The Sydney Film Festival
Sydney Film Festival 2009—Part 1: Courage and audacity sadly lacking
By Richard Phillips, July 9, 2009
The quality of new work screened at this year’s Sydney Film Festival was patchy and generally undemanding, with critical human issues largely unexplored.
55th Sydney Film Festival—Part 6
Deborah Kerr: an actor with genuine subtlety and integrity
By Richard Phillips, September 23, 2008
This is the last in a series of articles on the 2008 Sydney Film Festival. Part 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 appeared on September 16, 17, 18, 19 and 22 respectively.
55th Sydney Film Festival—Part 3
Noteworthy documentaries—from Australia and Canada
By Richard Philips and Ismet Redzovic, September 18, 2008
This is the third in a series of articles on the 2008 Sydney Film Festival. Part 1 appeared on Tuesday September 16 and Part 2 on Wednesday September 17.
Sydney Film Festival
“I’m interested in a documentary and fiction hybrid”: filmmaker Kriv Stenders speaks with WSWS
By Richard Phillips, July 24, 2007
Filmmaker Kriv Stenders graduated from the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS) in 1989 with a major in cinematography. Like many of his fellow graduates, Stenders shot and directed mu...
“To encourage people to think more deeply about this social tragedy”
An interview with Olivier Meyrou, director of Beyond Hatred
By Richard Phillips, August 3, 2006
Olivier Meyrou, director of the prizewinning French documentary Beyond Hatred, spoke with the World Socialist Web Siteduring the recent Sydney Film Festival. The film carefully charts the humane respo...
53rd Sydney Film Festival--Part 2
Ten Canoes: a dramatic exploration of ancient Aboriginal culture
By Richard Phillips, July 19, 2006
This is the second part of a series of articles on the 2006 Sydney Film Festival, held June 9-25. Thefirst part was posted July 17.
53rd Sydney Film Festival--Part 1
Not deep enough
By Richard Phillips, July 17, 2006
This is the first of a series of articles on the 2006 Sydney Film Festival, held June 9-25.
Another sign of popular disgust
Australian film festival audience invites Mamdouh Habib to speak about Guantánamo documentary
By Richard Phillips, July 1, 2006
While the Howard government attempts to claim that “ordinary Australians” support its so-called “war on terror” and associated assault on basic democratic rights, a brief episo...
Australian government bans Sydney Film Festival movie
By Richard Phillips, June 16, 2003
In a major attack on artistic freedom and democratic rights, Australia’s censor board has banned screenings of the US film Ken Park at the June 6-20 Sydney Film Festival. The decision was made b...
Sydney Film Festival
"The pleasure of seeing should be the moving force"
A selection of Max Ophuls films
By Richard Phillips, August 15, 2000
One of the highlights of the Sydney Film Festival was the screening of five classic films— La Signora di Tutti (1934), The Reckless Moment (1949), Le Plaisir (1951), Madame de... (1953) and Lola...
Sydney Film Festival
Teaching stories and empty posturing
Dora Heita and Beau Travail
By Mustafa Rashid, August 9, 2000
The experience of seeing a film can be loosely categorised as internal and external. The internal experience is the one that most filmmakers aim for. This refers to what we experience when a film take...
Sydney Film Festival
Two young Czech filmmakers investigating real human experiences
By Mustafa Rashid, July 29, 2000
The Czech title of Jan Hrebejk's new film Cosy Dens, one of the two Czech films screened at the Sydney Film Festival, is simply “Pelisky” (pronounced Pelishki). There is no “cosy&rdq...
