University of Canberra Convocation
2nd Australian
International Film Festival
Program
Correct as at 15 September 1997
Program - All films shown at Electric Shadows Cinemas, The Boulevard, Canberra City
Check all Session times with the Cinema
(only those underlined titles have linked descriptions)
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Wednesday 17 September Opening Night |
7.30 pm |
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Thursday 18 September |
7.00 pm |
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9.15 pm* |
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Friday 19 September |
6.30 pm |
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9.00 pm* |
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Saturday 20 September |
4.00 pm |
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Conspirators of Pleasure |
7.00 pm* |
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Les Voleurs (Thieves) |
8.25 pm* |
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Sunday 21 September |
Charachar (Shelter of the Wings) |
2.00 pm |
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Mutter's Courage |
4.00 pm* |
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The King of Masks |
6.15 pm* |
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Road to Nhill |
8.30 pm* |
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* Session times are approximate only |
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Wednesday 17 September < 7.30pm
Canberra Premiere The Full Monty : England; Director: Peter Cattaneo; 90 minutes; colour
Film Festivals: Brisbane
This hysterical comedy from England tells the story of a group of ex-steel worker dropouts who want to find a way to escape their tedious existence. These men are not even cluey enough to steal for a living, let alone get a job. When by chance they find themselves in a club with a Chippendales-style strip act, Gaz, the thirty year-old hustler of the group, gets the idea that they should put together their own show < which would be a fine idea if they weren't all overweight, middle-aged and with zero sex appeal. What follows in this film is a sight for sore eyes. Watch Trainspotting and Hamish McBeth's Robert Carlyle strut his stuff to the sounds of Gary Glitter, Sister Sledge and Donna Summer as he and his merry band of non-sexy thirty something's go to desperate lengths to change their lives.
Thursday 18 September < 7.00pm
Australian Premiere Africa : Spain; Director: Alfonso Ungria; 100 minutes; colour
Film Festivals: San Sebastian
16 year-old Martin's mother falls out of a window and dies after a bitter argument with Mart,n,s father. The police write it off as suicide. Then Martin meets Africa, a neighbouring young woman who tells him that his father has been seeing Africa's mother for some time. Love, sex, frustration and anger provide the volatile fuel for the relationship that grows between these two as they plan to see justice done with the execution of the perfect crime. This age-old tale about the strength of adolescent love and hate is given new life by veteran Spanish director Alfonso Ungria.
Canberra Premiere < Landscapes of Memory : Brazil; Director: Jose Araujo; 100 min; black and white
Latin American Cinema Award, Sundance 1997
Film Festivals: Toronto, Sundance, Berlin, Fribourg, Toulouse, San Francisco, Melbourne, Viennale and opening film at the 4th Latin American Festival in Rio de Janeiro.
This rich, dream-like first feature from Brazilian director Jose Araujo is a story of two ancient peasants whose paths cross when events beyond their control bring them together against the white-hot backdrop of Brazil's drought ridden north-east region of Sertao. This is a place of spiritual and cultural complexity where, despite material poverty, the people have developed a unique mythology and history. Part religious allegory, part political history, part autobiography, director Araujo's magical visual and aural cinema experience won the Wolfgang Staudte Prize at the Berlin Film Festival and went on to take the 1997 Sundance audience by storm, winning the Latin American Cinema Award.
Friday 19 September 6.30 pm
Australian Premiere Hurricane : United States; Director: Morgan J Freeman; 89 minutes; colour
Film Festivals: Sundance: Best Director, Best Cinematography and Audience Prize for Best Film at 1997
Young US director Morgan J Freeman brings us this compelling film about the moral anomie that many underprivileged teenagers must confront in today's society. A "club" of boys, still at the bike-riding age in lower Manhattan, steal CDs and shoes to resell to other kids, hang out in their clubhouse (an empty bomb shelter), and engage in small-time crime. The central character is Marcus, a fifteen-year old who lives with his grandmother because his father is dead and his mother is in jail. Marcus dreams of the day she will be released so they can move back to New Mexico where he was born. But events are put in motion that mitigate against the possibility of that future. As Marcus acts to realise his dreams, he must confront a web of dilemmas that leads him to engineers his own escape. Beautifully shot and edited, Huricane is cinematic truth at its finest, receiving major world acclaim, including Best Director and Audience Prize for Best Film at the 1997 Sundance Festival.
Canberra Premiere Stella Does Tricks : Scotland; Director: Coky Giedroye; 97 min; colour
Film Festivals: Edinburgh, London, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane
Kelly Macdonald, from the cult hit Trainspotting, gives a powerful performance as Stella, a teenage Glasgow prostitute working the streets of London. Stella lives with a number of other young prostitutes in a London brothel run by Mr Peters, who assumes the paternal role while also insisting on sexual favours, just as Stella's real father had. Using a narrative structure which oscillates between reality, memory and fantasy, this harrowing tale by Hong Kong-born director Coky Giedroye is about escaping from the fetters of abuse. Giedroye developed this film out of the stories she encountered while making a documentary about homelessness in 1994. Stella Does Tricks has been a hit at film festivals around the world.
Saturday 20 September< 4.00 pm
Australian Premiere < The Truce: Italy; Director: Francisco Rosi; 117 minutes; colour
Film Festivals: Official Selection Cannes 1997
Based on the true story of the courageous and brilliant Jewish-Italian author Primo Levi, this film traces his odyssey through a Europe caught between war and peace. January 1945 sees the Red Army push towards Auschwitz and the Nazis abandon their concentration camps, leaving the sick and skeletal prisoners to their destiny. Once liberated, they begin their journey home. Heroes and traitors, farmers and thieves, intellectuals and gypsies are thrown together as they make their way home through war-torn Russia and Central Europe, rediscovering life and the world and doing whatever is necessary to survive. Winner of Best Actor at Cannes 1991, John Turturro (Quiz Show, Fearless, Do the Right Thing, Barton Fink, The Colour of Money) is magnificent as Primo, whose journey sees the lacerating tragic memories of the concentration camp subsumed as life re-emerges triumphant. This tragi-comic epic took acclaimed Italian director Rosi 10 years to make and was Italy's Official Entry at Cannes 1997.
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Mike Craig
mcraig@agso.gov.auLast updated February 2000