Date: April 4-6, 2008
Location: Vancouver, Canada

A sunny taste of Downunder in the dead of winter! OzFlix: Australian Film Weekend
showcases the best in shorts, features and documentaries from Australia.


TICKET AND VENUE INFORMATION
All screenings take place at Pacific Cinamatheque- 1131 Howe Street (between Helmcken and Davie).

BOX OFFICE - FESTIVAL TICKETING
In Person: Tickets are available at the box office 30 minutes before the first screening of the evening. Cash only.
Online: During the Australia.com OzFlix Australian Film Weekend tickets can be purchased online at www.cinematheque.bc.ca. Online tickte sales close at 4.30pm on the day of the screening. Credit Cards only. Advance tickets to all screenings are on sale now.

TICKET PRICES
Regular screenings: $9.50 (students and seniors $8 with valid ID)
Double Bill: $11.50 ($10 seniors / students)
Weekend Pass: $40 (one ticket to each screening)
FOR 24 HOUR UPDATED INFORMATION, CALL 604 688 FILM (3456)

OZFLIX CALENDAR - To download a complete program click here.

CORROBOREE- ABORIGINAL SHORTS
Saturday April 5, 3:00pm
Corroboree- noun- a large, noisy celebration; a great tumult. Celebrating the diverse and compelling short films being made by emerging filmmakers, this program focuses on stories by and about indigenous Australians.
Program running time: 104 minutes
Co-presented by: imagineNATIVE


BIT OF BLACK BUSINESS
Director: Various
13 x 6min/ digibeta/ 2007
Contact: Scarlett Pictures, kath@scarlettpictures.com.au
VANCOUVER PREMIERE (COMPLETE SERIES) - A collection of 13 outstanding short films that explore individual notions and experiences of contemporary Aboriginal life, the BIT OF BLACK BUSINESS series was written and directed primarily by first time filmmakers. Shot all over Australia and ranging from outrageous (HUSH) to hilarious (DONE DIRT CHEAP, JACKIE JACKIE), heartwarming (NANA) to heartbreaking (DAYS LIKE THESE, BLOODLINES), these talented Indigenous filmmakers intimately share their worlds, their loves, their losses and their humour. Winner Best Short Film, Inside Film Awards (NANA). Bit of Black Business is an initiative of the Indigenous Branch of the Australian Film Commission, SBS Independent, New South Wales Film and Television Office, and ScreenWest.


With NIGGER LOVERS
Director: Rhonda Hagan
26min/ DigiBeta/ 2007
Contact: Mianjin Entertainment, sparkes@usq.edu.au
VANCOUVER PREMIERE

“Nigger”- that’s what the sign says, and Indigenous Australian of the Year Stephen Hagan wants it removed. NIGGER LOVERS follows Hagan’s battle to remove the word from a sign in the country town of Toowoomba, from local courts, to the Federal judiciary, all the way to the UN. Documenting his resistance against bigotry and prejudice in the face of overwhelming odds, the film questions whether things have really changed over the past 200 years when it comes to racism in Australia. Winner Best Short Documentary, Inside Film Awards 2007.


>> BUY TICKETS NOW

Back to calendar



AUSSIE SHORTS
Sunday April 6, 3:00pm
Direct from film festivals the world over, this collection of outstanding short films highlights the variety and originality of the next generation of Australian filmmakers.

ADVANTAGE
Director: Sean Byrne
11min/ 35mm/ 2007
Contact: Plus Films, donna@plusnet.com.au
A couple make a late night visit to the tennis club. Their romantic evening doesn’t really go according to plan… Selected for Sundance Film Festival 2008




MEDITATIONS ON A NAME
Director: Bonnie Elliott
9min/Beta SP/ 2007
Contact: AFTRS Distribution, meganp@aftrs.edu.au
Wattle really hates her name. On a long drive with her hippy Dad she decides to let him know exactly how she feels.

