WEEK 1 | INTERNATIONAL FILMS
SATURDAY 24 NOVEMBER
Welcome to the first week of DestFest… This is the Australian Premiere of Wholphin IV, a 90 minute selection of fantastic films from this incredible DVD quarterly. We are stoked to have Wholphin as part of the very first DestFest…
Founded in 2005, Wholphin is a new quarterly DVD magazine of rare, lost and unseen films from revered publishing house McSweeney’s, based in San Francisco. Co-founded by Brent Hoff and Dave Eggers - and programmed and edited by Brent Hoff - Wholphin is: ‘lovingly encoded with unique and ponderable films designed to make you feel the way we felt when we learned that dolphins and whales sometimes, you know, do it.’
These short films are hidden treasures found in the garages and bottom drawers of some of the industry’s best film-makers. Enjoy.
TWO CARS, ONE NIGHT
New Zealand | 2003 | 12 mins | Drama | PG | Director: Taika Waititi
This modestly-made, poignant coming-of-age tale leaves a BIG impression… Two ‘muscle’ cars are parked outside of a hotel one night. The adults have gone inside to their regular watering hole with the kids in the car, waiting. In one are two young brothers and in the other, a young girl. After the regulation ‘stand-off’ they bond through common ground, humour and a fleeting friendship that will prove unforgettable.
HIGH FALLS
USA | 2006 | 33 mins | Drama | Director: Andrew Zuckerman
Real-life couple Maggie Gyllenhaal (The Weather Man) and Peter Sarsgaard (Jarhead) play a couple in crisis. She is pregnant with their first child and he is on his way home from a trip overseas. Both are keeping BIG secrets from each other that they only reveal to their best friend (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), a fella who gets well and truly caught in the confessional crossfire. It all comes to a volatile head in this superbly made ‘dramedy’ about contemporary American life.
STRANGE CULTURE
USA | 2006 | 17 mins | Documentary | Director: Lynne Hershman Leeson
This is an extract from the Sundance doc-feature, Strange Culture. Told through dramatic re-enactment and documentary interviews it examines the story of American bio-artist Steve Kurtz, who was charged with murder and terrorism-related offences after the mysterious death of his wife. Strange Culture is a timely exploration of the culturally paranoid times we are currently living in and how artistic freedom is under threat. It couldn’t be a more timely film to screen on the day of our very own Federal Election…
HEAVY METAL JR.
UK | 2005 | 24 mins | Documentary | Director: Chris Waitt
This is a great documentary about a group of small town Scottish teenagers with dreams of metal stardom. Their entertainer dad has high hopes for the kids and their fledgling band, rigorously putting them through their paces in the lead up to their grand debut: the Town Fair. Only the boys are not so sure how their original composition ‘Satan Rocks’ will go down with the locals… One thing is for sure - the results are highly entertaining.
HEAVY METAL DRUMMER
UK | 2005 | 6 mins | Comedy | Directors: Toby MacDonald, Luke Morris
Staying on the metal theme…This is a poetic and quietly entertaining drama about Bardou (Yassine Jarl), a Moroccan teenager whose dream is to rock out in a metal band. Instead he has to endure weddings, parties, anything with his soft-rock band mates - but it’s never going to be enough. This gentle comedy about growing up ‘different’ in an orthodox society was nominated for the Best Short Film at the 2006 BAFTA Awards with very good reason. It’s a beauty.
TOM’S WAR ON TERROR
USA | 2007 | 2 mins | Satire | Director: Cameron Fay
The ‘war on terror’ can get to you, even at a bus stop… Tom (Mathew Edwards) is waiting at a bus stop in a suburban street not realising his day is about to go pear-shaped. Ever the ‘good citizen’ he spies a ‘Middle Eastern’ woman (Denisa Salingerova) wearing a headscarf. Automatically he takes her for a terrorist. Paranoid and stressing out he must make the hardest choice of his life… Hero or dickhead? You be the judge.
More info on Wholphin: www.wholphindvd.com