid. I would chase up money months later only to be told by Jillian that ‘the production company has gone bust and we can’t pay you’."

"She was also charging me 'administration fees' which she wasn’t supposed to be doing. Thankfully the union got some money back for me earlier this year but there are other amounts of money that I don’t think that I will ever receive."

Others are less likely to recoup any of the losses estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands with a further twenty actors filing as creditors in the last week and with one individual actress owed nearly $30,000.

It seems, however, that the forced closure of the agency hasn't stopped the pair to continue representing actors. A union representative informed Arts Hub that as recently as July, Rollo's assistant Stefanie Parry registered two more companies through ASIC, Performing Artists Management (PAM) and Entertainment Playhouse at exactly the same address as the now liquidated company.

An article from last month in their local newspaper said that Parry was now looking for "Vietnamese, Malaysian, Indonesian and Islander extras for the film Nim's Island, which is to star Jodie Foster and Abigail Breslin". According to corporations law it is perfectly legal for Rollo to now work under the umbrella of her junior assistant’s company.

Another actor, Barton Ware, who stars in the Government’s Ice drug campaign advertisement, is owed over $5,000 by PAM.

"We filmed the advertisement in mid-May and I started calling Jillian towards the end of June only to have none of my calls returned or emails answered. After a while I did some research only to find out other actors in other agency’s had been paid," he said.

It's a familiar story for many Sydney and Brisbane based actors and the union deems that actors should be paid within six to eight weeks of doing a job and that agents must pay their actors within ten working days of receiving payment.

One source said that it was a disgrace that Rollo and Parry should get away without paying money to struggling actors, especially when "Jillian [Rollo] is currently putting in a pool".

Neither Rollo nor Parry returned any phone calls.

As published in Arts Hub


Image Credit: descramble/flickr

What?! Another forum...

Yes ladies and gentlemen - when one isn't sure how to do something, having a forum on it seems to be de rigeur in Sydney at the moment.

And I hereby announce another forum - yes another one - but this time with the Shadow Arts Minister, Mr Peter Garrett.

Here is the article I wrote in Arts Hub today:

Shadow Arts Minister Peter Garrett's nationwide artist forums will make their way to Sydney after a successful session in Melbourne last Sunday, where over 200 practitioners and stakeholders gathered.

"There was an excellent turn out of local artists and the discussion was lively and passionate, just as you would expect," said Mr Garrett.

"A number of key points were made by artists and we'll certainly be looking to incorporate that feedback into our policy deliberations over the coming months."

In what has been deemed by many as the first serious engagement by a Federal minister with artists from the ground-level, the forums hope to give artists and arts advocates the opportunity to voice their concerns and hopes for the future of Australia’s cultural life.

The forum in Sydney follows a successful City Talk hosted by Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore that looked at the creative future vision for the city. That event attracted over 1000 people.

Garrett said the forums were an important component of the Australian Labor Party’s programme of connecting with artists and involving practitioners in determining arts policy.

After previous ALP policies, particularly Creative Nation which received criticism from both within and outside the artistic communities, it will be vital that these forums inform the Shadow Arts Minister of the changes required to further advance the artistic industries.

"As the Shadow Arts Minister it's vital to hear what artists working in our community have to say on the issues that affect them," explained Garrett. "'Your Shout' is a chance for those artists to have their opinions heard and considered."


** This forum has been postponed until further notice**

And then...

It has just come down the Associated Press wire that Ingmar Bergman has also died.

Bergman, who was 89, died at his home on the Swedish island of Faro, The Guardian has said.

This is a sad loss for the theatre and film worlds internationally. There is a lovely post by Peter Bradshaw who compares Bergman isolation on the island to that of Prospero - 'yet without having broken his staff'.

Watch as the Swedish nation mourns one of their most revered artists.

RIP Ingmar Bergman.

Image: Britannica

RIP Ulrich Mühe

I am really saddened to hear that Ulrich Muhe passed away on the weekend. The marvellous actor from the brilliant The Lives of Others had stomach cancer and died aged 54.

Guardian obituary here.

Der Spiegel online here.

The Hedda Complex

Ian Darling, film maker, appeared on Sunday night at the Sydney Film Festival to present the new documentary that he has directed and produced, In the Company of Actors, which follows the Sydney Theatre Company’s preparations to tour the production of Hedda Gabler to New York’s Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Darling, also an investment services professional, described himself as new to the world of film and failed to mention to a packed State Theatre that he is now Chairman of the Sydney Theatre Company. He runs his own film company, Shark Island productions, and told the audience that it was a privilege to have been allowed into the rehearsal room to film the documentary. At the presentation Darling announced that a charitable organisation, The Caledonia Foundation, an arm of Caledonia Investments of which he is Executive Director, had generously decided to provide a grant to donate a DVD copy of his documentary to “every high school in Australia… to encourage a deeper understanding of theatre”.

