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DIRTY SECRETS COMEDY
THE COMIC STRIP
Coming Up
DIRTY SECRETS COMEDY
SCORSESE
Thursday May 26 – Sunday September 18 ACMI
There’s another ripping lineup down at Caz Reitops boasting their pro bracket including Raw Comedy winner Danielle Walker, New York’s Kelly Fastuca as well as Tegan Marie Higginbotham, Tamara Issa, Murphy McLachlan and Tim Hewitt. Don’t forget their ‘Gig Pig’ bracket with six sign-up spots available on the night. It’s all totally free every Wednesday at 8.30pm.
Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet
Friday June 3, Saturday June 4 and Monday June 6 Hamer Hall
Circus Oz’s TWENTYSIXTEEN June 15 – July 10 Circus Oz Big Top, Birrarung Marr
COMEDY AT GEORGE’S
Degas: A New Vision
The city’s favourite George Costanza-inspired bar is giving a nod to Seinfeld’s stand-up roots, locking in a new weekly comedy night. Thursday May 12 will play host to Sami Shah as MC (QI, Australian Story) alongside Tim Hewitt, Alex Ward, Glen Zen and Luke Miller. Capping it off comes Thomas MacMahon, Nicky Barry, Geoff Setty and RAW comedy winner Danielle Walker. It kicks off from 8pm at 120 Johnston Street, Fitzroy.
Friday June 24 – Sunday September 18 National Gallery of Victoria
Jurassic Nights Come to Life at Melbourne Museum
Following on from their blockbuster exhibition, the Melbourne Museum are now setting the dinosaurs loose after dark with their latest series. The Melbourne Museum’s Jurassic Nights will open the gates to Jurassic World: The Exhibition, bringing the dinosaurs to life by night on a week-to-week basis. Adding to the experience, special guest DJs will be spinning ‘til late (surely playing cuts from Dinosaur Jr, T. Rex and Jurassic 5) capped off with a purpose built Jurassic Lounge to sink a cocktail or two in. Jurassic World: The Exhibition has been hugely successful for the Museum, immersing punters in the prehistoric world with world-class animatronics and installations. Get down with the dinosaurs every Friday in June at the Melbourne Museum.
CLUB VOLTAIRE COMEDY This Sunday May 15 at Club Voltaire there’s a cracking lineup, featuring the likes of Jack Druce with MC duties alongside Peter Jones, Ash Williams, Sam Taunton, Adam Knox, Claire Sullivan and more. It’s totally free (they’ll accept donations, however) and kicks off at 7.30pm.
Vinyl and Vino Come to ACMI
In celebration of their SCORSESE exhibition, ACMI will bring the small screen to cinema when they host a special cinema screening of Vinyl’s ambitious twohour series pilot. Created by Scorsese, Mick Jagger, Rich Cohen and Terence Winter, the world of ‘70s downtown New York has been brought back to wild, decaying, energetic life. This special screening will include a short introduction by writer and critic Craig Mathieson (The Sunday Age, Rolling Stone) exploring the music industry of the 1970s, and will conclude with a ‘vino and vinyl’ session, as DJ JNett hits the decks and spins the best of the ‘70s in the ACMI Bar and Café. It all goes down on Tuesday May 31.
HotDocs Film Festival Headed
Professor Brian Cox to
to Melbourne
Explain the Cosmos in
Renowned Canadian film festival hotDocs is coming to Melbourne for the first time in 2016 and has unveiled a thought provoking program for its inaugural showing. Highlights include Jim: The James Foley Story, a story about the American journalist executed by ISIS in 2014; The Road, an exploration into corruption in China; Mr Gaga, the audience award winner at Berlinale 2016 about the Batsheva Dance Company and What Tomorrow Brings, a feature into a woman’s fight to educate young girls in Afghanistan. hotDocs will be showcased at the Palace Westgarth and Palace Como from Tuesday June 14 until Wednesday June 29.
