Film news

As a musician Joe Strummer's work with The Clash left a legacy that continues to inspire countless bands and right up until his untimely death in 2002, including film director Julien Temple. Joe strummer the man was a moral crusader and - in the words of Temple - "a true communicator of our time”. Joe strummer - The Future is Unwritten is Temple’s account of a shared punk history and close friendship with Strummer. Together, MySpace and Dendy are offering an exclusive free screening of the Sundance acclaimed film at the metro theatre, Sydney this coming Tuesday 18 September with an after party and special performance from Sydney wunderkinds Ghostwood. Tickets are limited and only available by heading to www.myspace.com/joestrummerau. So get to it now!

Asia Argento is Zingarina, an Italian travelling through Transylvania with her French companion and a Romanian woman, who is helping them find her missing Romanian lover. As they rush through small villages, the camera is also always on the move, creating a dizzying effect that matches the music which follows them relentlessly. Gatlif finds the core of the passionate gypsy culture through their music, and uses it as a character in his narratives. In his earlier film Gadjo Dilo Gatlif tracks a French man chasing a heartbreaking female voice on a tape, only to fall in love with a wild Romany girl. Zingarina chases her musician lover from France to Transylvania. Frantic to find him, they run through bars and festivities, only to find that he does not want her anymore. Now music pursues them- as two violinists follow them home, the music becomes a painful reminder.

Gatlif captures every possible facet of Romanian culture, taking us through seasons - rain, sunlit fields and snow covered ground. Infusing humour into the heartache, ultimately it is mysterious wanderer Birol Unel who saves the film- his weathered face, and hoarse voice, the way he concocts a beautiful smashed salad, add humour and a deep character that is lacking in Argento's hardness.

Turning up at uni on a Saturday sounds like something from a horror movie, but that’s exactly what a group of Sydney-siders are asking you to do. They want kids to arm themselves with a camera and come to Sydney University on Saturday September 22nd  to film their attempt to form the world's biggest zombie lurch. Thousands of ghoulish looking brain chompers will be marching through the uni grounds in the name of community filmmaking and love of the undead.
The footage will also be used to create a short film using the open source method. Tentatively titled ‘Campus of the Undead’, the film will be created through a series of online contributions and artistic collaborations. Who knew zombies could be so community minded?

Email andrew@zombiefestival.org for more info or click here to register to take part.

Nothing like a bit of filmmaking to re-inspire and re-energise. Been having fun putting together the 'special features' for the upcoming DVD release of my doc Lovestruck: Wrestlings Number One Fan, about Sue Chuter (pictured), who is just that.  
Special Features are so fun because nothing has to make sense or add up to anything more than it is. Experimental even... Maybe more films should be made up of random unrelated weirdness instead of operating under the pretense lead imperative of 'story'... Like the Jackass movies - Knoxville was onto something I reckon. There is too much emphasis placed on story, which for the most part can bog films down.
Maybe that'll be my next doc project - knitting together random weird non-fiction clips, just 'cos. That might be more entertaining and possibly more profound than half of the docs billed as such.

Werd. Daft Punk have once again turned their WD40 lubricated hands and metal clad faces to film. Electrorama is midnight movie-a-gogo with all the obligatory trimmings; stark (seemingly) midwest town, the desert, picket fences and one really hot car. The Daft essentials are all there; robots in place of a distant humanity, exceptionally good music and razor sharp iconography. In short, Sophia Coppola with a serious Kubrick fetish.

Writing from Changi airport on the way back to Australia from London. What better way to catch up on some of the films than to sit on a long haul flight with video-on-demand at my finger tips – a film geek’s paradise! With close quarters stereo sound, that surreal, dreamlike mindset can also enhance the experience. And not just regulation popcorn fare- “foreign” and “arthouse” movies were on the menu! Some shockers: ‘Next’ (Nic Cage, has now officially made as many bad movies as good ones); ‘The Dead Girl’ (gotta be the most overrated movie of the year); ‘Fracture’ (“Twaddle” with a capital ‘T’ even with the fabulous Ryan Gosling). But – the good stuff was good: ‘The History Boys’ – excellent; ‘Lucky Miles’ – nice, and wait for it – ‘Waitress’! What a beauty! Shed tears and laughed out loud. Made all the more sad with the director, the beautiful Hal Hartley actress Adrienne Shelley, having her life cut tragically short before this gem came out. Such a beautiful film and such a rotten-sad post-script to it.
So. No snakes on a plane. Just movies. It was good for me…

Well the BFI that is. I am over in London for a couple of weeks after intense work at a
film festival in Perth (Revelation). Wanted to literally lose myself in a giant city with
giant history - and have! Have also been overwhelmed at how vast it is, and old
(Australia is the mini-golf version of the rest of the world). But film calls no matter
how hard I try and shake it and live a real life (a bit like trying to escape AFL in Victoria). So. Surrender. The British Film Institute in Southbank is the mecca for the likes of me and thousands of other London filmies. It has an awesome bookshop that I should not have gone into, but did. Walked out with 4 DVDs, just what I need more of - Withnail & I (3-DVD anniversary edition - well I am staying in Camberwell); the first DVD issue of Punishment Park; Following (Christopher Nolan's first feature) and a film I cannot wait to watch a doco called The Alcohol Years. Plus I bought an awesome book about David Lynch at Clapham Books, best bookshop in London. Too much money but too good. Now I have to get all this stuff through Heathrow.
Next week, 'movies on a plane'.