AZADI
Director: Anthony Maras
20min/ 35mm/ 2006
Contact: AntHouse Films, Anthony@anthousefilms.com
An Afghani school teacher and his asthmatic son escape a reign of terror for institutionalized terror in the form of Woomera Detention Centre. The film expertly fuses footage from the 2002 riots with the powerful story of a father and son trying to start a new life far from home.

DUGONG
Director: Erin White
18min/ digibeta/ 2007
Contact: Feather Films, Melanie@featherfilms.com.au
After a long absence Robbie returns home for his younger brother’s wedding. Over the course of the day he realizes that nothing stays the same, not even the people you leave behind. Selected for Sundance Film Festival 2008

SATURDAY NIGHT NEWTOWN SUNDAY MORNING ENMORE
Director: Christopher Johnson
7min/ DigiBeta/ 2007
Contact: More Sauce, cj@christopherjohnson.com.au
What could be a morning-after walk of shame is spun into delicious romantic possibilities one Saturday morning.

I LOVE SARAH JANE
Director: Spencer Susser
14min/ digibeta/ 2007
Contact: Aquarius Films, angiefielder@iinet.net.au
First love has a few obstacles - namely zombies - in this macabre romance. Selected for Sundance Film Festival 2008

MEDUSA – FIRST DATE
Director: Pierce Davison
3min/ DigiBeta/ 2005
Contact: Papercut Media, Jacob@papercutmedia.com
It’s really hard to find a man when your ‘do’ turns prospective suitors to stone.

LENS LOVE STORY
Director: Karen Radzyner
14min/ 35mm/ 2007
Contact: Dragonet Films, len@dragonetfilms.com
Len struggles to cope after his mother’s death, but manages to get by with the help of notes she left for him in an agenda. Her last cryptic message sends Len on a quest that will help him find true love.

Community Sponsors: WSFF & Movieola


>> BUY TICKETS NOW


Back to calendar




GREAT AUSTRALIAN ALBUMS
Saturday April 5, 5:00pm
Two seminal albums! The Great Australian Bands series gives us a behind the scenes glimpse into the process of creating a masterpiece.

CROWDED HOUSE – WOODFACE
Director: Larry Meltzer
52min/ DigiBeta/ 2007
Contact: Mushroom Pictures, anna@mushroompictures.com.au
VANCOUVER PREMIERE - Crowded House were one of the 1980s most successful acts. But in 1990, before recording their third album, the band was on the verge of collapse. Singer/ songwriter Neil Finn, desperate to keep the band together, asked his brother Tim Finn of the group SPLIT ENZ to collaborate with him. What followed over a few short weeks resulted in one of the most memorable albums ever made, with hits such as ‘Weather With You’, ‘Fall at Your Feet’ and ‘Four Seasons in One Day’. The album may have been a hit, but tensions ran high and half way through a world tour Tim was ousted from the band. Now that the dust has settled Neil and Tim Finn discuss the struggles and successes of collaborating together creatively.

SILVERCHAIR – DIORAMA
Director: Larry Meltzer
52min/ DigiBeta/ 2007
Contact: Mushroom Pictures, anna@mushroompictures.com.au
VANCOUVER PREMIERE - In 1994 three Newcastle teenagers burst onto the music scene with a grungy, raw sound and an unforgettable song ‘Tomorrow’. Their music was embraced around the world. In 2001 Silverchair singer Daniel Johns embarked on an artistic odyssey that resulted in DIORAMA. Johns hoped to create a new type of music, a sound that had never been heard before, and the album they produced is, according to Rolling Stone Magazine ‘one of the boldest musical statements ever made by an Australian rock band’. In this candid and revealing documentary, Daniel Johns tell us in his own words about the journey of Silverchair and the recording of DIORAMA. Fellow band members Ben Gillies and Chris Joannau, and interviewees Paul Mac, Matt Lovell, John Watson, among others help us discover the motivations and influences behind an unforgettable album - DIORAMA.