Melbourne Show
The superstar physicist will return to Melbourne with a new one night only show as he attempts to make sense of the cosmos. Professor Cox will delve into great unanswered questions of our time in his live stage show A Journey Into Deep Space. Are we alone in the universe? Will we ever know what happened before the big bang? All this and more will be delved in to. Joining him on stage will be British comedian and co-host on The Infinite Monkey Cage, Robin Ince. A Journey Into Deep Space will hit The Plenary on Friday August 5. 1. STYLE WARS This fantastic documentary from ’84 is the definitive graffiti art documentary made and released at the height of the hip hop and graffiti movements. It is really beautifully put together and is not just a mirror to the movement, but an actual part of it. It captures a real honesty of the young artists who make some beautifully simple political commentary and social observation. The art is spectacular.
Essential Independents: American Cinema, Now B E S T
O F
T H E
Monday September 19 & Tuesday September 20 State Theatre
Raiders of the Lost Ark Live in Concert
Friday November 4 – Saturday November 5 Hamer Hall
A Ballerina’s Tale
Style Wars
T H E
An Evening With Henry Rollins
F E S T
B Y R I C H A R D S O WA D A
Essential Independents: American Cinema, Now is the brand new indie film festival launching at Palace Cinemas this week. With a program spanning 32 films, including 14 Australian premieres, the festival represents American achievement in filmmaking both past and present. There are five different categories on show – Essential Fiction, Essential Intrigue, Essential Experiments, Essential Originals and Essential New York – and stunning performances from the likes of Richard Gere (Time Out Of Mind) and Natalie Portman (Jane Got A Gun). Festival curator Richard Sowada picks out five hot tickets from a wide-ranging selection.
2. WE’RE STILL HERE: JOHNNY CASH’S BITTER TEARS REVISITED I love Johnny Cash and this film brings to life one of his great political moments with some of country music’s great artists. Mr. Cash was famous for siding with the underdog and his LP Bitter Tears was a magnificent ode to the plight of native Americans. A largely unrecognised record – aside from the classic The Ballad Of Ira Hayes – Bitter Tears is bought back to life in the studio by Kris Kristofferson, Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle and many, many more. It’s fantastic. 3. THE FITS This debut feature is about as fresh as it gets as we explore the world of an 11-year-old tomboy. Played by Royalty Hightower, Toni spends a lot of time at the local community centre observing the older girls, and what we get is a dreamy and fragmented look at life from a female perspective on the cusp of adolescence. It’s a really lovely and poetic film in many ways and the style is always surprising. If you
G E T S O M E C U LT U R E U P YA
Rock Photographer Jay Hynes Relives CherryRock016 for Latest Exhibition
Renowned local photographer Jay Hynes will relive the glory of CherryRock016 with a free exhibition. The installation will run along the length of AC/DC lane, bringing the laneway to life with Hynes’ exclusive photography. “CherryRock is an intimate festival and I think that shows in this portrait series,” said Hynes. “I see the sweaty, grunty guys as they come off stage and their often calm and down-to-earth natures when they’re not performing. It’s a privileged position and that’s why I love coming back each year.” Catch it at AC/DC Lane from Thursday May 12 to Sunday May 22. want to be on the ground floor at the start of what is bound to be a great directorial career – this is the one. 4. RIVER OF GRASS Kelly Reichardt’s newly restored great first feature has more than a tip of the hat to the indie classic TwoLane Blacktop. This nugget is sparse, lean and strangely very funny. Two bored losers living in the suburbs accidentally find each other and then go on a crime spree that isn’t really a crime spree, in a relationship that isn’t really a relationship, pursued by family that don’t really care, and in an urban environment that doesn’t really have many buildings. It’s a lovely debut from Reichardt and a little-known piece of contemporary independent cinema. 5. CRUISING / INTERIOR. LEATHER BAR This double bill is an amazing creative free fall with Pacino on the beat in 1970s New York S&M bars and James Franco reconstructing 40 minutes of footage deleted from the film. You simply don’t see commercial feature films like this, and so this is a rare opportunity to experience the amazing piece of 1970s filmmaking that is still surprising in its content and depictions of a part of gay subculture. It looks and sounds great, is always great to watch and Pacino is excellent throughout. ESSENTIAL INDEPENDENTS: AMERICAN CINEMA, NOW will run at Palace Westgarth and Palace Cinema Como from Wednesday May 18 to Wednesday June 1. BEAT MAGAZINE PAGE 19