BBBC NOW SHOWING
BBBC NOW SHOWING
Synopses
Thursday 6th June
SNAKES AND LADDERS (2023)
Lucas Haynes, Australia
Feature length work made as a collaboration between filmmaker Lucas Haynes and musician R. P. Downie.
With live score by Robbie Divine.
Richard Munro, Curator
Saturday 8 June
OPENING NIGHT
THE ISTER (2004)
Daniel Ross & David Barison, Australia
20th anniversary screening of Australian philosophical essay film, with Daniel Ross in conversation.
'The Ister' is a 3000km journey to the heart of Europe, from the mouth of the Danube river at the Black Sea, to its source in the German Black Forest. The film is based on the work of the most influential and controversial philosopher of the 20th century, Martin Heidegger, who swore allegiance to the National Socialists in 1933. By marrying a vast philosophical narrative with a fascinating journey up Europe's greatest waterway, the film invites the viewer to unravel the extraordinary past and future of 'the West.'—David Barison and Daniel Ross, IMDB
Jake Wilson, Curator
Monday 10 June
HAS THE FILM STARTED YET? (1951)
Maurice Lemaître, France
Experimental Lettrist feature.
"This film must be projected under special conditions: on a screen of new shapes and material and with spectacular goings-on in the cinema lobby and theatre (disruptions, forced jostling, dialogues spoken aloud, confetti and gunshots aimed at the screen...This is not just a projection, but a true film performance, the style of which Maurice Lemaitre is the creator."
Jake Wilson, Curator
Thursday 13 June
CITY STREETS (1931)
Rouben Mamoulian, USA
Early gangster movie with Gary Cooper and Sylvia Sidney. From a story by Dashiell Hammett, cinematography by Lee Garmes.
"Flamboyantly inventive with both sound and image"
-- Dan Callahan, Slant
Jake Wilson, Curator
Saturday 15 June
THE MARVELLOUS REAL :
Laura Citarella and the Pampero Cine Collective
As part of the New Argentinian cinema movement, El Pampero Cine operates at the margins of traditional film industry channels, utilising their own resources and collaborating at all levels of the filmmaking process. Artisanal and highly independent in nature, their films possess an unusual creative power that leads to experimentations of all sorts; from lengthy narratives split into a myriad of films-within-the-film to a mixture of genres unfolding within these unconventional plot structures. Laura Citarella––a founding member of El Pampero Cine––has made a handful of works where fiction and documentary, or mask and its bearer, merge to become one in the stories she tells. It is as if the lives of her films are more proximate to her own life than the lives her films supposed to enact on screen.
Dr Cristobal Escobar Duenas, Curator
Monday 17 June
CINEMATOGRAPHIC ARCHAEOLOGY :
Discussions on Raúl Ruiz, Valeria Sarmiento & Poetastros.
When Ruiz died in 2011, he had made well over a hundred films and was preparing to shoot one more. Ruiz’s widow and collaborator, Valeria Sarmiento, and the Chilean production company Poetastros, then turned to reconstruct three projects that Ruiz had begun in Chile but had never been able to complete... -
Dr Cristobal Escobar Duenas, Curator
Thursday 20 June
AMOK (1932)
Fedor Ozep, France
Adaptation of a Stefan Zweig novella, set in a Dutch colony in the tropics and shot in France by the Russian-born Ozep.
"Occasionally over the years, various film-culture quangocrats condescend to pick my brains for free ideas (an article, a booklet, a programme season...). My first suggestion, quick as a flash and regular as clockwork, is always: 'Fedor Ozep.'"
-- Raymond Durgnat
Jake Wilson, Curator
Saturday 22 June
LA FIESTA DE LA CHAKRA (2021)
Collectiva Abya Yala
This documentary was created and produced by Colectiva Abya Yala with the support of the Merri-Bek City Council and Blak Dot Gallery. It was shaped around the feelings of appreciation to nature, culture and all the interconnected webs that support life. Its ethos embraces an honest and humble desire to learn and exchange cultural practices and oral traditions from the South Pacific region between Australia, Pacific Islands and Latin America. This project was originally thought as a community gathering and then re-shaped as a documentary due to COVID-19 restrictions.
This screening is a Free Event and is part of an annual program proudly supported by Merri-Bek City Council through the Flourish Art Grant 2023-2024 and Blak Dot Gallery.
Dr Cristobal Escobar Duenas, Curator
Monday 24 June
D FOR DELINQUENCY :
Argentina
Discussions on Rodrigo Moreno.
Good Artists Copy, Great Artists Steal.
