World premieres at the 2017 Adelaide Film Festival will feature talent from Flinders University.
The raucous punk attitude of Atlantis, Iceland, a feature film co-produced by Flinders University screen lecturer Cole Larsen, has ensured its premiere screening during the Adelaide Film Festival this month, which is celebrating 40 years of punk rock.
“It’s a big deal, as not many Australian films made the cut,” says Mr Larsen. “Our film is punk in attitude, but not so much content, although Johnny Rotten (former lead singer of pioneer 1970s punk band The Sex Pistols) makes an appearance.
“We shot the film in Iceland last year. I was cinematographer and designer, and mentor to my two Adelaide mates and filmmaking colleagues Peter Hanlon and Rick Davies, who have never made a film before.”
The experimental documentary/fiction hybrid film has two friends visiting Iceland to discover an iconic film location, with the journey bringing them into contact with punk rockers, politicians and Icelandic mysticism.
The film, which will be screened at GU Film House Adelaide on Friday 13 October, and Mercury Cinema on Saturday 14 October, is also unofficially in the Reykjavik International Film Festival and the Sydney Antenna Documentary Festival, and has been entered it in various festivals around the world.
Other local premieres during the Adelaide Film Festival include Flinders University graduate director Luke Marsden’s AFTRS short film Infidels, and feature film directed by Mike Retter called Youth on the March, filmed in and around Port Adelaide.
Described by ABC Radio National film critic as “a film that is talking to avante-garde cinema now, digital cinema”, Youth on the March experiments with a vertical aspect ratio and immerses its viewer in contemporary youth culture.
It stars recent Flinders Drama graduates Robbie Greenwell, Simon Chandler, David Arcidiaco, Cassie Litchfield, Marko Siklich, Tom Murdock and current student Pat McAuliffe.
Youth on the March screens at 7pm on Friday 13 October at Hart’s Mill Port Adelaide
Flinders Screen and Media and Tourism students have been undertaking internships at the Adelaide Film Festival, getting hands-on experience in programming, event production and social media.
Aspiring documentary makers in the Bachelor of Creative Arts (Screen) students have also been on hand to shoot festival events, including a slate of world premieres, and discussion panels with local and international filmmakers.
Current Screen and Media students Rhianna Carr and Maya Coombs have helped devise the festival’s events in Port Adelaide, including a walking tour of film locations shot in Port Adelaide.
Featuring iconic locations from Look Both Ways and Bad Boy Bubby, the walking tour is free, but registration is essential, with places limited. Register at Walking Tour. The Leading Star departs from the Port Adelaide Visitor Centre, 66 Commercial Road, Port Adelaide at 4pm on Saturday 14 October.
A long list of Flinders University staff, graduates and former students also provide significant contributions to the Adelaide Film Festival program, most notably with the film F*!#ing Adelaide featuring director Sophie Hyde, screenwriters Matthew Cormack, Matt Vesely and Sophie Hyde, and producers Bec Summerton, Sophie Hyde and Bryan Mason.
Due to screen on ABC TV and iView later this year, the film features actors Pamela Rabe, Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Kate Box and Brendan Maclean.
Flinders screen lecturer Helen Carter was one of the camera people on the documentary Prisoners and Pups, The Tracker features editor Tania Nehme and sound design by James Currie, Summation of Force is co-directed by Matt Bate and produced by Bec Summerton, while short film Frieda and Diego is edited by Veronica Buhagiar.
Flinders graduate Matt Bate, of Closer Productions fame, also co-wrote the gritty film Guilty which premieres at the GU Film House on Sunday and has a second screening on Wednesday 11 October. Guilty focuses on the artwork and death of convicted Bali drug smuggler Myuran Sukumaran.
As well, Flinders graduate Nara Wilson is director of A Time for Reflection, Sylvia Warmer is co-producer of Kiki and Kitty, Kirsty Stark produced Walter (which also won a SA Screen Award category), Jeremy Kelly Bakker directed short film Lucy and DIC, Sean Lahiff directed short film Smashed and was an editor of Cargo, David Ngo produced Rabbit, and Henry Smith was cinematographer for short film Kill Off.
The work of Matthew Bate, Trent Parke and Narelle Autio will feature at the film festival’s opening night at Tonsley Innovation Precinct on Thursday (from 6.30pm, 5 October), with a ‘digital carnevale’ as part of the inaugural Hybrid World Adelaide.
This year’s ADL Film Festival is breaking away with tradition to open with an extravaganza of virtual reality, gaming and holograms. Focusing on the future of screen storytelling, the ‘Vive Le Punk’ digital carnevale will feature sneak-peeks of some of the world premiere films.
The Adelaide Film Festival runs from 5-15 October. The full program can be found online at adelaidefilmfestival.org