>> BUY TICKETS NOW


Back to calendar




WORDS FROM THE CITY
Sunday April 6, 5:00PM
Director: Natasha Gadd & Rhys Graham
89min/ DigiBeta/ 2007
Contact: Film Camp pip@filmcamp.com.au
VANCOUVER PREMIERE



“With breakneck beats and unstoppable flow, Words from the City drops the needle on a killer soundtrack and delivers an equally engaging story to back it up.” Calgary Film Festival. “Not just for fans of hip-hop (who will love it!), this film is for anyone with an interest in the vitality of language, politics and attitude.” Sydney International Film Festival. “Australians all let us recoil, for we have no idea. We go to war for wealth and oil, our home is girt by fear.” – TZU. Words from the City explores the evolving Australian hip hop scene through intimate observations by some of the nation’s most progressive and compelling artists, including the Hilltop Hoods, Downsyde, Koolism, Bliss n Eso, MC Trey, TZU and Wire. Across one long, hot summer, we follow these MCs as they step into a verbal battleground to express their personal, political and creative voices, and cement their position as the vanguard of Australian hip hop. With local-flavoured hip hop maturing into a cultural force that does deserve the hype, this smart and beautifully photographed documentary taps the street-level power of today’s scene. -Melbourne International Film Festival.


>> BUY TICKETS NOW


Back to calendar



NOISE
Saturday April 5, 7:00pm
Director: Matthew Saville
107min/ 35mm/ 2007
Contact: Arclight Films, lina@arclightfilms.com




“…an impressive debut, a serious, fresh, surprising film by a writer-director with plenty on his mind.” Paul Byrnes, Sydney Morning Herald. “It's a sublimely harrowing cop movie and a powerful psychological thriller that refuses to succumb to conventional definitions. Don't miss it.” Luke Buckmaster, infilm.com.au.

Police Constable Graham McGahan (Brendan Cowell) is being crushed by the deafening ringing in his head and he’s not impressed when his boss won’t approve worker’s compensation, opting instead to station McGahan on night shift at a police caravan near the scene of grizzly murders in suburban Melbourne. The shell-shocked community is on tenterhooks at the thought that there’s a killer in their midst and the police caravan is an uneasy reminder of the horrific events just passed. But McGahan is mostly bored, whiling away the nights smoking and watching bad TV. The locals eventually can’t resist the pull of the police presence and McGahan is visited by a number of people including the only witness to the murders, a young woman Livinia, who is terrified that the killer is coming for her. As the sounds in McGhan’s head become more deafening, the hunt for the killer intensifies and he finds himself at the centre of a nightmare. In his stunning debut feature, Matthew Saville has succeeded in not only creating a riveting thriller, but also an intense character study rich in emotion and punctuated with moments of laconic Aussie humour. Selected for Sundance Film Festival 2007.

With ASCENSION
Director: Stephen Irwin
14min/ Beta SP/ 2007
Contact: Vizpoets Vickie@vizpoets.com


VANCOUVER PREMIERE - A blackout causes Tim, an exhausted trainspotter, to take a wrong turn back to his apartment one night. He stumbles upon a group of cultists as they prepare to leave the earth. If the end of the world were nigh, wouldn’t you want to have an exit strategy lined up?


>> BUY TICKETS NOW

Back to calendar



BRA BOYS
Sunday April 6, 7:00pm
Director: Sunny Abberton
84min/ DigiBeta/ 2007
Contact: Berkela Films, Jason@uxentertainment.com
VANCOUVER PREMIERE - "…gives a vivid sense of the cult of masculinity in a working-class Sydney beach suburb… the debut of a new style of "gangsta" surf movie” Paul Byrnes, Sydney Morning Herald.

The Bra Boys are one of the most notorious surf tribes in the world. Hailing from the downtrodden suburb of Maroubra in Sydney’s south, this tribe has produced some of the world’s most renowned big wave surfers. Renowned for their hard-partying and rough justice as much as for their surfing skills, Bra Boys wear their loyalty on their skin in the form of tattoos that mark them as a member of the tribe. Central to the story are the true-life struggles of the Abberton brothers- Jai charged with murdering a standover man, Koby pursuing a professional surf career but charged as an accessory, and Sunny trying to hold the family together. Narrated by Russell Crowe, and featuring stunning surfing footage combined with rare archival images, BRA BOYS is an exhilarating, compelling portrait of the evolution of a working class beachside suburb and the troubled youth who not only call it home, but are willing to defend it with their life. One of the most controversial, talked-about films of the year, upon its release BRA BOYS became the most successful theatrical documentary in Australian history.

