Moving the Festival to South Bank is a key component of the vision for BIFF’s future. As beloved as the Regent cinemas are, the harsh realities of staging a modern, growing event in the heritage-listed building meant it could not be sustained as the main venue. The move to South Bank has created new opportunities for us, which we’ll tell you about in more detail as the Festival approaches. In the meantime, immerse yourself in this year’s programme.

PROGRAMME HIGHLIGHTS

Changes notwithstanding, at the core we are still offering Brisbane the best of the fests: a diverse selection of the best of international independent cinema. The full festival programme is now available on-line at www.biff.com.au and you’ll be able to get your free booking guide in this Saturday’s edition of the Courier-Mail.

Here’s a taste to get you started:

BIFF is renowned internationally for its focus on Asian cinema and this year our Asian component includes three special themes focussing on Beijing, Korea and Kerala in Southern India. Lost in Time, Lost in Space is a programme of six contemporary mainland Chinese films, each a very different reflection of the radical changes in Chinese culture.

New Cinema Reloaded is a special focus on Korean Independent Cinema, curated by Asian specialist Tony Rayns. Korea is one of the few countries where Hollywood does not dominate the box office: it has a thriving – and popular – cinema all of its own, one that is beginning to have an impact internationally.

The beautiful Southern Indian region of Kerala is a hugely popular tourist destination. But few people outside the region are aware of its rich cinema history: in the West we tend to think all Indian cinema comes from Bollywood.  Our special retrospective of Malayam Cinema aims to change all that.  From naturalistic dramas in the vein of Italian neo-realism to lavish musicals dealing with issues of caste, this is a diverse and fascinating selection.

There’s been a great deal of negative press about the state of the Australian film industry in the past 12 months. We may not be seeing the big box-office successes like Muriel’s Wedding, but we are still making interesting and engaging films, as our Australian Cinema segment demonstrates. The titles include

Queenslander Kriv Stenders’ second film Blacktown, which won the audience award for the sidebar venues at the recent Sydney Film Festival.

Two past special programme curators are back with us this year: Mark Webber, who curated Shoot Shoot Shoot in 2002, is back with Reverence, a retrospective of the works of Owen Land, who has to be the filmmaker with the best titles in the world. Jack Sargeant, who curated our Beat Generation retrospective in 2000, is back with a celebration of the road movie: 14 titles that define the genre, including some forgotten Australian classics.

This is just the tip of the iceberg that is BIFF: a search of the website will also unveil a Latin American focus, three wonderful contemporary Turkish films, a cinema Australia knows little about, the winner of the Camera D’or at Cannes this year Me, You and Everyone We Know, two brilliant Showcase titles – P.S.and 36 Quai des Orfèvres,  and much more.

Enjoy the search!

AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE FOR OPENING NIGHT

This year’s opening night films is one of those rare films that reminds you of the power of cinema. Winner of the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlinale, U-Carmen eKhayelitsha (Carmen in Khayelitisha) is a simply dazzling film that will make your toes tap and your heart sing.

The film takes George Bizet’s opera Carmen and sets it in the million-strong township of Khayelitsha in Cape Town, South Africa – and translates it into the Xhosa language native to the community. It is an exhilarating adaptation.

From start to finish, the production has engaged the people it portrays. Director Mark Dornford-May began the project in 2001 when he and musical director Charles Hazelwood recruited 40 untrained black South African’s to form a lyric theatre company – Dimpho Di Kopane (known as DDK). It is the DDK members who appear in the film, lead by the fiery diva Pauline Malefane, in the title role.

After the film’s triumph in Berlin, its South African premiere was held in Khayelitsha, which meant overcoming the first hurdle: there were no cinemas in townships at the time. They transformed the community hall that features in the closing shots of the film and held a gala premiere for an audience of more than 700 black, white, Indian and mixed race glitterati that danced in the aisles.

The film has struck a deeply personal chord with the township’s residents: one man travelled an hour each way, every day of its release, to watch the film. Sheila Lapinsky, an anti-apartheid activist, said of the film, “I wept through the whole thing. The tears came with the beauty of those voices. ..I had goosebumps. I just thought, This is Africa, and you can’t take Africa away from us.”

Don’t miss your chance to be a part of the Australian Premiere of this remarkable film. Book online now for our gala screening.

SPECIAL OPENING NIGHT PRICE: Purchase a ticket to either of the Showcase screenings when you buy your opening night ticket to receive $5 off the ticket price.

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MIZ PRESENTS AT CINE SPARKS 

One of the themes in the Cine Sparks programme this year is the representation of Aboriginality on screen. Brisbane’s own rising stars of hip-hop, MIZ, will introduce the programme of five films, including Nicholas Roeg’s mesemerising 1971 film Walkabout (PG), starring a young David Gulpilil as a young man on walkabout and Brisbane-born Director Ivan Sen’s award-winning debut feature Beneath Clouds (2002, M).

MIZ, Sarah Patrick and Marsha Chang-Tave, are one of the many great artists to have merged from Stylin’Up, an Indigenous Hip Hop and R'n'B music and dance skills development programme funded by the Brisbane City Council. In their four years together, they’ve performed at numerous festivals, but a highlight was performing for Kofi Annan and the Dalai Lama at an international youth parliament. Read about Miz at Deadly Sounds.

Other titles screening are: Yolngu Boy (2001) (M), Storm Boy (1976) (G) and Australian Rules (2002) (M). All titles screen in the Suncorp Piazza as part of the free public component of Cine Sparks.

Executive Manager Gary Ellis and Artistic-Director Anne Demy-Geroe tell us what they’d see if they could only see five films at this year’s Festival. They’ve issued a disclaimer to say neither of them would ever only see five films. Opening night, closing night and showcase flms are excluded because, of course, you can’t get those tickets with a Take 5.

Gary’s Take 5

• Coca: the Dove from Chechnya. A powerful and important film that reminds us there’s no justification for the murder of innocents.
• Paradise Now. 24 hours in the lives of two men who’ve agreed to be suicide bombers.
• Mysterious Skin. This is just a gripping film. Gregg Araki is a great talent, tackling a touch subject.
• Mad Hot Ballroom. This one’s just for fun. Spellbound meets Strictly Ballroom.
• Up and Down. I love this director, plus this film has the added novelty of being partially shot in Brisbane.

Anne’s Take 5 (and a bit…)

• Neelakkuyil or Amma Ariyan. one’s a musical about caste, one’s community collective filmmaking. They represent the extremes of the Malayalam retro.
• Letter from an Unknown Woman. Partly because we worked so hard to secure it but also it is such an interesting contrast to Max Orphul’s version, which I love.
• Poetry of Place. Nishadam alone is worth the price of the ticket, its just so amazing to have insight into rites that are normally hidden from non-Hindus.
• Spying Cam. Just so unpredictable. A great intro to Korean cinema
• Piccadilly. This is a fabulous film and I am really looking forward to Clare Hansson’s score.
• Pale Eyes. A charming film.
• Me, You and Everyone We Know. This is a really original piece of US cinema, deservedly the winner at Cannes.