A SPECIAL WORLD PREMIERE: THE SKIN I’M IN
ACON Northern Rivers are the co-presenters of Thursday evening’s programme at the festival. Showcasing the films The Skin I’m In, Hold on Tight, and Simply Rob, it’s an evening full of empowering entertainment focused on the challenges and realities faced by countless people within every community.
THE SKIN I’M IN chronicles a transformational journey of discovery and collaboration between three unique artists: American filmmaker Broderick Fox, Canadian Kwakwaka’wakw first-nations artist Rande Cook, and African-American tattoo artist Zulu. The film becomes a personal yet accessible spiritual search that uses Fox’s body as a canvas as he works with Rande and Zulu to design and render a full back tattoo: a unique work of art that tells the story of his past and charts a way of living for the future. Filmmaker Broderick Foxwill fly in from LA for the screening.
BBFF 2012 Official Selection: Sounds Like a Revolution
Sounds Like a Revolution is pro-active and an energizing documentary about a new generation of activist musicians who are living proof that music is an important and powerful tool in the ongoing struggle for social change. From the Dixie Chicks to Paris, Michael Franti and Anti-Flag, artists across the musical spectrum discuss their motivations and struggles in a post-9/11 environment when dissent was silenced and media outlets either ignored them or forced them into self-censorship before their material was released. Now with the decade gone, the Internet and Obama bring new hope…..
Including local star NATALIE PA’APA’A from BLUE KING BROWN
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BBFF 2012 Official Selection: the Sacred Science
The Sacred Science is a groundbreaking documentary that captures an unprecedented glimpse into the ancient healing practices of the Amazon rainforest’s medicine men, or shamans, whose unique knowledge of indigenous plants and rituals is threatened by deforestation, modernization and ecotourism.
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UPDATE: BBFF tickets are now available to purchase ONLINE.
The full online programme is live and our free 48 page programme will be out in next week’s issue of the Echo with full details of all the films and events happening at BBFF2012. BBFF 2012 features a staggering 200+ films from 39 countries including 132 World, Australian and NSW Premieres as well as 45 films never seen in Byron before.
Building up an appetite for more than 200 films?
‘The Beautiful Feast’ is the exclusive caterer for 2012 BBFF. This locally owned business is a perfect fit for a festival committed to enhancing local involvement and supporting local businesses.
On Opening and Closing Night ‘The Beautiful Feast’ will create dishes that highlight the best in local and seasonal produce this region has to offer. Canapés upon arrival will be a sentimental journey down memory lane, of the food we used to eat before the wonderful variety of world cuisine became so influential. With tongue firmly in cheek these dishes have been created in honour of the Film Festival opening night film “Face to Face”. We know you will enjoy this “guilty pleasure experience” and feel more than just a little sentimental.
Above: Brunswick River Oysters and local Proscuitto & Witches Broomstick Mushrooms and Nimbin Valley Goats Fetta
BBFF 2012 Official Selection: A Deeper Shade of Blue (Sneak Preview)
How Hawaiian Surf Culture conquered the World. Master surf filmmaker Jack McCoy ventures into a new realm with his latest feature. This is not a surf movie, it is a film about surfing’s deepest roots; in the subconscious; in ancient lore; in the craft of surfboard building; in man’s perpetual quest for a joyful relationship with the natural world.
BBFF Official Selection: Day at the Pool
A Day at the Pool is a documentary-style film that attempts to uncover the true origins of modern skateboarding. Interviews with Tony Alva, Stacy Peralta, Jay Adams and the rest of the Dogtown Crew reveal that an anonymous local kid may have been largely responsible for the skateboarding revolution that lead to their success in the late 70s.
BBFF Official Selection: Bombay Beach
An Australian premiere, this debut feature documentary is being hailed as an intrieging masterpiece. With a compelling sound track by Bob Dylan and Beirut, Bombay Beach is a film about one of the poorest communities in southern California. Located on the shores of the Salton Sea a man-made sea stranded in the middle of the Colorado desert that was once a beautiful vacation destination for the privileged and is now a pool of dead fish.
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BBFF 2012 Official Selection: Crazy Wisdom
Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche, ‘the bad boy of Buddhism,’ shattered Westerners’ notions about how an enlightened teacher should behave, yet he is recognized as being the pivotal person to bring Buddhism to the west. Raised in the rigorous Tibetan monastic tradition, Trungpa fled his homeland during the Chinese Communist invasion of 1959. In Britain, seeing his monk’s robes blocked his students’ understanding of Buddhism, he renounced his monastic vows, eloped with a sixteen year-old and embraced western life.
BBFF Official Selection: The Missing Key
In a richly re-imagined Venice of the early 1920s, young composer Hero Wasabi must compete against the unscrupulous Count Telefino in the prestigious Abacus Scroll musical competition.
