Byron Bay Film Festival
www.bbff.com.au
Byron Film Festival opens its arms to the world Bob sings gospel songs at a church in Tottenham, London, regularly performing his devotion to ‘the R&B feeling’, among a congregation who are happy for him to dance to his own rhythm. Similarly strange, though not in her own mind, is the grandmother in A Family Affair, Dutch filmmaker Tom Fasseart’s compelling and poignant documentary about his father’s mother, Marianne Hertz, a former model, now 95. It’s a casebook study of narcissism.
Digby Hildreth
Surfing, seed-saving, psychology and a performance artist’s struggle – what could be more Byron Shire than the subjects of the feature documentaries in the first weekend of the Byron Bay Film Festival. But the festival looks far beyond the immediate region. While almost half of the 174 films showing are Australian made – many of them local – the onscreen offerings in the days following Friday’s Red Carpet Gala Opening Night feature Zach’s Ceremony come from around the globe. This is a truly international festival, inclusive, broad in outlook, and curious about the world and the splendid variety of its inhabitants and environments.
Threatened Take Seed: The Untold Story, for example, a disturbing but inspirational look at what is being done to preserve the world’s seed varieties – what is left of them – by seed savers in Africa, India, Mexico, Hawaii and mainland US. Everywhere, mass farming
Monster mother Seed: The Untold Story looks at the corporate threat to ancient agricultural practices.
and its tools – monocultures, pesticides, patents and genetic modification, coupled with corporate aggression – threaten the existence of ancient agricultural cultures and the livelihood of small farmers, many of whom are fighting to preserve this miraculous form of life for future generations. Seed presents a powerful message that is underpinned by a strong sense of community spirit, and ignites a desire
to rekindle a lost connection to the Earth. Surfers will love Bjørnøya (Bear Island), which screens on Saturday evening. It was made by the people behind North of the Sun, a surf treat that was a huge festival hit two years ago. Bjørnøya is a remote Norwegian island to which three brothers journey in the film, lugging a surfboard, snowboard and paragliding gear. The island becomes their own wild playground –
complete with polar bears. ‘Out there’ in an entirely different sense is the eccentric character in The RnB Feeling, artist Bob Parks. Bob is a forgotten pioneer of the 1970s West Coast performance art scene, an Englishman in Los Angeles, rejected by his peers as being too extreme. Despite his willingness to disrobe in public, he is one of the movement’s outstanding failures, forced to return to his parents’ home in the UK, devoting his life to the arts – and his mum, Miggy. Now
Marianne repeatedly abandoned Tom’s father Robert and his siblings, firstly in a children’s home when they were tiny. Robert, now 70, and his autistic older brother still weep at the sense of emptiness that was created. An attempt at a family reunion by Tom seems to go well… but this woman has a monster inside her and it rears up one more time. Early next week there is Nanabozhung – We Are the Solution, a film of extraordinary relevance in the light of the Dakota standoff between the first peoples and corporate interests. Nanabozhung is set in
a Canadian mining centre where the local tribes have to fight to preserve a culture that has been rendered invisible. ‘First Nations are not the problem: They are the solutions to the problem,’ one tribesman says. On Monday also is Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World. Who could ignore a new work from Werner Herzog, one of the planet’s most revered filmmakers? Here he takes a comprehensive and riveting look at the internet – its history and significance in our lives. The weekend will also host some of the Festival’s top dramas, including The Neon Demon, from acclaimed director Nicolas Winding Refn (Bronson, Drive) and starring Elle Fanning, Keanu Reeves and Christina Hendricks. Boys in the Trees, Reparation and High Rise all offer thrilling entertainment… with much more to come. Q For program details and to buy tickets or a flexi-pass, visit bbff.com.au. Downloading Byron Bay Film Festival app lets you book your flexi-pass sessions, mark your calendar or purchase tickets. You can also buy in person from BBFF’s venues.
Canadian tribes fight to preserve their culture in Nanabozhung.
Surfing among the polar bears is on the cards in Bjørnøya.
12 October 12, 2016 The Byron Shire Echo
Byron Shire Echo archives: www.echo.net.au/byron-echo