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New Australian and International Cinema |
In competition, to be judged by the jury of
Mark Bakaitis (CHAIR), Fiona Parker, Dr. Patricia MacCormack, Gawain McLachlan, Patrick Hughes, Mark Savage and armourer John Fox to settle any disputes.
Awards presented July 15 with the film Down and Out with the Dolls with after party at Bond Bar.
Opening Night
Thursday 5 July 7pm Cinemedia at Treasury Theatre
Four Jacks (AUS)
Marvellous Australian movie that showcases talents of the director Matthew George (of the upcoming Let’s Get Skase) and a group of young talent headed by Lachy Hulme and a great thespian turn from Tommy “gogo mobile” Dysart. Cleverly written and fast paced the film deals entertainingly with four friends who buy into a restaurant and get royally screwed by their condescending best mate. What follows is not pretty and makes for a wild opening night.
Q & A with director Matthew George and available cast and crew with after party at Bond Bar.
The Presidential Jury Statement 2001
Just when you thought the culturally elite had succeeded in the sanitization of independent cinema, MUFF is back for another year to offer a huge range of enticing alternative films. After its hasty and somewhat controversial birth last year, MUFF has returned with a strong sense of experience and knowledge that will only continue to develop in the future. With more time for the selection process, we the jury have been attempting to present a program covering a wide area of misrepresented genres. We feel that film festivals need not be exclusively the domain of film buffs alone; this year we are attempting to represent various sub-cultures ranging from musical movements to street art to extreme sports.
Historically all famous art movements get to a point where they fail to be relevant at a street level. MUFF strives to maintain a full underground assault on the senses, with something in the program for everyone.
Viva La Revolution
Mark Bakaitis
THE FILMS IN COMPETITION
Rock n Roll Frankenstein (US)
Directed by Brian O’Hara
Wild hit of the Puchon Film Festival in Korea features a Frankenstein made up of different body parts of great rock stars: Jimmy Hendrix’ hands, Sid Vicious’ butt, Keith Moon’s legs, Elvis’ head and supposedly Jim Morrison’s cock. Things go wrong when the money hungry promoter whose idea this monster is and his necrophiliac nephew put Liberace’s cock onto the Frankenstein creation and not Jim Morrison’s. Think Elvis with Liberace’s tendencies and you’ve got one wild Troma-esque movie.
Saturday 7 July 5pm, Storey Hall
Das Zimmer (GER)
Directed by Roland Reber – a guest of this year’s festival, along with cast members Mira Gittner and Marcus Grusser
A spooky treat from the SITGES Film Festival all the way from Deutschland, about a young couple who are hired to look after a house with one room they must not enter. Starring Mira Gittner and Marcus Grusser as the hapless couple we are drawn into the psycho-sexual would of the unconscious that only our dear ole german friends know how to do. A kind of Blair Witch meets Fassbinder treat for all you fright film fans.
Q & A with Director Roland Reber and cast members Mira Gittner and Marcus Grusser,
Friday 13 July 9pm, Storey Hall
The Heist (AUS/US)
Directed by Kurt Voss
Ice T, Luke Perry and Richmond Arquette star in this tight action piece produced by Australian production company Whyte House Productions but shot in downtown LA. Tight, well acted and bloody, this film delivers a Reservoir Dogs meets The Getaway low budget gem that doesn’t take itself too seriously but has plenty of self confident
style and action.
Friday 6 July 9pm, Kaleide
Ralph (AUS)
Directed by Vincenzo Gallo
Ralph (Tony Nardella) is a health inspector with a heavy handed approach. A desperate man with a mission – to protect the public from unscrupulous salami manufacturers like the maniacal Tony Medda (played with gusto by Dale Reeves), who plans to spike the competition’s produce with deadly bacteria. Ralph is a fun comedy example of low budget filmmaking with a mixture of Taxi Driver meets Wog Boy featuring amongst others Merrick from the Merrick and Rosso radio combo.
Sunday 8 July 7pm, Storey Hall
The Curse (US)
Directed by Jacqueline Garry
An underground feature film directed by a woman about a subject close to all girls’ hearts – PMS. This film is a stylish murderous tale of period anxiety gone way wrong. Lots of gore, guts and kinky shit from the USA based team. Featured on the front cover of the cool Femme Fatales US magazine we are happy to present the Australian Premiere of this ghoulish sexy low budget thriller. Recently featured in Filmmaker magazine and the Village Voice, an exclusive to watch this year at MUFF.
Friday 6 July 3pm, Kaleide
Adam & Eve (AUS)
Directed by Paul Jeffrey
We’re going to give you the synopsis of this film given to us on the entry form from the filmmaker that basically says it all. “Lonely man abducts ex-girlfriend and chains her up in basement. Film examines this scenario and asks the question of what prompts a filmmaker to come up with an idea like this”. Indeed.
