For many Australians, the small, charming New South Wales country town of Dungog, is best known as the town where our larrikin and brilliant Dougie Walters, at one time dubbed the new Bradman, was born and raised. Of recent times, Dungog has had another claim to fame, as being the home to one of the country’s most eclectic film festivals.
A street parade, late on the Saturday morning, welcomed Film Festival visitors to Dungog and gave the locals an opportunity to celebrate their town with its rural activities and produce featured in street stalls.
In the parade there were a range of tractor – old and newer, floats in particular the Country Women’s Association’s highlighting its diverse activities for rural women, a wonderful Parade of ‘red’ dogs, ponies, horses, police and firies, and even tiny baby piglets being carried with bottles!
Now in its sixth year, and firmly established in the Australian Film Festival calendar, the 2012 Dungog Film Festival, held between last Friday and Sunday, proved to be another popular and critical success for Festival Directors, Allanah Zitserman and Stavros Kazantzidis.
Programmer Lex Lindsay curated an intriguing, quirky diverse and busy program that had something to appeal to everyone’s tastes. The Festival screened across two venues, the St James and Cockatoo theatres.
The focus was on homegrown Australian cinema, both new and old. The first day featured two Oz classics, Yoram Gross’s 1977 animated masterpiece, adapted from Ethel Pedley’s 1899 children’s book, DOT AND THE KANGAROO, and Michael Rymer multi-award winning film ANGEL BABY about two schizophrenics falling in love, and features one of our most successful actresses Jackie McKenzie.
Jackie was a guest of the Festival and introduced the film, along with its producer, Jonathon Shteinman. Jackie stayed to participate in a reading at the Cockatoo theatre of a new Australian work, DIVING FOR POLAND, Andrea Rogers’s screenplay that took out last year’s Monte Miller Australian Writer’s Guild Award. She was joined by Ivy Latimer, Ben O’Toole, Sophie Hensser and Anna Hruby with Hannah Hillard directing the reading.
The Festival showcased an abundance of new work by talented Aussie filmmakers, in the feature, documentary and short form.
Peter Templeman’s debut feature, NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN starring Sarah Snook and Ryan Kwanten, a finely honed romantic comedy, was a hit with opening night audiences. Templeman’s film is to be released in cinemas on Thursday July 12.
Veteran filmmaker John Duigan’s new film CARELESS LOVE drew audiences into his tale of an attractive, intelligent Vietnamese university student Linh, beautifully played by newcomer Nammi Le, who finds herself caught up in an intricate web after she starts working for an escort agency with the inimitable David Field playing her chauffeur.
Stuart Staunton’s promising madcap comedy CHARLIE BONNETT, starring Peter Stanley as a struggling actor who goes through some bizarre experiences, came straight from its final edit to its world premiere screening.
The documentaries were a strong part of the program. Particularly impressive were Randall Wood’s GRAMMAR OF HAPPINESS about linguistics professor Daniel Everett’s study of the language used by Brazil’s Piraha tribe that he believes challenges Noam Chomsky’s well established laws of language and Jack Rath’s BETWEEN HOME which charted Nick Jaffe’s solo sail from the United Kingdom to Australia, negotiating the treacherous waters of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.
There was an embarrassment of riches in the Shorts program that featured a number of quirky categories including COUPLE TROUBLE and DID A BAD THING. Laura Dudgeon’s incisive comedy COMFORTABLE about the edginess around young people’s sexual experimentation and Rupert Reid’s clever, hilarious comedy BOO were particular highlights.
Dungog locals came up with the impressive OUT OF THE SHED program, held at the Cockatoo theatre in Chapman street, featuring ‘films, sounds, talks and dreams dragged out into the light from rusty hidden cameras and forgotten corrugations’.
The sixth Festival ended with the thrills and spills of Craig Lahiff’s new film, SWERVE, featuring David Lyons, Jason Clarke, Emma Booth, Vince Colosimo and Travis McMahon.
With its great location, surrounded by Dungog’s beautiful undulating hills, the warmth and hospitality of the locals, and its treasure-trove of fine Australian filmmaking, the annual Dungog film festival continues to grow and inspire.
© David Kary
2nd July, 2012
Tags: DUNGOG FILM FESTIVAL 2012, Allanah Zitserman, Stavros Kazantzidies, Lex Lindsay, Sydney Arts Guide