With SEARCHING FOR MICHAEL PETERSON
Director: Jolyon Hoff
25min/ Beta SP/ 2007
Contact: AFTRS Distribution, meaganp@aftrs.edu.au



NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE - Between 1972 and 1977 Michael Peterson was the best surfer in Australia. Then he disappeared. There’s a fine line between madness and genius and the stories of Peterson’s exploits, recounted here by his friends and fellow surfers, have become a part of Australian surfing folklore.


>> BUY TICKETS NOW


Back to calendar



LUCKY MILES
Friday April 4, 7:30pm
Director: Michael James Rowland
101min/ 35mm/ 2007
Contact: Cineclick Asia, yjsuh@cineclickasia.com
VANCOUVER PREMIERE
"A desert buddy movie...rich in fun and irony" Evan Williams, The Australian. "Amusing and absurd, funny and timely" Richard Wilkins, Today Show

It’s 1990 and an Indonesian fishing boat abandons Iraqi and Cambodian refugees in a remote part of Western Australia. Told they can catch a bus over the dunes, they find only a vast, unforgiving landscape the size of Poland. Whilst most are quickly caught, three men with nothing in common but their misfortune and determination to escape arrest begin an epic but confused journey into the scorched heart of Australia. Pursued by an unlikely army reserve unit, our three heroes wander deeper into the desert desperately searching for civilization. Or at least a bus to Perth. Charting a delicate course between comedy and tragedy, all the while waltzing through one of Australia’s most contentious political issues, first time feature filmmaker Michael James Rowland has based his film on the true stories of several immigrants. Backed up by the stunning cinematography of veteran cinematographer Geoff Burton, capturing the harsh beauty of the Outback in all its brutal glory, LUCKY MILES is an engaging, unique story of survival, resilience and the search for a better life. Winner Audience Award, Sydney Film Festival. Winner Special Jury Prize, Karlovy Vary Film Festival

>> BUY TICKETS NOW


Back to calendar



BOXING DAY
Saturday April 5, 9:15pm
Director: Kriv Stenders
82min/ DigiBeta/ 2007
Contact: Smoking Gun Productions kristian@smokinggun.com.au
VANCOUVER PREMIERE - “BOXING DAY is an extraordinary achievement – easily one of the finest Australian films of recent years.” Lynden Barber, The Australian.


Boxing Day is an intense human drama which plays out in real time, shot over five days in several long takes that are seamlessly joined to give the impression of an unbroken shot. Chris, played with measured intensity by Richard Green, is a recently released con, serving his remaining sentence in home detention. He methodically prepares a belated Christmas lunch for his estranged family, with high hopes this meal will help to heal the wounds of long-ago mistakes and missteps. While waiting for his guests an unwelcome ‘associate’ from his drug-dealing days, Owen turns up trying to call in a favour from Chris. Meanwhile, the family arrive- Chris’ daughter Brooke, his ex-wife Donna and her new boyfriend Dave. As Owen departs he drops the bombshell that he recognizes Dave from prison, and that Dave is a pedophile, sending the days carefully planned events into a tailspin and plunging Chris into a nightmare he could never have imagined. Will Chris be able to hold his family together? Though the environs of a small suburban house may seem banal, director Kriv Stender’s skilled direction ensures that BOXING DAY is never less than gripping in its intensity- a cinema verite masterpiece. You won’t be able to peel your eyes from the screen while watching this taut and haunting drama. Winner Best Actor and Special Jury Mention, 36th Montreal Festival du Nouveau Cinema

With CROSSBOW
Director: David Michod
14min/ digibeta/ 2007
Contact: Crossbow Pty Ltd angiefielder@iinet.net.au


VANCOUVER PREMIERE - A man reminisces on the sights and sounds of his youth, especially on the comings and goings of the family next door. One hot, languid afternoon their worlds are forever changed. Love and alienation are strange bedfellows in this unforgettable film. Selected for 64 th Venice Film Festival.