It was Ian Darling who, as Chairman-elect of the Sydney Theatre Company, defended the appointment of Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton as co-Artistic Directors at a press conference in November last year saying “we reached a unanimous decision that the intentions of Cate and Andrew were in total sync with the intentions of the board in terms of the artistic direction of the company."

The Hedda Gabler production in 2004 and international tour in 2006 was prominently in the headlines and marked the return of Cate Blanchett to the Sydney stage after a brief absence in Hollywood. Directed by current Artistic Director, Robyn Nevin and adapted by Blanchett’s husband, Andrew Upton, the Sydney season was a sell-out with “standing room only” and marked the first venture back to the Brooklyn Academy of Music for the STC since the less than successful 2001 tour of The White Devil.

This is a feel-good documentary about the STC family. Centring on interviews with the cast, who talk about some of their experiences in remounting the production, we also see some of the actor antics when they forget their lines or are waiting off-stage. We follow them to New York, struggling with subway ticket machines and preparing for a star-studded premiere and we experience the problems that the construction team have when the set is too low for the larger theatre in Brooklyn. Darling pointed out that one of the cast thought that it was like a “home video”.

The description for In the Company of Actors says “within the world of theatre, the rehearsal room is a sacred space, the private domain where boundaries are pushed, risks are taken, mistakes made, vulnerabilities exposed and, at its very best, magic created. It is not a place into which the public is often, if ever, invited. Until now...”

Unfortunately, as the documentary only starts with footage from the re-mount it misses out large chunks of casting and early rehearsal processes that have been captured in more recent documentaries such as Drama School (2001).

Indeed, it is hard to believe that there isn’t more interesting footage. It involves Robyn Nevin, who has a reputation for being colourful, during what must have been a very trying time in coordinating an enormous tour to New York and when the STC was involved in a number of public controversies.

It doesn’t mention the conflict that arose after the initial production in 2004 between actor Julie Hamilton and Nevin as reported in the Sydney Morning Herald when Hamilton discovered that she was to be the only member of the seven-strong cast not to be going on tour and that “Robyn Nevin could take on the role of Aunt Julle”.

Nor was the issue surrounding the lack of finances to fund the tour documented. Alexa Moses in the Herald reported in February 2006, that the Brooklyn Academy of Music footed the bill for most of the tour apart from around AU$250,000 which the Sydney Theatre Company had to raise through “help from the Australia Council, the Federal Government, sponsors and individual donations”.

The result is less a warts-and-all documentary about the STC and is more like a promotional video that has carefully orchestrated the public profile that the Sydney Theatre Company would wish to convey to current audiences and to young people around the country.

Both Nevin and Upton talk of the reasons for taking a production to New York, stating that audiences there are “intelligent” and “theatre literate”. It appears that the company has created a difficult situation by limiting local audience development over the years and anchoring creative decisions within the framework of subscriber seasons.

As subscriber numbers diminish back home in Sydney, the company looks to be engaging in a publicity campaign to develop a better public profile for audiences and sponsors alike. As opposed to touring big international productions and creating promotional videos, wouldn’t it be better for the STC to expand on more of its good work through recent productions and its Wharf2Loud programme?

This documentary may end up being counterproductive and instead of helping the STC’s reputation, portray the company as a little too paradisiacal to almost be unsettling. It could distance the STC from audiences that little bit further. It could on the other hand, open up a discussion that is desperately needed. What do Sydney audiences want from the STC? And what does the STC want from its audiences?

In the Company of Actors screens at the Sydney Film Festival again at 1.35 pm on Thursday 14 June, State Theatre.

Who is Edith Piaf?

It seems that there is a little bit of a chill coming from the south as they look on to see how this year's Sydney Film Festival fares. Festival executive director, Clare Stewart, who was previously Head of Film Programs at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) in Melbourne is under the radar from many of her contemporaries south of the border.

The Sydney Film Festival which has had a lot of problems keeping its head above water, finally managed to turn a profit last year and the initial response to her appointment was one of surprise as ACMI was brewing its own financial woes.

Even ex-Telstra chief Ziggy Switkowski resigned as board president of ACMI as it recorded a $5 million loss in its first two years. It is clear that the Sydney Film Festival cant afford many more deficits, so hopefully Stewart can keep last years Sydney Film Festival finances going.