UPDATE: Recent Winner of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival Best Animation Short Film.
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BBFF Official Selection: The Hungry Tide
An average two meters above sea level, the nation of Kiribati is on the front line of climate change. Maria Tiimon, a Kiribati woman living in Sydney, is passionate about her homeland and is determined to raise the world’s awareness of it’s predicament. It’s a journey that takes her to the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference and a year later to Cancun. Meanwhile the situation in Kiribati slowly deteriorates. Fragile sea walls are crumbling, and storm tides are sweeping into villages. The urbane President Tong says his county lacks the resources to fix these problems. Relocation may be the only option.
Watch the trailer…
(more…)
BBFF OPENING NIGHT FILM: Face to Face
We are pleased to present Face to Face at this years’ BBFF, courtesy of Cockatoo Film. From Australia’s most acclaimed playwright, David Williamson, a moving and powerful new film about lies, betrayal, and sex in the workplace. This acclaimed Dramatic Feature has won over 32 awards world-wide. In this enthralling and multifaceted story a young construction worker is pushed to the edge and flies off-the-rails violently attacking his colleague and his boss. In an attempt to stay out of the courts he’s given the chance to explain his actions in a community conference, facilitated by a Social Worker played by Matthew Newton. This face-to-face confrontation between the young man, his boss, his boss’s wife, co-workers, best mate and mother lifts the lid on their workplace dirty laundry, turning all of their lives upside down. Face to Face stars a stellar ensemble cast led by Vince Colosimo, Sigrid Thornton and Luke Ford and is directed by Michael Rymer (Angel Baby).
“Face to Face is that rare film which grabs a hold of you at the beginning and doesn’t let go till the end. It is an amazing piece of cinema – riveting, thought provoking, transformative. Only once or twice a year do I see such a film – and this year that film is Face to Face.”
- Michael Moore
BBFF 2012 Official Selection: Sacrifice
From master auteur Chen Kaige comes SACRIFICE.
For generations, the Zhao family has wielded power, even extending over the king. In a well-planned coup, their mortal enemy TU’AN GU (Wang Xue Qi) slaughters the entire clan, determined to wipe out their influence forever. However, a solitary Zhao baby survives the massacre, and is hidden and taken home by CHENG YING (Ge You), the doctor who delivered him, to live with his WIFE (Hai Qing) and their own newborn baby.
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BBFF Official Selection: Beneath the Waves
Beneath the Waves is a short film drama set in contemporary Australia that explores human disconnection and the unfathomable drive to overcome adversity. Throughout her short life, clinically deaf teenager, Eleanor, has never known silence. Suffering from a unique hearing condition, Tinnitus (the continuous experience of high pitched noise) she has gradually become disconnected from the world, especially her father.
BBFF 2012 Official Selection: Toomelah
In a remote Aboriginal community, 10 year old Daniel yearns to be a “gangster”, like the male role models in his life. Skipping school, getting into fights and running drugs for Linden who runs the main gang in town, Daniel is well on his way to accomplishing his goal, when rival drug dealer Bruce returns from prison and a violent showdown ensues. Linden and his gang are taken off to jail. Daniel is suddenly alone and vulnerable and he has to make a choice for a better future ….
Winner at Cannes Film Festival – Un Certain Regard 2011
Check out the trailer…
BBFF 2012 Official Selection: Convento
Convento is more than a film to watch. Convento is a film immersion. At the convergence of the rivers Oeiras and Guadiana, along what some believe to be a ley line possessing mystical energies, rises the four hundred year old monastery Sao Francisco. Its light earthen walls, marked by the sun and time, house a labyrinth of terraces, courtyards, gardens and fountains, all offering secret places to contemplate. An ancient irrigation system delivers water throughout, a silvery artery connecting all life.
Check out the trailer…
Time to start planning your trip!
Still up in the air about committing to coming to our beautiful town for the 6th Byron Bay International Film Festival? Just have a look at the first of our fantastic accommodation deals our friends at the Apartments Inn have prepared for you.
BBFF 2012 Official Selection: Beauty Day
BEFORE THERE WAS JACKASS… THERE WAS RALPH ZAVADIL.
Adrenaline Junkies are going to love this crazy documentary.
“Everyone should have a friend like Ralph.”
His cable access television show, The Cap’n Video Show, ran from 1990 to 1995, spawning a small but loyal cult following. Each week Ralph performed a series of idiotic and occasionally dangerous stunts, challenging the sensibilities of his small Southern Ontario audience. With the advent of the internet and reality television still years away, his unique brand of gross-out stunt comedy was truly ahead of its time. All it took was a broken neck for him to get noticed.
Click through for the killer trailer…
