Last night, I was fortunate enough to score a double pass to opening night of the St. Kilda Film Festival. As I’ve only just turned 18 in the last year, I haven’t really been to film festivals before, due to the fact that they’re exempt from classification.

(It did feel kinda weird having to show my idea to get into the Palais where the films were screening).

Eight films were shown as a sample of what the program for the festival had to offer, and they were all very different.

OVERTIME

When I saw there was a horror film on the program, I was a little worried. I’m usually a fan of horror, but I quite enjoyed this one, as it was really more of a comedy with horror elements. The short tells the story of a werewolf who has to work overtime on a full moon, and is anxious to get home before he transforms. It has that distinctively Australian feel in terms of jokes, with clever humour that you don’t always see coming.

OH CANADA

I’d actually already seen this one, as it’s a music video for a song Missy Higgins wrote about the 3 year old Syrian toddler whose body was washed up on a Turkish beach after the boat his family was on fleeing to Canada capsized. The video is really beautiful and powerful. It uses a style that feels like a child’s drawing as well as including actual pictures drawn by young Syrian refugees that depict the truly awful things they’ve seen in their short lives. The crowd of 3,000 odd people in Palais was completely silent throughout, and I think it may have got the largest applause of the night.

CONTENTED CENSORED

Content censored looks at both the Sony hacking (The Interview) and the Charlie Hebdo attacks, and what these events mean for censorship. After just studying documentary in Cinema Studies last week, I felt a little underwhelmed by this short. A few of the interviewees didn’t really feel suitable for the topic area (eg Richard Wilkins) and it didn’t really provide a unique insight or take a clear stance on the issue. Saying that, it wasn’t terrible, just perhaps not really my cup of tea.

THE FLOWER GIRL

Flower Girl is a fictional short film that looks at the human trafficking trade, particularly in Thailand, through the eyes of a whole girl who is sold by her parents to sell flowers on the streets of Bangkok. There were some very emotional scene, such as when she is taken from her home, and the camera shows her perspective as she bangs on the cage calling for her mum and dad. It really made me think more about an issue that I usually don’t hear much about.

THE AUTUMN

This animated short is intricate. While it’s only 3 minutes long, it looks as though it must have taken a long time to produce. Occasionally, it was a little hard to see what was going on as we were far back and the colours don’t really jump out, but I still really enjoyed it and admired how delicate the whole piece looks.

STRUDEL SISTERS

This film was one of my favourites of the night. The documentary tells the story of two Hungarian sisters, looking at their mother particularly and their charming relationship with each other. Maybe part of the reason I loved it so much was that it reminded me a little of my own sister, who despite being younger than me likes to boss me around a lot, but mostly I think it was the fact that their just a very funny pair and come across really well on camera.

PERRY

One of the stranger films of the evening, Perry is about two couples having a very middle-class dinner party when they decide to do some cocaine and call over one of their old drug dealer friends from high school. Again, a very Australian comedy. A couple of the jokes felt a little off, but mostly it was funny and entertaining.
DISCIPLINE

This Swiss comedy starts off really simple and escalates into utter chaos. A man hits his daughter in a grocery store after losing patience with her. When another customer decides to intervene, it leads to the entire store fighting about a number of different issues. Really funny and a classic European film.

If you get the chance to go to the festival or see any of these films, I would recommend it. Last night was a great chance to see films I would never been exposed to otherwise, and even if you don’t love them, I think it’s important to watch a variety different films in order to really develop a unique style in your own work.