Dr Cristobal Escobar Duenas, Curator
Thursday 27 June
THE FILMS OF ROGER SCHOLES
LAST PORT OF CALL (2003)
In a remote corner of Flinders Island, off the coast of Tasmania, Arne Erikssen has spent 20 years building a village out of driftwood and other remnants washed in from the sea. Originally from Sweden, Arne came to the island in search of a place to call home, after a life spent traveling the world as a merchant seaman. At first, he thought he'd be alone here - but as news of his driftwood kingdom spread, a trail of surprising visitors began turning up... - Screen Australia
THE COOLBAROO CLUB (1995)
Directed by acclaimed Tasmanian filmmaker, Roger Scholes, The Coolbaroo Club follows the fortunes of the only Indigenous- run dance club in a city which regularly submitted its Indigenous population to curfews, police harassment, and bureaucratic obstruction. Using interviews, archival footage and dramatisation, the film tells the stories of those involved in the establishment of the club, and what it meant to them.
Roger Scholes (11 December 1950 – 3 June 2022) was an Australian independent film and television maker.
He and Katherine Scholes were awarded the Australian Centenary Medals in the 2001 Queen's New Years Honours List for their services to Australian film-making. - IMDB
Films and permissions provided courtesy of Linden Scholes and family.
Saturday 29 June
SCIENCE CRAZED (1991)
Ron Switzer, US
A mad scientist injects a woman with an untested growth serum. She dies, but gives birth to a full-grown monster. IMDB
WAX, OR THE DISCOVERY OF TELEVISION AMONG THE BEES (1991)
David Blair, US
A man recalls the story of how his bees implanted in him a bee television, causing him to lose all perception of space, time, and self in the deserts of the American West. IMDB
Richard Munro, Curator
Monday 1 July
THE BRIDGE AT MIDNIGHT TREMBLES (2005)
Esben Storm and Peter Leiss, Australia
On March 15, 2004, Richard Moir underwent an operation for Parkinson's Disease. Called Deep Brain Stimulation, electrodes are placed in the brain that are powered by batteries placed in the chest. The current 'zaps' bad signals in the brain. This film gives you an insight into the daily life of a patient with Parkinson's Disease, which is a view you don't get as a doctor in a clinical practice.—Dr Baastian Bloem MD, PHD; IMDB
Richard Munro, Curator
Thursday 4 July
LADY IN A JAM (1942)
Gregory La Cava, US
Freudian screwball comedy/Western with Irene Dunne.
A psychiatrist's patient, a nutty heiress, travels west to find gold in her grandfather's abandoned mine. The psychiatrist, unable to talk her out of it, decides to follow her out there. - IMDB
“Resembles a comically nightmarish alcoholic delusion”
-- Roger McNiven, American Directors
Jake Wilson, Curator
Saturday 6 July
MOMENTUM MEMENTOS
Skate park to rock face. Traversing uncertain surfaces. Featuring:
FRUIT OF THE VINE (2002)
Rick Charnoski & Coan Nichols, US
A super 8mm film that documents the incredible and often dangerous lengths that skateboarders go to in order to ride deserted, empty swimming pools. It is not a historical documentary, but a collection of stories shot in 1999 while Coan and Rick traveled from southern California to Seattle and around the east coast in search of pools to ride - IMDB
James Hewison, Curator
Monday 8 July
POLITICAL AESTHETICS : MAFI Collective
Chile
MAFI (Mapa Fílmico de un País) is a Chilean documentary collective dedicated to reconstruct the audiovisual memory of a country. Their films are composed by a mosaic of story fragments, as ragged and scattered as reality itself. - Dr Cristobal Escobar Duenas
Thursday 11 July
WITH TIME TO KILL (1987)
James Clayden, Australia
James Clayden’s 1987 neo-noir shot and set in Melbourne is a gripping account of carnage as Lt. Nick Yates and Sgt. Max Clements develop a hitlist to rid the streets of filth – only their plan backfires as their victims start attacking them.
Clayden’s background in experimental film (his Ghost Paintings are indicative of this turn) led him to pursue work as a painter where he is now represented by Blockprojects gallery in Cremorne. To feature the director in presence.
Digby Houghton, Curator
Saturday 13 July
CLOSING NIGHT
ROBIN HOOD (1922)
Allan Dwan, US
“As massive as it is, there is no set that the hero cannot climb, no natural obstacle he cannot overcome… For Dwan, who deals with such acrobatics with the elated precision of a choreographer, the direction of a film becomes the direction of space.”
- Michael Henry Wilson
A classic with live score, performed on the night, by our long time collaborators, THE FACTORY HOUSE BAND.
Jake Wilson, Curator