D-I-M, Deus in Machina

Some People
Australia / 3 min / Dir: Lisa Sharpe / Short / 2007
A golden moment in a busy supermarket repays our fragile patience.

A busy and impatient man learns a lesson from a shifty looking boy, a dithering old lady and a sassy checkout chick one evening at the local supermarket. His fragile patience is repayed in a golden moment after he assumes the worst about some people.

Bio - This is Bangalow filmmaker Lisa Sharpe's 3rd consecutive entry since BBFF began in 2006. She writes, produces and directs most of her films and helps out on other local productions. Her films are mainly short dramas that usually involve capturing the beauty in everyday domestic situations. She has recently made her first documentary with her long-term co-collaborator, Terry Bleakley and she hopes to do more of them as she really enjoyed the process. Lisa and Terry often run film nights in Bangalow as a way of bringing the community together and to celebrate local short films.  Lisa lives with her two children, runs her own photographic business and is an active member of the community.

UFO’s Over Grafton
Australia / 7 min / Dir: John Pritchard / Documentary / 2007 / World Premiere
A short documentary about strange happenings in the Grafton skies.

Slab
Australia / 2 min / Dir: Lucinda Schroder / Short / 2006 / Byron Premiere
A black musical in the vein of Rocky Horror which tells the story of three young friends after a fatal car accident. The film deals with the idea of safety and mateship on the road.  

D-I-M, Deus in Machina
Germany / 29 min / Dir: Axel Ricke / Short / 2007 / Australian Premiere
A satirical science fiction short, telling a story with elaborate imagery. A world, as spotless, bleak and cold as its uniform design is not a good place for a dreamer like Lutz. With as much courage as desperation, relying only on his skills and imagination, he faces a terrible fate and fights for his personal happy end.

At the end of the twenty-first century society has given up on the illusion of happiness for everyone. Another ideal has taken its place. Your usefulness for society has become the measure of all things. Based on its own rating of the citizens, a dehumanized system distributes goods and services to the inhabitants of its world.  Lutz is not cut out for this. He is a romantic aficionado of 2D-films of the twenties century. Instead of paying his dues to society, he prefers to sit in front of his antique DVD player and immerses himself into a world where there is still freedom, adventure and heroism. Soon his romantic inclination gets him kicked out of university and loses him his prestigious enrolment at the institute for neuro-informatics. Without perspective or status he finds himself in a situation with no way out. This is where D-I-M picks up the thread of his story and accompanies him in his fight for self-determination. He is dependent on help from his one true friend Jannik, but in the end it is solely up to him if he can defy the system and win a future.
German with subtitles.

Fågelboet (The birds nest)
Sweden / 15 min / Dir: Lode Kuylenstierna / Short / 2007 / Australian Premiere
Ever since her childhood days Alice has slipped further and further away from her father. Until now, she has not been able to confront him. After an unexpected encounter with a boy called Aron, she suddenly shows up on her father’s doorstep.
Swedish with subtitles.

Finding Kraftland
USA / 75 min / Dir: Richard Kraft / Doc umentary / 2006 / Australian Premiere
After the death of his brother, a Hollywood agent drags his son through an obsessive quest to recapture his own childhood. This journey takes them into Zero Gravity flights, obsessive collecting of pieces of kitsch and on a trek around the world to discover the perfect roller coaster. Richard Kraft manages the careers of some of Hollywood’s biggest composers. His son Nicky tries to find balance between living with his mother in a log cabin in Oregon raising chickens and life with dad living in Kraftland, an over-the-top Los Angeles shrine to gigantic advertising icons, 1000s of board games and an onslaught of theme park ride vehicles. Along the way both father and son discover one another and the true meaning of living life to its fullest.