>> BUY TICKETS NOW

Back to calendar




WEST
Sunday April 6, 9:05pm
Director: Daniel Krige
98min/ 35mm/ 2006
Contact: West Films - arobinson@cuttingedge.com.au
VANCOUVER PREMIERE - “…a tremendously moving and rewarding experience. 4 stars.” Margaret Pomeranz, At The Movies


Set in Sydney's western suburbs, WEST is a powerful, edgy drama that follows the intense friendship between two cousins, Pete (Khan Chittenden) the dreamer and Gerry (Nathan Phillips) the pragmatist. Faced with limited choices and no easy way out, their lives are fuelled by a cycle of booze and drugs and punctuated with intermittent violence, petty crime and careless sex. Their knife-edge existence threatens to implode when Pete gets a beating on Gerry's behalf and they both fall for the same girl who, it seems, will get the better of both of them. Misplaced loyalty, street justice and the breakdown of family and social support are tackled head-on in this gutsy, uncompromising film. Director Daniel Krige, who wrote the first draft of the script when he was only 16 years old, elicits superb performances from his cast- some of the most talent young actors working in Australia today. Selected for Berlin Film Festival 2007

With SPIDER
Direct: Nash Edgerton
9min/ beta sp/ 2007
Contact: Blue Tongue Films, info@bluetonguefilms.com
CANADIAN PREMIERE - It’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye… Winner Jury Prize AFI/ Los Angeles Film Festival. Selected for Sundance Film Festival 2008

>> BUY TICKETS NOW

Back to calendar



THE FINAL WINTER
Friday April 4, 7:30pm
Director: Jane Forrest & Brian Andrews
96min/ 35mm/ 2007
Contact: Three Scallywags, brian@threescallywags.com
VANCOUVER PREMIERE



"This honest and often brutal account of the machinations of an old-style football club has a real ring of honesty thanks to an impressive first-time script from its star, Matt Nable." The Sunday Telegraph. "…a remarkably accomplished piece of work – reminiscent of KENNY both in its common touch and the sudden emergence of raw new talent." Daily Telegraph.

It's the early 1980’s and the winds of change are sweeping across Australia's Rugby League landscape. Torn between his club, the Newtown Jets, and his family, aging player Grub Henderson (Matt Nable) collides head-on with a sports administration eager to bury him, and battles against his brother and coach's betrayal. At home his wife is tortured about the transformation of the man she married, while his children are left wanting for their father. In a bid to cling to his self-worth, Grub bitterly swallows his pride and bargains for his future. But as the game that gives him his identity crumbles, he finds acceptance in the man he could become. Filled with vivid characters and verite-style camerawork that captures the beauty and brutality of the game of rugby league, and aided by an outstanding performance from footy legend Matthew Johns, THE FINAL WINTER marks a proud addition to the canon of great sports films. But more than that, it’s a story of loyalty, family and manhood that transcends cliché and will appeal to all audiences.


With TATTERSON
Director: Michaela Danby
7min/ Beta SP/ 2006
Contact: AFTRS Distribution, meaganp@aftrs.edu.au


CANADIAN PREMIERE - In the Pacific Theatre during WWII a young soldier sends a letter home to his family on the farm, describing the exotic wonders of New Guinea, which stand in stark contrast to his real experiences on the battlefield.


>> BUY TICKETS NOW


Back to calendar

Proudly Sponsored by

Please note: Tickets are non-refundable. Australia.com/ OzFlix: The Australian Film Weekend regrets that it cannot be responsible for lost or stolen tickets. Patrons are advised to arrive 15 minutes prior to screenings to ensure seating. Admittance to all screenings is restricted to those 18 years or older.