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REVELATION PERTH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL The Revelation Perth International Film Festival kicks off Thursday 5 July, bringing 32 features and a host of short films together in a curatorial collection that deals with low-budget cinema, though not necessarily uncommercial or experimental works. Here’s a few of the things I’ve already seen in the program... Eames: The Architect And The Painter portrays Eames plural: Charles and Ray, the husband/wife partnership who collaborated on furniture, architecture, installation, film, advertising, etc; becoming America’s high king/queen of modernist design. Jason Cohn and Bill Jersey’s chronicle of their shared career surveys their work with a general patter of tropes and platitudes: hyperbole-prone celebrity narration (James Franco!); endless talking-head pontification; and the Eames’ films cut up into what feels like a PR piece for their legacy. The Interrupters manages to live up to the prior documentaries of Steve James; studies of basketball (Hoop Dreams), mental illness (Stevie) and, um, basketball (No Crossover: The Trial Of Allen Iverson), that were all studies of America, that land of big dreams and failed dreams. James chronicles a crew of ‘violence interrupters’ working to effect change in crime-ridden Chicago, armies of ex-cons out to arrest unending cycles of retribution. James does so direct-cinema style: no voice-over, no editorialising, no judging. The approach of the mediators is to not take sides —no one is right or wrong in a beef where both bear
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Livid seems to have pretensions of artistic credibility, its airy mood and Gothic style suggesting a horror film beyond the usual. But once a trio of young rascals —out to pilfer ill-gotten ‘treasure’— are locked in a mansion after dark, it’s a parade of perfunctory scares delivered at intervals you can set your watch by.
Surviving Progress is a superior example of the ‘world is fucked’ documentary; fitting in that sweet
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grievances— and, so, too, does James; the root cause of violence not individuals —not gangs, drugs, degeneracy, etc— but society as whole; the problem is, essentially, America itself.
Rampart finds Oren Moverman failing —badly— to recapture the moving-macho form of his Army Casualty Notifier drama The Messenger. His tawdry tale of dirty cops plays like a parody of some ‘gritty’ awards-show-chaser, with an unending cast of dressed-down celebrity actors all flailing wildly whilst Moverman’s camera wobbles pointlessly, whipping around with a flounce that runs counter to the supposed socio-realism on show. And nothing is less real than the central, scenery-chewing turn from a hambone Woody Harrelson.
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LIVID arthouse niche of pictures that take a subject —agribusiness, fishing, American foreign policy— and make it a potent symbol for society’s imminent downfall. Here, there’s no symbolism: instead, society itself is the study, and Mathieu Roy’s picture artfully posits that current human existence is unsustainable and the persistence of free-market capitalism as overruling philosophy untenable. Best of all, it brings chimpanzees into the picture, and the naked ape’s closest cousins are
the eternal potent symbol. The Trouble With Bliss feels like one of those tired writer’s fantasies where a 35-year-old loser —unemployed and living at home with his parents, natch — proves ‘comically’ irresistible to women and ‘lucklessly’ lucks into catalysing change. For all the RPIFF’s embrace of the underground, this feels like a tiny, minor film whose existence belongs wholly to the casting of Michael C. Hall and Lucy Liu. Anthony Carew
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The 15th annual Revelation Perth International Film Festival starts this week and this year’s program is set to impress as it continues deliver quality films that are diverse, interesting and entertaining. This year the program boasts three world premieres, 19 Australian premieres, 53 short films, 11 special events, three live performances and films from Australia, UK, Iceland, Cambodia, USA, Canada, Germany, Portugal, France, Slovenia, Ireland, Denmark, Japan, Philippines, Netherlands and Switzerland. It all kicks off with Revelation’s opening night festivities, with a screening of Your Sister’s Sister, topped off by an afterparty featuring live music, DJs, drinks, food and special guests. The comedy/drama stars Emily Blunt, Mark Duplass and Rosemarie DeWitt and is directed by Lynn Shelton (Humpday, My Effortless Brilliance). Screenings with Crispin Hellion Glover are bound to sell out. This legend of contemporary cinema will be at Revelation in person to present his feature films It Is Fine! EVERYTHING IS FINE and What Is It? The Australian premiere of Paul Fraser’s My Brothers should also be pretty popular, billed as intensely moving, poignant and funny. Fans of the hit television show Dexter can see Michael C. Hall in The Trouble With Bliss, directed by Michael Knowles. Joining Hall is Lucy Liu and Brie Larson in this film about a man who is stuck in a rut, just waiting for life to happen.
If horror films tickle your fancy, then Livid is for you. Directed by Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo, Revelation deems this to be supernatural, gothic horror at its best. Maybe not one for the faint hearted. If you are getting tired of seeing Woody Harrelson in Cheers reruns on Eleven, then catch him in Rampart. Directed by Oren Moverman, the film features the allstar cast of Ice Cube, Steve Buscemi and Sigourney Weaver, as it tells the story of corrupt policeman David Brown (Harrelson). Get Your Shorts On is back and showcasing the talents of WA’s emerging filmmakers, including a line up of shorts ranging from animation, documentary, drama and other genre-driven films. Documentaries are also on offer within the Revelation program. Beauty is Embarrassing looks at the life of freethinking designer, artist, and puppeteer Wayne White. In exploring his life, this inspirational film is said to make us look at the very nature of creativity in a new way. Adding to all of this is a selection of shorts and opportunities for discussion and debate with directors and industry professionals. With the festival having firmly established itself on WA’s international film calendar, Revelation brings Perth audiences a selection of high-quality, awardwinning independent films from around the world. With so much on offer, there is definitely something for everyone!
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Riverside Theatre SatURDAY JULY 14TH 2012
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Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre Mounts Bay Road Perth THE DRUM MEDIA • 25