Friday 13 July 3pm, Storey Hall
Dirt Cheap (AUS)
Directed by John Menzies
It’s vigilante time in this idiosyncratic guerrilla Aussie movie all the way from funky Hobart. In what looks like a southern take on Mark Savage’s Sensitive New Age Killer, Hugh witnesses an assassination and becomes fascinated by the lifestyle of the contract killer. He is egged on by his, and I quote the press release “bit of a dickhead mate”, and soon he is creating trouble in the local hitman biz and becomes hunted himself. Low budget, from Tasmania, about hitmen, Australian Premiere, perfect MUFF stuff.
Monday 9 July 5pm, Kaleide
Getting the Dirt on Trish (AUS) (M 15+)
Directed by Sue Brown
“She lied in her bed and look what she made of it”. Another female director chiming in this year with a guerrilla filmmaking project – there should still be more of them girls… so get filmmaking, we’ll show them! This film concerns two feuding sisters being forced to live together after one desperately needs to hide from her psycho lover. A comedy thriller with edge, Getting the Dirt on Trish continues our list of Oz Premieres at MUFF.
Friday 6 July 5pm, Kaleide
Blue Neon (AUS)
Directed by Matthew Bird
Another Australian Premiere with Blue Neon, a stylish thriller set in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. With its unique blend of psychological terror, sci-fi and horror and its guerrilla aesthetics and fast pace, this is one of the best antipodean entries at this year’s MUFF. Get along to this original home grown feature.
Intro & Q+A with filmmaker Friday 6 July 7pm, Kaleide
Instant Karma (AUS)
Directed by Martyn Park
Asks the question “what would you do if confronted with the same situation?” In a world where “to do the right thing” is getting harder to define, Scott, Danny and Samantha couldn’t have got it more wrong. For our luck-lorn players, it’s a roller coaster ride that’s downhill from there. Simple idea that pushes it to the nth degree.
Friday 6 July 7pm, Kaleide
Never Die Twice (USA)
Directed by Sean Scott
Sent to us by the good people at MIFF. Accepted immediately. This is a must see!
Friday 13 July 5pm, Kaleide
The Bad Samaritan (AUS)
Directed by Bill Kandiliotis
Great title. Mark is taking the rest of the day off. He wants to pay a few bills, do a little gardening. And if he has enough time, go on a rampage. Martin Bryant look out, “The Bad Samaritan” is coming.
Sunday 8 July 3pm, Storey Hall
Sunday 15 July 8pm Cinemedia at Treasury Theatre
Directed by Kurt Voss
A film about youth culture that doesn’t suck. Honest! The real thing about a group of cool chicks in downtown USA who form a band, get some fame and fuck it all up ending in a nightmarish party-cum-orgy of sex, drugs and rock n roll. Our kinda movie. Low budget, well written, well acted, sexy, smart, fast paced, damn near perfect underground fare! We go out on a high this year with a great closing night film for MUFF 2001, with the MUFF awards announced directly after the film by the jury with a wild after party to rival even the one in the film!!!
Dogme Day Afternoon
Saturday 7 July, Kaleide
Real American beauty is found in mental hospitals, trailer parks, ice-skating rinks and Burger Kings. Enfant terrible Harmony Korine’s latest masterpiece of cinematic dislocation has an adolescent schizophrenic with a violent Rain Man quality in the lead. With impromptu performances from the cast including Ewen Bremner, Chloe Sevigny and German film director Werner Herzog – often seen sporting a gas mask, it is a must see at MUFF. Plus you get to see a guy with no arms play the drums!
Saturday 7 July 7pm, Kaleide
Chetzemoka’s Curse Dogme #10 (USA)
Lovin’ life as they say, or rather haunted by it. Maya, a young twenty-something reflects and relives her loves lost, estranged and abandoned, in the midst of a mid-town middle American mid-twenties mire.
Here’s an interview with director Rick Schmidt
Saturday 7 July 3pm, Kaleide
Camera Dogme #15 (USA)
The Dogme-styled adventures of a video camera in Los Angeles as it enters the lives of wannabe filmmakers, tourists on holiday and even celebrity stalkers, capturing unique LaLaLand sensibilities. Watch out for cameos from unsuspecting Oz film director Phillip Noyce and philosophical wedding guest Jack Nicholson.
Saturday 7 July 5pm, Kaleide
Bad Actors Dogme #16 (USA)
A comedy about a group of young actors attending an everyday workshop in Hollywood. Improvised entirely for the screen and shot in only two days using five cameras. It’s art imitating life in ham-strung hills of Hollywood.
Saturday 7 July 1pm, Kaleide
See here for more on Dogme Day events! – There’s the Dogme Day Afterparty too!
The first Italian Dogme film! Beautifully shot. Behind-the-scenes Italian film chicaneries converge with Rome’s nightlife. Two stories twist and contrast one another to reveal the lightness and darkness within each. Ken Loach meets Antonioni with a distinctly uber-modern approach.
*Sunday 8 July 5pm, Cinemedia at Treasury Theatre