This year's programme again centres around the State Theatre, Dendy Opera Quays and Greater Union Cinemas on George Street. There was talk that Chauvel Cinemas in Paddington would also share in the programme which would add another feather to the cap of the Sydney Lord Mayor's City of Villages plans. But again that appears to have been squashed by a presentation partner.

The programming for this year appears to be very engaging with strands in locally made films, a special array of films from Turkey and Brazil, combined with the regular genres of 'red hot' documentaries, world cinema and gala events. There is also a particularly unique strand that deals with Accessible Cinema covering a range of topics from autism to blindness.

Melburnians, are however, curious about the opening night film La Vie en Rose, a film about Edith Piaf. They have already started heckling Sydneysiders resident in the southern capital with one source reporting the taunt "Hey! You're from Sydney aren't ya? Don't you know who Edith Piaf is?"

One thing about this festival is certain, our cousins down south are looking on with a watchful eye.



Disclaimer: I worked for the Sydney Film Festival last year for three months and I am a member of the Sydney Film Festival.

Those naughty, naughty film-makers!

In today's Sun-Herald, Miranda Devine turns her attention to the Office of Film & Literature Classification with the heading Censors fail to give the true picture.

She wraps the Office and the film-makers over the knuckles with her opinionated wooden ruler, saying that The History Boys is "a fraud. It is a pederastic fantasy about teachers who fondle their students' genitals in the nicest way and the boys don't mind at all."

She goes on to say that, "it's about a British boys' school in the 1980s where all the students are openly or latently gay." Then stating that it's "not a bad movie for a niche gay agenda market".

But what about those dastardly censors? How could this film be let out of the Oxford Street centre for debauchery and let loose on that upstanding community in Baulkham Hills or Castle Hill.

Devine refers to a friend of hers who is "no prude, reeling out of a suburban theatre with his wife and two preteen children. They had walked out of The History Boys just as straight boy Dakin asks his teacher Irwin, "if there was any chance of your sucking me off"."

The Office of Film and Literature Classification has classified this film as M. According to the Office's website, "M is an advisory classification. This classification advises audiences that a level of maturity is required in relation to the film. While anyone can gain admission to an M film, material classified M is not recommended for under 15s."

What were Devine's friends doing taking their pre-teen children to this film? The Office had clearly advised that it was not recommended for under 15's and that a level of maturity was required to watch the film. How clearer does Devine require the office to be?

She then blames reviewers and advertisers for portraying the film as "a modern-day Goodbye, Mr Chips." I can assure Devine that all-male schools are no-longer a walk in the park as in the days of Mr Chips or even Tom Brown.

There is a larger question here which highlights that "them-and-us" mentality used by both heterosexual and homosexual communities. What exactly does "niche gay agenda market" mean? Do we, as a rule, watch something because of our sexual orientation? Should over 15's be protected at all times from literature that deals with sexuality, homosexuality and paedophilia?

There are plenty of films with an M rating that deal with the issues of sex, sexual leering, heterosexuality, physical abuse and extreme violence. Just look at the latest Pirates of the Caribbean films that are exposing under 10's to extreme physical violence.

I suggest that the Office deems it necessary and appropriate for members of our community who are in their puberty to be able to make judgements about their sexuality, not only in relation to films such as The History Boys, but through textual studies and other more heterosexual 'agenda markets'. As the Office's website says - "there must be some way that society can examine and discuss issues of paedophilia... through film". These teenagers are intelligent enough to be able to distinguish between the reality of what was being said in the film and what is acceptable.

If Devine wants to open up a discussion about the role of film and literature and how we should use classification and censorship, it would be more constructive to move away from an example of friends who took their pre-teen children to The History Boys.

What Devine is proclaiming is a more stringent use of classification, removing the vital and imperative use of judgement by guardians and individuals in making decisions about what film and literature they and their charges consume.

Devine was just as vocal about censorship during the Ken Park incident in 2003. I totally support her in her condemnation of paedophilia, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't talk about it, shouldn't consider it through art and film. Devine, as her article about Ken Park clearly shows, prefers to see a discussion of taboos as a gradual acceptance of taboos.

In today's article she refers to the elephant in the room (paedophilia) that marketers and reviewers of The History Boys ignored. There is another elephant sitting in that same room. That elephant is the push of mass media commentators like Devine using examples like those of her friends to inflict us all with a nanny like commentary on who should make judgements on what literature we wish to engage with. That is a dangerous path to take and a more constructive debate that steers away from this sensationilism would be healthier for us all.

Image: drooker.com