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.
Click through for trailer… (more…)
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.
Click through for Trailer
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.
Click through for Trailer
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…
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…
BBFF2012 Official Selection: Decadence
BBFF2012 has received over 900 entries and after months of viewing we’re pleased to announce a highlight of the 2012 Festival. Our first Official Selection to be publically announced is Pria Viswalingam’s acclaimed documentary Decadence: The Decline of the Western World.
Decadence: The Decline of the Western World has been receiving rave reviews and is sure to be a winner with the BBFF Audience.
Click through for trailer
BBFF REWIND: Hairlady
A man grows hair and a woman collects it. A short film directed by David Birdsell which took away BBFF2007′s Best Experimental Film award.
Hairlady began as a time-lapse photography experiment. First the subject’s head and face were shaved. As hair growth proceeded, two identical digital photos were shot per day (approximately 12 hours apart) for 4 months, the subject becoming rather hairy. Finally, a video camera was mounted in place of the still camera and the resulting video footage was shot, following the subject as he goes to meet the titular Hairlady (Miriam Escovitz).
BBFF REWIND: Pigeon Impossible
Something for the young and young at heart…
Entering Your Film Into BBFF2012
BBFF2012 will run from March 2nd to the 11th. Entries are now closed. Check back in April for information about entering your film into BBFF2013.
The range of films we screen is diverse and dynamic – Our team is passionate about supporting independent filmmakers in all stages of their careers and we believe in creating positive opportunities wherever possible – showcasing the amazing works of talented creatives to an open, intelligent audience as well as some well connected, highly respected Judges. The festival features an award for the Best Young Australian Filmmaker which is open to Australian Director’s and Producers under 25 and offers young Australian filmmakers reduced entry fees for their films.
BBFF REWIND: The Third and the Seventh
The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman on Vimeo.
We’ll be posting films here which have screened over the years at BBFF. The first is from BBFF2011 and was an audience favourite. Everything in this film is animated – Enjoy!
BBFF Official Selection: Stilyagi (Hipsters) 4pm
Country of Origin: Russia. Language: Russian with English subtitles
Youth in 50s communist Russia are fighting for the right to be different from others, to listen to music of their choice, dress differently, dance, love and, most importantly, have freedom to be themselves.
BBFF Official Selection: MASSIVE ATTACK Music Video (Splitting the Atom)
” The last particles. Divisible, invisible…”
This deeply haunting tune takes you on a journey into an inorganic futuristic world suspended in fractured chaos. Spitting the Atom explores a beast’s encounter with a civilized military counter attack held in the unfortunate battle theatre of a city. Though static in time the one shot camera sweep conveys a gripping and frightening showdown and it’s battle to the death.
“Splitting the Atom” is a continuation of the epic confrontation Edouard Sailer’s established in his other collaboration with the band Massive Attack in the music video ’Atlas Air’.
FREE BBFF2011 Programme inside this weeks ECHO
Get your Free 40 page BBFF2011 printed programme in this weeks ECHO (before this ominous weather does). For those out of the Byron area you can click through and check it out online. Don’t forget the online programme is also live NOW with an array of search options to get you in touch with the film you want to see fast.
BBFF Official Selection: Beijing Punk
Beijing Punk is an exhilarating documentary about the paradoxical realities existing within 21st century China. With playful curiosity, Australian film-maker, Shaun Jefford, scratches the socialist surface to reveal a hot-headed, discontented counter-culture simmering just below.
BBFF Official Selection: Cultures of Resistance
Country of Origin: USA Languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Burmese, Farsi, Hebrew, Vietnamese, Dari, Kinyarwanda with English Subtitles
Directed by Iara Lee, Cultures of Resistance is a chilling yet inspiring feature documentary. Armed with only music, art, song and dance, this film is all about the power of people united by their desire to heal the most impoverished, enslaved nations of the world.
BBFF Official Selection: Queen of the Sun – What are the bees telling us?
Country of Origin: USA
Without bees, Albert Einstein said, “man would only have four years of life left.”
In 1923, Rudolf Steiner, a scientist, philosopher & social innovator, predicted that in 80 to 100 years honeybees would collapse. His prediction has come true with Colony Collapse Disorder, where bees are disappearing in mass numbers from their hives with no clear single explanation. In an alarming inquiry into the insights behind Steiner’s prediction QUEEN OF THE SUN: What Are the Bees Telling Us? weaves an unusual and dramatic story of the heart-felt struggles of beekeepers, scientists and philosophers from around the world.
click through for trailer
BBFF Official Selection: Le Miroir (The Mirror)
Country of Origin: France. Language: French with English subtitles
Deeply traumatized and disfigured following a car crash, famous actress Vera Bella leaves Saint-James Hospital, right after having undergone a one-last-chance procedure. Fleeing media pressure, her assistant takes her to the family home, a manor edging the ocean which she has not seen since her childhood.
BBFF Official Selection: First Love
Country of Origin: Australia
First Love is about love, friendship and following your dreams. This feature length surf film documents the lives of three passionate teenagers from Phillip Island and follows them to Hawaii – the first step on their journey to making surfing a career.
click through for trailer
BBFF Official Selection: Slate
Country of Origin: Spain, USA Language: English
Working all night, a film editor is overcome by the odd sensuality and rhythm within the raw footage he is cutting.
click through for trailer
BBFF Official Selection: Nauta
Country of Origin: Italy. Language: Italian with English subtitles
Bruno anthropologist and university professor, learns that in the island of La Galite occurred an extraordinary natural phenomenon. He decided to put together an expedition, searching for the perfect harmony between man and nature.
UPDATE: Added more images from film.
